Patent Law

McCain and Wikipedia

Posted on August 14, 2008
The blog for Congressional Quarterly presented a post on August 11 suggesting similarities between certain phrases and historical facts that John McCain listed in his public statements related to the present Geogia-Russia conflict, with the blog questioning whether McCain, via his speechwriters, plagiarized portions of entries from the popular information site Wikipedia...

Plagiarism angle in Cameron matter at ASU

Posted on August 14, 2008
MarketWatch notes the plagiarism factor in the current dispute at Arizona State over Professor Cameron:Dr. Cameron claims in the lawsuit that she was falsely accused of misconduct in order to terminate her status as a tenured faculty member under Board of Regents policies -- the most serious allegation being plagiarism in the construction and use of six course syllabi she made available to students in some of the courses she taught...

Watson loses naproxen case; infringement deemed willful

Posted on August 14, 2008
The Biloxi Sun Herald reported that on August 13 SD Fl found that Andrx's Naproxen Sodium ER tablets infringe Patent No. 5,637,320 of Elan and that Andrx's infringement was willful. The Florida district court set a later date for discussion of damages...

CAFC speaks to "open source" issues in Jacobsen

Posted on August 14, 2008
In 2006, IPBiz discussed the Jacobsen model train case. On August 13, the CAFC vacated and remanded the ND Ca decision. At stake, was the right of a copyright holder to enforce an "open source" license; also of interest were the jurisdictional matters which allowed the CAFC to speak to copyright, normally not the province of the CAFC...

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Patent reform hurts small inventors

Posted on August 14, 2008
In How Patent Law Changes Could Hurt Small Inventors, Tamara Monosoff correctly reports that proposed patent "reform" hurts small inventors, but gets several facts wrong.Of post-grant review ("opposition"), Monosoff wrote:Presently, once a patent is granted by the USPTO, it is presumed valid and cannot, for the most part, be challenged except through legal proceedings...

Wi-Lan, RIM do deal on patents

Posted on August 12, 2008
The IHT/AP report:Canadian patent-licensing company Wi-Lan Inc. said August 11 that it has reached a deal with Research In Motion to license certain wireless technology patents, resolving a pending patent litigation between the two companies.Did RIM learn from the NTP experience, or is it because Wi-Lan is Canadian?

New Obama ad targets McCain as a celebrity

Posted on August 12, 2008
USAToday gives the script for a new Obama ad attacking McCain as a celebrity:"For decades, he's been Washington's biggest celebrity. John McCain. And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back. The lobbyists ? running his low road campaign...

PR piece on Turnitin

Posted on August 12, 2008
One underlying theme in the Palo Alto High School plagiarism business was the unfairness of plagiarizing students to the students that did not copy. This theme is echoed in a recent story picked up by MarketWatch:"My epiphany came when my son told me, 'I'm tired of competing against professional writers,'" said Becker...

Natural products from cyanobacteria for cancer therapies?

Posted on August 12, 2008
A press release notes:Cyanobacteria, also referred to as blue-green algae or pond scum, is found in nearly every habitat, from oceans to fresh water to bare rocks to soil, and is a source of many unique chemical structures. UIC researchers, led by principal investigator Jimmy Orjala, assistant professor of pharmacognosy, will collect small samples of pond scum throughout the Midwest and grow them in liquid solutions in a temperature-controlled laboratory...

Update on Rothschild case on short wavelength LEDs

Posted on August 12, 2008
Concerning the ITC action by emerita professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild concerning US patent 5,252,499, a report at Semiconductor Today gave the following update: Rothschild has already reached licensing deals with 13 firms, including Sony, Sanyo, Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd, LG Electronics, Lucky Light Electronics Co Ltd, Everlight Electronics Co Ltd, Samsung Electro-Mechanical, Seiwa Electric Mfg Co Ltd, Shenzhen Unilight Electronic Co Ltd, Guangzhou Hongli Opto-Electronic Co Ltd, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Lite-On Inc...

Not everybody likes iPhones

Posted on August 12, 2008
A post by Nick Farrell begins: "Apple fanboys will be relieved that the incredible shrinking profit Messiah Steve Jobs can remotely control their expensive Iphone and turn off any software he does not think they should have."Farrell further states: "Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Saint Steve said Apple needs a kill switch in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program to be distributed to Iphones through the App Store...

Sprigman involved in discussion of patent policies: Obama v. McCain

Posted on August 11, 2008
Chris Sprigman, UChicago Law '93 (and classmate of Jon Dudas and LBE) is representing the Obama side at a discussion of the respective Presidential campaigns' positions on IP and technology policy issues hosted by the IP section of the Colorado Bar on August 28...

Dr. Reddy's, Teva settle carvedilol case in D NJ

Posted on August 11, 2008
A patent at issue in the case involved polymorphs.

WSJ's Weinberg on patents

Posted on August 11, 2008
Stuart Weinberg has a piece in the WSJ entitled: What business owners should know about patenting which includes text (in the form of an interview with James McDonough) about obtaining patents -->It is getting harder to a certain degree. The [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office] appears to be rejecting claims at a greater rate the first time through...

