Patent Law

Patent or perish?

Posted on July 22, 2008
LifeNews discusses ConsumerWatchDog's appeal of its loss at the USPTO:Some say the battle over embryonic stem cell research funding is the main source of contention in the stem cell research debate. However, for scientists, it's about patents. The consumer groups argue the patenting has driven some scientists overseas because they can't profit from any follow-up work...

Patent transparency

Posted on July 21, 2008
In a post titled Transparency in the US Patent System, blogger Michael White starts with the WSJ piece by L. Gordon Crovitz, but quickly gets into defects in the way the USPTO organizes data. Starting with Crovitz, IPBiz notes Crovitz was anything but transparent in suggesting Allied Security Trust was recently formed...

Saswato R. Das on science fraud

Posted on July 21, 2008
The article contains the text:I was at Bell Labs when the Schon misconduct unfolded. Schon was young and charismatic and seemed extremely bright and productive (a common description if one examines the personalities of scientific fraudsters). And he claimed to have performed experiments that were the envy of all, things people had been trying for years and had failed to get to work...

WSJ article raises issues with Qualcomm patent policies

Posted on July 21, 2008
An article in the WSJ begins with the words "Are Qualcomm, Inc.'s patent royalties an unfair tax on cellphone makers?" There is also mention of Qualcomm's obligations to a European standard setting group, obligations not being fulfilled according to Nokia...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Story of intermittent wiper patent becomes a movie

Posted on July 20, 2008
The saga of Robert Kearns and the intermittent wiper patent is told in the movie "Flash of Genius", to be released 25 October 2008. Wonder what the"patent reformers" have to say about this?***from wayne.edu:Flash of Genius will star Greg Kinnear, who appeared in movies such as Little Miss Sunshine (2006), We were Soldiers (2002) and also played alongside of Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets (1997)...

He's back...on 60 Minutes

Posted on July 20, 2008
On July 20, "60 Minutes" brought back Kanzius and the hot dog, and added a fluorescent light.Refer to Fool born every minute? Lesley Stahl's shameful piece on Kanzius.Note how the question about whether or not the adjoining tissue was damaged was answered...

Comments due on paperwork burden of Appeal Rule by 9 Aug 2008

Posted on July 20, 2008
David Boundy passed along information about a request for public comment on the Patent Office's estimates for paperwork burdens for the Appeal Rule, which note began:The Patent Office recently published a Federal Register notice that is not publicized on any of the PTO's lists of Federal Register Notices...

Baker & MacKenzie goes after family over Narnia.mobi

Posted on July 20, 2008
The Baker & MacKenzie law firm claimed before WIPO that the Saville-Smith family had been using the Narnia.mobi domain in "bad faith" to make money, a suggestion which the family has rejected as ridiculous.[See Scotland on Sunday]

Douglas Schoen on patent reform

Posted on July 20, 2008
An op-ed on patent reform by Douglas Schoen begins:What if I told you that labor unions, small-business associations, drug companies, physicians' groups, prominent academics and the Bush administration were all lined up against a major piece of federal legislation currently winding its way through congress?Although Schoen has a better understanding of the diversity of patent "reform" opponents than does Roy Mark of eWeek, one would certainly like to INCLUDE small inventors and university tech transfer offices TO the list and EXCLUDE most so-called IP academics FROM the list...

Jailbreak for iPhone 3G

Posted on July 20, 2008
When the original iPhone appeared, there were almost no native third-party programs for the iPhone. There are now third-party programs. It remains true that iPhone buyers either sign a long-term contract with a carrier or pay a prohibitively high price for the phone...

"Texas ratio"

Posted on July 19, 2008
Of predictions for future bank failures, the "Texas ratio" is entering the jargon. It's basically the ratio of bad loans to assets.The Texas Ratio was invented after the savings and loan collapse in the late 80s that hit Texas so hard. A bank with a Texas ratio over 100 may have problems...

Honeybees on the New Jersey Turnpike

Posted on July 19, 2008
A beekeeper's beehive apparently fell beside the NJ Turnpike in Cherry Hill.

Biofuels, land and fire

Posted on July 19, 2008
The 11 July 08 issue of Science has a letter titled "Biofuels: Effects on Land and Fire" authored by Keith I. Kline and Virginia H. Dale, of the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Lab. [321 Science 199].There is also a letter by Tom Wassenaar and Simon Kay titled "Biofuels: one of many claims to resources...

"Consumer Watchdog" gets it wrong, again

Posted on July 19, 2008
A press release states of the WARF patent re-exam: The PTO examiner narrowed WARF's patent after the two groups requested a re-examination of the patent in July 2006. This NEVER happened. WARF altered some of the claims, not the examiner. This misstatement reminds one of John M...

271Blog discusses patent quality

Posted on July 18, 2008
In a post titled --USPTO Patent Quality - It's Not As Bad As You Think --, the 271blog discusses the recent work by James Malackowski and Jonathan Barney from Ocean Tomo.LBE has been discussing the bogus issues with patent quality for years in papers in JIP, JPTOS, and IPT...

