Patent Law

What "The Beatles: Rock Band" teaches about innovation

Posted on September 06, 2009
In a review of The Beatles: Rock Band by Randy Lewis in the LA Times, one finds some patent-related terms:But one consequence of actually attempting to replicate their words, melodies, harmonies and rhythms in Rock Band is a more visceral sense of just how inventive their music was -- and remains, even 40-plus years down the long and winding road...

"Citizens United": like patent reform, you need a scorecard

Posted on September 05, 2009
Bill Moyers' Journal on 4 Sept 09 had a debate of sorts between Trevor Potter and Floyd Abrams over issues surrounding Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission, which has grown from a limited question about a political documentary (concerning Hillary Clinton) to a broad challenge to the government's right to restrict corporations from spending money to support or oppose political candidates...

Criminalizing patent infringement?

Posted on September 05, 2009
from cpaglobal-->In letter to Lord Mandelson, Trevor Baylis argued that criminalizing patent theft would divert lawsuits from the expensive civil system and give lone inventors access to financial support from the State.Some patent practitioners have taken exception to this view...

Fictional chemist Hapner on zoominfo

Posted on September 05, 2009
The fictional, constructed chemist Theodore Hapner has his own profile on zoominfo: Theodore HapnerMaverick Chemist.See also"Theodore Hapner" making the rounds

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America's oldest newspaper apologizes for plagiarism

Posted on September 05, 2009
On 4 Sept. 09, Richard J. Graziano CEO, President & Publisher of the Hartford Courant, apologized for recent plagiarism by the Hartford Courant, noting in part:In short, after an extensive internal review, we have determined that over the last several weeks The Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors...

Martek case on definitions, priority, enablement, corroboration

Posted on September 04, 2009
The Martek case illustrates that one will get the definition one presents in a specification, even if that definitionis not consistent with the rest of the specification. The key question was relatively simple: are humans members of theanimal kingdom? The majority said "yes" -->For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the district court?s claim construction is erroneous...

NYT gives arguments against the current patent reform proposals

Posted on September 04, 2009
The 4 Sept 09 NYT has an article by Scott Shane titled Protecting the Patent System for Entrepreneurs.Alluding to current patent reform bills [H.R. 1260 and S. 515 ], the article cites to Mario Calderini and Giuseppe Scellato on problems with the gaming of the opposition process in Europe...

Goodbye Gasoline?

Posted on September 04, 2009
Channel 12.3 (WHYY) re-broadcast on 3 Sept 09 the Alan Alda Scientific American show "Goodbye Gasoline.".The show includes the observation that DaimlerChrysler plans to sell fuel cell vehicles to commercial fleet operators by 2010.Perhaps one could include "Goodbye DaimlerChrysler" as an update...

Wikipedia and global warming

Posted on September 04, 2009
Bob Park's 28 Aug 09 WN has two entries about Wikipedia, then goes on to global warming:Newspapers around the country have carried the story of the US Chamber of Commerce, the top US lobbying group, calling for the EPA to hold a Scopes- like hearing on the evidence that climate change is man-made...

Solo inventor goes after 3 universities for infringement

Posted on September 04, 2009
An AP report notes that Soheil Sharafabadi filed suit "this summer" against the University of Idaho, Washington State University and Oregon State University. Sharafabadi has one issued US patent, 4,980,186 [ Pseudoplastic yellow mustard gum ], which was filed on August 14, 1989 and which issued on December 25, 1990 ...

TechDirt trashes Locke and Kappos

Posted on September 02, 2009
In a post Commerce Secretary, New USPTO Head Suggesting They Want More Patents, Approved Faster, TechDirt goes after Locke and Kappos. TechDirt has the usual non sequitur: The real problem, which becomes evident in reading the article is that since the USPTO is funded based on patent application fees, it has every incentive in the world, as an institution, to approve more patents...

Provisional rights, 35 USC 154(d)

Posted on September 02, 2009
In passing, note that the issue of pre-grant damages (provisional rights) was addressed in Pandora Jewelry, LLC v. Chamilia, LLC (D. Md. 2008). Patentee did not get them.See alsoPandora Jewelry, LLC v. Chamilla LLC, No. 03-07587 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 26, 2003) and later SDNY case-->?The existence of an actual controversy is an absolute predicate for declaratory judgment jurisdiction...

"Hypothesize, experiment, litigate"

Posted on September 02, 2009
In the October 2008 issue of Photonics/Spectra, Amanda Francoeur has an article Gordon Gould's Scientific "Patent" Method which comprises the steps of hypothesize, experiment and litigate.The article mentions that Gould originally thought he needed a working model of the laser, and that Gould went to TRG (Technical Research Group), but had issues with his security clearance because of a prior association with the communist party...

McKenna on Bessen and Meurer

Posted on September 02, 2009
IP lightweight Barrie McKenna pushes Bessen and Meurer:New research by Boston University law professors James Bessen and Michael Meurer, published in their 2008 book Patent Failure, paints a sobering look at patents in the digital age. Aside from pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers, companies in all other industries now spend vastly more on litigation than they generate in profits from their patents...