Hotz gets it wrong on stem cell research

Posted on August 10, 2008
In a piece titled Stem Cells' New Sugar Daddy, WSJ's ROBERT LEE HOTZ manifests total confusion in the stem cell area.Of the trivial --> "Serendipity plays such a big role in science, always has," Dr. Trounson says. "I'd rather not pick winners at this stage...

Greatest plagiarism scandal in the annals of American journalism?

Posted on August 10, 2008
An article in the Houston Chronicle has the following text:"In purely statistical terms, do the articles in the Montgomery County Bulletin amount to the greatest plagiarism scandal in the annals of American journalism?" Slate music critic Jody Rosen asked in an article Wednesday that has drawn attention on the Web...

OIN, defensive publications, and licensing

Posted on August 10, 2008
An article at networkworld begins:A tech vendor-backed company that buys up patents in an effort to protect the Linux community from intellectual property litigation will soon launch a Web site to help inventors file defensive publications -- documents that make details of an invention public, preventing others from later making patent claims on it...

Dynamic Biometric Systems and patent backlog

Posted on August 10, 2008
In a press release about Dynamic Biometric Systems, one hasThe Company has also filed its Patent #1 with the European Patent Office (the "EPO") covering England, France, Germany and other European Union countries. The Company is awaiting comments on this application...

The Duley link in the Ivins saga

Posted on August 10, 2008
A Washington Post piece titled After Anthrax Scientist's Threats, Counselor Faced a Hard Choice describes Jean C. Duley's deliberations on July 10 to inform the Frederick Police Department to report Ivins's threats during a group therapy session on July 9...

August 11: anniversary of Hedy Lamarr's patent

Posted on August 10, 2008
August 11 is the anniversary of Hedy Lamarr's patent (US 2,292,387); see Aug. 11, 1942: Actress + Piano Player = New Torpedo and see post on ncafeLBE first learned of the Kiesler Markey (Lamarr)/Antheil patent while viewing an educational comic book on female scientists of the past at the West Windsor Library...

Has drug research been funded by private charitable donations?

Posted on August 10, 2008
IPBiz noted the following on slashdot:I do understand the "need" to patent medicines, but I truly believe even that is useless. Research and development for medicines does not need to be publicly funded or protected by patents. Instead, research can continue the way it always has: fund raisers, private charitable donations, and other ways to get the money needed to develop new medicines...

Electrochemical capacitors

Posted on August 09, 2008
Reference 3 of an article "Electrochemical Capacitors for Energy Management" (321 Science 651) is to a paper by Ian Raistrick, who was a postdoc in the lab where LBE obtained his Ph.D. The 2008 article notes:Although lithium-ion batteries have advanced greatly in recent years, they still required 3 to 5 minutes for charging, versus about 1 seec for an EC...

UVa expels plagiarizing OhioU student from ship!

Posted on August 08, 2008
An Ohio University student, Allison Routman, on-board the "Semester at Sea" program run by the University of Virginia, was put ashore at Greece for plagiarism.From the coverage by Richmond Times Dispatch :Routman was nearing the end of the summer voyage when she was accused of plagiarism...

iTunes streamed to iPhone

Posted on August 08, 2008
gizmodo notes a new Apple patent application:Apple patents don't always bear fruit, but this one seems like it'll happen, and soon, actually. It's for accessing your entire iTunes library from anywhere?streamed to your iPhone or touch either via Wi-Fi or over the air...

USPTO counting its chickens?

Posted on August 08, 2008
Of a post at the USPTO, Reuters noted: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said on Thursday, August 7 it would limit the retroactivity of a controversial new rule aimed at reducing the size of patent applications and cutting a backlog of patent requests...

Perception and reality

Posted on August 08, 2008
The Uniloc case has the memorable line:The key to the analysis is perception, not reality; a judge may be required to be recused, even in the absence of an actual bias.The issue was the following:Uniloc contends that the district judge should have recused himself because the intern he hired to assist with this case possessed ?financial and contractual relationships? with Microsoft...

No more faxing to the USPTO?

Posted on August 08, 2008
The Patent Hawk blog notes: The USPTO "is proposing to revise the rules of practice to limit the types of correspondence that may be submitted to the Office by facsimile."

MIT goes after Affymetrix

Posted on August 08, 2008
MIT filed suit against Affymetrix on 1 July asserting that GeneChip technology infringes a patent by Professor David E. Housman.

USPTOExaminers.com

Posted on August 07, 2008
There is a comment by Tom Kulaga on the patentablydefined website speaking of USPTOExaminers.com:I learned a long time ago to take responsibility for what I do and say. If you don?t have the guts to say something directly to a person, then don?t say it behind their back, that is, anonymously...

Kanzius declines UPMC offer

Posted on August 07, 2008
A July 30 piece in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette had text relating to the radiofrequency cancer treatment machine of John Kanzius [of Erie and Sanibel]:Mr. Kanzius said UPMC discussed forming a partnership with him and indicated interest in taking control of the project at medical center expense to take the research into commercialization...

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