Patent Law

"Minimal bacterial genome"

Posted on June 29, 2008
Black Enterprise presents an article by Matthew Rimmer "Don't Feed the Trolls" which includes a reference to J. Craig Venter filing. a patent application in 2006 in respect of a "minimal bacterial genome." Refer to earlier posts on IPBiz, includingMycoplasma laboratorium coming soon?Rimmer also writes: patents have been granted in respect of human tissues, genes, stem cells and somatic nuclear cell transfer (so-called "therapeutic cloning").

Angels no-hit Dodgers, but lose game

Posted on June 29, 2008
In a related vein, remember Haddix's 12 perfect innings in 1959? Mejias (not Clemente) played right field for the Pirates, and Schofield (not Groat) was at shortstop. Lew Burdette won the game.Harvey Haddix would win two World Series games against the Yankees in 1960.

"Storyline" patent application (Zombie Stare) fares poorly at USPTO

Posted on June 28, 2008
On 3 November 2005, IPBiz had a post titled: "Storyline" patent application, The Zombie Stare, to be published by the USPTO. On 27 June 2008, the 271 blog has a post titled A Different Kind of Battle At the USPTO Over 35 U.S.C. 101, which updates the status of Knight's patent application at the USPTO...

Ramblings in Science

Posted on June 28, 2008
Within the 20 June 08 issue of Science (volume 320):Australian's minister of science, Kim Carr, was a history teacher at a technical school and has no background in science.Carr: "There is the expectation among universities that business is there to be plundered, that is, that industr will fund whatever we say...

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Is gun ownership a fundamental right? More cases to come.

Posted on June 28, 2008
A story on DC v. Heller (District of Columbia gun law case) ended with a quote from Alan Morrison:"The bottom line is, it looks like a full-employment decision for lots of gun lawyers and state, federal and municipal lawyers."IPBiz notes that one of the great ironies of "patent reform 2008" (S...

CrossCheck: effort to curb academic plagiarism

Posted on June 28, 2008
It had to happen. Academic publishers have now taken action to curb plagiarism. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported:Plagiarists beware. A group of 12 publishers have begun using CrossCheck, software that ferrets out plagiarized articles submitted for publication in scholarly journals...

Elberta's Roadkill Cafe gonzo

Posted on June 28, 2008
In January 2008, IPBiz, in covering another dreary "NBC Nightly News" report of an old story, observed that NBC, for a little pizzaz, had thrown in a mention of the Roadkill Cafe in Elberta, Alabama into a story about a teacher from China teaching Chinese in a rural Alabama town [Elberta]...

TechDirt: plagiarism as re-imagination and collaboration

Posted on June 28, 2008
On the subject of inevitability, TechDirt has a post titled Is It Really So Bad If A Student Plagiarizes A Speech? specifically on the Palo Alto High plagiarism matter, but definitely extend-able. Some text:We've discussed how silly the concept of "plagiarism" is in many contexts once you look at the details...

Double-patenting "does in" Boehringer's Mirapex

Posted on June 27, 2008
Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mylan Inc. invalidated a patent (4,886,812) of Boehringer Ingelheim on Mirapex in D. Delaware (Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. ). Bloomberg noted: Barr, based in Montvale, New Jersey, fell 45 cents yesterday to $43.05 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading...

Flashback: what Trump University taught about mortgages in 2006

Posted on June 25, 2008
Back on 15 Dec 2006, Trump University Prez Michael Sexton interviewed E. J. Ridings:Michael Sexton: I just read an article that described homeowners who use their homes like --cash registers--EJ Ridings: In general, there are three reasons to refinance your mortgage...

Exxon wins in limitation on Valdez punitive damages

Posted on June 25, 2008
The Supreme Court on June 25 lowered the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.

Heuft: CAFC rules on infectious prosecution disclaimers

Posted on June 25, 2008
In Heuft v. Industrial Dynamics, the CAFC got into prosecution disclaimer issues, citing Elbex Video and Omega.Here, disclaiming arguments made in the prosecution of the '408 patent infected the claims of the '974 patent.See alsohttp://ipbiz.blogspot...

"Naked Cowboy" trademark suit against Mars goes forward

Posted on June 25, 2008
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled on Monday, June 23 that the trademark infringement claim made by "the naked cowboy" Robert Burck against candy maker Mars can proceed.The right of privacy claim was dismissed with New York law said to protect only the "name, portrait, or picture of a living person" and not a character "created or a role performed by a living person...

Plagiarism at PALY High (Palo Alto, CA)

Posted on June 25, 2008
See Mercury News story concerning plagiarism of graduation speeches at Palo Alto High School.

EPO Board concludes hearing on WARF stem cell patent application

Posted on June 25, 2008
from EarthTimes:After hearing the arguments, the board said it would not need to continue the hearing Wednesday [June 25] as originally planned. EPO spokesman Rainer Osterwalder said he expected the board to rule before Europe's summer holidays.(...)One of the main reasons for the EPO refusal was that the method used a human embryo which was destroyed in the process...

