Patent Law

Patently-O Bits and Bytes

By Dennis Crouch

• USA Today on Chief Judge Michel and Patent Reform
• Gene Quinn on Chief Judge Michel and Patent Reform
• Which patents make the best coloring-books?
• Find prior art for this Microsoft patent claim filed March 2009:
• In a computing environment, a method comprising:
• maintaining context information regarding prior search actions;
• receiving a current action; and
• accessing data obtained from a query log to determine whether at least some of the context information is relevant to the current action.
• Bill Vobach caught an interesting tidbit from the recent Federal Circuit oral arguments in ESN v. Cisco. As in many cases, the briefs included significant references to 'confidential materials.'  Judge Prost raised the issue of how the parties expected the court to write an opinion in this situation.  Judge Dyk indicated that the situation is an 'absolute plague.'  Finally, Chief Judge Rader concluded that 'if we need it for the opinion, we'll probably use it.'

Full post as published by Patently Obvious on October 25, 2010 (boomark / email).