IP matters associated with InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch

Posted on July 17, 2008
from the WSJ: Czech state-owned brewery Budejovicky Budvar has Bud and Budweiser brand trademarks and appellations of origin registered in 28 European and 37 non-European countries. Anheuser sells Budweiser in 16 countries and the Bud brand in 15. Anheuser and Budvar have fought for solo control of the Budweiser brand and its various mutations for a century, though more so in the past decade as Budvar?s exports have increased...

Blog Ranking on Blawgsearch

Posted on July 17, 2008
A recent blog ranking by Blawgsearch gave a relatively high ranking to IPBiz, followed by "patent troll tracker," which has not had a post since 25 March 2008 (and which cannot be accessed by the general public) -->IP Thinktank [feed]Covers intellectual property strategy around the world...

Gas prices on the minds of voters

Posted on July 16, 2008
LBE got a phone call on 16 July which placed him on a sort of "conference call" with Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen and a bunch of constituents.Needless to say "gas prices" and energy were prime topics, although one Patricia from Raritan lamented the (public) closing of Duke Gardens...

"NBC Nightly News" showcases a foreclosure on 16 July 08

Posted on July 16, 2008
NBC Nightly News on 16 July 2008 took viewers through a foreclosure of a home adjacent to the Manassas (Bull Run) Civil War battlefield in Virginia. The former owner, face pixilated, placed the blame on himself, in an otherwise non-contentious eviction by the sheriff...

Laches bars inventorship claim

Posted on July 16, 2008
Laches was successfully asserted against plaintiff SERDAREVIC in a case involving (otherwise well-known)defendants VISX and FRANCIS A. L?ESPERANCE, JR.Of laches:?[A] delay of more than six years after the omitted inventor knew or should have known of the issuance of the patent will produce a rebuttable presumption of laches...

Plagiarism issue appears in Missouri politics

Posted on July 16, 2008
The AP reported on 16 July: The Columbia Daily Tribune reported Tuesday [July 15] that two unnamed sources, who also worked for Webster and spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, blamed [Democratic attorney general candidate Chris] Koster for the [plagiarism] controversy over the book passages [from "Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector...

Easier to get injunction at ITC than at district court

Posted on July 16, 2008
The 271blog discusses a paper by COLLEEN V. CHIEN titled: Patently Protectionist? An Empirical Analysis of Patent Cases at the International Trade Commission.Chien notes:ITC cases involve domestic defendants as often as they do foreigners, and often in combination...

"Reviewing peer review"

Posted on July 16, 2008
The 4 July 08 issue of Science has an editorial titled "Reviewing Peer Review."There is text within: "Most of those [papers] rejected by Science go on to be considered at other journals, where the rejection rates have also increased. Before finding a proper venue, a paper may have received four, six, or even eight reviews...

Obama Sikahemas earlier criticism of troop surge

Posted on July 16, 2008
The Los Angeles Times noted :A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared...

CAFC affirms decision of Judge Greenaway of New Jersey

Posted on July 16, 2008
A decision by Judge Greenaway of D NJ was affirmed by the CAFC in the case Cotapaxi v. Corporate Edge, Scott Levy, and Robyn Salzman.[IPBiz post 3999]

CAFC vacates consent judgment in Jang v. Boston Scientific

Posted on July 16, 2008
The CAFC case of Jang v. Boston Scientific illustrates how easy it is for poorly written assignment (or licensing) agreements to go bad.The CAFC gave the seemingly simple background:Through a contract executed in 2002, Jang assigned the ?021 and ?743 patents to Boston Scientific and Scimed...

Counter to Slashdot, WSJ has been pushing patent reform for years

Posted on July 16, 2008
On 15 July 2008, Slashdot (one kdawson) had a post titled: MSM Noticing That Patent Gridlock Stunts Innovation, which includes text--> that most traditional of mainstream media, the Wall Street Journal, arguing the point (obvious to this community for a decade) that the US patent system costs more than the value it delivers...

Patent fight looming over dog cloning; irony as to Hwang's Snuppy patents

Posted on July 15, 2008
Korea Times reports of a brewing patent battle involving Hwang Woo Suk:Hwang, fired from SNU and now having his own lab in Gyeonggi Province, works for California-based BioArts International, which made headlines for its planned July 5-9 auction rewarding five winners a chance to clone their favorite pets...

Prometric gets USPTO contract regarding patent bar exam

Posted on July 15, 2008
MarketWatch reports:On July 15, Prometric "announced it has been awarded a $2.75 million contract by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to provide computer-based delivery services and statistical analysis for the registration examination taken by USPTO Patent Attorney and Patent Agent applicants...

Brian Hinman of Allied Security Trust

Posted on July 15, 2008
Among the speakers at the Conference on the ?Business? of Intellectual Property is Brian HinmanChief Executive OfficerAllied Security Trust (AST)Brian Hinman is currently CEO of AST. Previously he was Vice President, Intellectual Property and Licensing for IBM Corporation...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.