More RCEs --> lower allowance rate?

Posted on June 24, 2008
Within a post titled --Docs at BIO: Panel Discusses Impact of USPTO Rules Changes and Patent Reform Legislation on Biotech Patenting --, Patent Docs has some text discussing some gaming by the USPTO of patent grant rate in terms of RCEs:Turning her focus to allowance rates, Ms...

"NBC Nightly Olds" strikes again

Posted on June 24, 2008
NBC Nightly News on June 24 discussed the case of the government contract of AEY, Inc. of Miami Beach.From the NYT of 27 March 08, three months earlier:But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur...

Legal doings at Pfizer

Posted on June 24, 2008
Further to the demise of Pfizer's chief patent person, Alan Hesketh, over child pornography, the pharma log blog has some other items in a post, Rumors, innuendo, criminal charges and changes inside Pfizer Inc's legal department, which has some suggestions about a link to the Spitzer/prostitution thing...

Constantine fired by Columbia on June 23

Posted on June 24, 2008
Marc Santora of the NYT reported that Constantine was "fired on Monday [June 23] after months of wrangling over charges that she plagiarized the work of two former students and a former colleague."The NYT also noted:A letter announcing the decision, sent Monday to the faculty of the college, indicated why the punishment had escalated...

Nuijten: no matter how useful

Posted on June 24, 2008
The question presented for cert in Nuijten ends with the words: "no matter how innovative, unique or useful they are."One notes "innovative" is not a criterion in patent law.Novelty is a criterion, but one wonders how to evaluate "how" unique something is...

Law reviews: nobody reads them

Posted on June 24, 2008
A post on politico titled Obama kept Law Review balanced gives some analysis of Barack Obama's tenure as President of the Harvard Law Review.One has the obligatory:Obama might have had it right while he was running the journal, when he reportedly ended minor disputes with the words, "Just remember, folks: Nobody reads it...

Lemley astonished that apportionment was controversial

Posted on June 24, 2008
Patent reform 2008 (S.1145) died over damages apportionment.Here's what Mark Lemley said:?I have to say I?m frankly astonished that apportionment has been this controversial,? said Mark A. Lemley, an intellectual-property scholar at Stanford who has testified in support of the legislation...

Hansen on global warming: 'This is the last chance"

Posted on June 24, 2008
Within a discussion about global warming, one has the text:that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. IPBiz notes that, while the term "greenhouse gas" is ever-present in the environmental discussion, it is a misnomer...

Another fraud: the "lost Amazon tribe"

Posted on June 24, 2008
Yahoo buzz notes: Even in an age when cynical sleuths can hyper-analyze stories for truth and accuracy, the occasional hoax still slips through the cracks. Such was the case with a so-called "lost Amazon tribe."A few months ago, mainstream news outlets (including, ahem, Yahoo!) reported that a photographer had found a lost tribe of warriors near the Brazilian-Peruvian border...

Bayer, Barr do deal over Yasmin

Posted on June 24, 2008
Forbes reports:Bayer AG. said it agreed to supply a generic version of its Yasmin contraceptive to Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. but will continue to pursue an appeal against a court decision in favour of Barr, which voided Bayer's U.S. patent on Yasmin...

Drive-in theater in Vineland, NJ

Posted on June 24, 2008
For the record, WMGQ (98.3) discussed a drive-in theater located in Vineland, New Jersey. They still exist.

Academic patent dispute in Europe

Posted on June 24, 2008
A university patent (held by Switzerland's University of Neuchatel) has been invoked against the SunFab thin film solar technology of Applied Materials.Oerlikon licensed the Neuchatel technology. Query: If a "maker" licenses the academic technology, does that make the technology "non-troll"? Does the "maker" have to "make" according to the academic patent to render the technology non-troll? For the record, Applied Materials Inc denies infringement.

EPO/EBA to review WARF stem cell applications on 24-25 June

Posted on June 24, 2008
John Simpson of FTCR (now ConsumerWatchDog) had written of the U.S. WARF patents on stem cells:The groups said the patents' dubious validity is underscored by the fact that no other country in the world honors them. As a result, U.S. researchers have sent research monies abroad where they can avoid paying royalties to WARF...

College rankings

Posted on June 23, 2008
US News' "America's Best Colleges 2008" has New Jersey's Princeton as #1, followed by Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.UPenn at 5 beats the University of Chicago, at 9.The first public school is UC/Berkeley at 21. UCLA and UMichigan are tied at 25. NYU is at 34...

RealSource whacked by CAFC

Posted on June 23, 2008
In a battle over phone cards that turned on the doctrine of claim differentiation, RealSource lost to Best Buy, Circuit City and CostCo.Note the appearance of "attorney estoppel"/"attorney admission":In addition, we note that counsel for Realsource frankly admitted during argument that his client had no intention to expand the scope of the asserted claims by making the change in claim language...

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