Plagiarism of websites on the rise

Posted on September 02, 2009
Carrie-Ann Skinner, writing about a report by FastHosts, noted:According to research by the web hosting firm, there has been an 89 percent increase in the number of complaints about website material such as text, artwork and product images that has been used by other companies on their websites since April 2008...

Intellectual Ventures' "catch and release" gambit

Posted on September 02, 2009
The initial game plan of Intellectual Ventures was based on the presumed preference of (potential) infringers to license rather than litigate. That is now being supplemented by a strategy of threatening to sell IV patents to other parties, who might be more disposed to litigate...

Trademark rights as to Cuban products

Posted on September 01, 2009
Trademark issues concerning Cuban products are a big deal.From Rum, cigars Cuban in name only [AP]:Cuba said it registered the Havana Club trademark in the United States in 1976 after the Arechabalas let their claim on it expire. It has sold the rum internationally since 1993 in a joint partnership with French spirits consortium Pernod Ricard...

"This is not entirely untrue"

Posted on September 01, 2009
Text from the Time/news.yahoo article titled The AARP and Seniors: Clashing Views on Health Reform:Judging by comments at town-hall meetings, the elderly are also fearful that Democratic proposals would take funding away from Medicare to pay for coverage for Americans who don't currently have health insurance...

?At best plagiarism, at worst outright theft.??

Posted on August 31, 2009
Michael Schroeder, publisher of the Bristol Press and New Britain Herald [CT], described certain re-publication without attribution practices of the Hartford Courant: ?at best plagiarism, at worst outright theft." [as quoted in an AP story]As they say at the Harvard Business Review: Plagiarize with pride!

Superluminal propagation: nine years later

Posted on August 31, 2009
In a post on 12:01Tuesday titled Patented: Formula for Computing Wind Chill about US 7,578,615, there is a comment about a DIFFERENT patent, US 7,126,691:I like to think of it more as an "exercise" or an "experiment" than a "joke". I believe that the U...

Patent reform and political realism

Posted on August 31, 2009
On June 19, 2007, IPBiz presented text of Ted Kennedy on patent reform:U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said today [June 18] that the biotech and traditional high tech industries need to come to agreement about how patent laws should be updated rather than pursue conflicting agendas through Congress...

"More of a business"?

Posted on August 31, 2009
A post Wolverines blow the whistle on Michigan's 'absurd' workouts contains the words:Three returning offensive linemen quit the team [before the first spring practice in 2008], including starting guard Justin Boren, who blasted the new administration for eroding the program's "family values" en route to arch rival Ohio State...

Patent applications from prison?

Posted on August 30, 2009
IPBiz has discussed the matter of Jonathan Nyce previously. [22 Jan 2006: The Bayh-Dole Act and murder [the case of Jonathan Nyce]].IPBiz noticed two patent applications, filed in 2008 and published in 2009, from Jonathan Nyce. US 20090054385 (12/196233), titled SOLID INHALATION FORMULATIONS OF DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE DERIVATIVES, was filed August 21, 2008 and lists as inventor: NYCE; Jonathan W...

Intellectual Ventures travels to India

Posted on August 29, 2009
Like JEB Stuart, Intellectual Ventures have travelled to India. Note the Forbes interview with Ashok Misra, Chairman, India and Head of Global Alliances, Intellectual Ventures, which article is titled We Aren't a Patent Troll.See alsoJEB Stuart travels to India

Medical ghostwriting: like steroids and baseball?

Posted on August 28, 2009
An article by NATASHA SINGER in the NYT titled Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Therapy includes the text:?It?s almost like steroids and baseball,? said Dr. Joseph S. Ross, an assistant professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who has conducted research on ghostwriting...

"Patent litigation will be reduced to a free-for-all"?

Posted on August 28, 2009
Microsoft's appeal brief in the i4i case (which produced an injunction as to Word) states:if the ED Texas ruling stands, "Patent litigation will be reduced to a free-for-all, unbounded by the requirements of the substantive law or the rules of evidence or trial procedure...

Monkeys, or humans?

Posted on August 27, 2009
A headline:GM monkeys with DNA of THREE parents raises hope of eradicating incurable diseasesScientists have produced four baby monkeys who each have three biological parents.IPBiz newsflash: courtesy of cytoplasmic transfer (done in NJ) , we already have HUMANS with the DNA of THREE parents.

TiVo sues Verizon and AT&T

Posted on August 27, 2009
In still another chapter in the TiVo story, TiVo is now going after Verizon and AT&T, alleging three patent infringements by the country?s two biggest wireless carriers.See earlier IPBiz post:Another chapter in TiVo versus EchoStar, and another chapter in bad reporting of patent matters

A right to Terceva?

Posted on August 27, 2009
In 2005, hcrenewal.blogspot.com wrote of the drug Terceva:The New York Times recently reported on the high prices paid for drugs to treat cancer, notably the newer "targeted therapies." Some examples included:$54,000 per year for Avastatin, made by Genentech,$31,000 per year for Terceva, made by Genentech, and$25,000 for Thalidomid, made by Celgene...

Ortho gets mixed decision in appeal of D NJ case

Posted on August 26, 2009
ORTHO-MCNEIL PHARMACEUTICAL v. TEVA is a patent law appeal from a D NJ order granting summary judgment of invalidity based on anticipation and obviousness. Part of the case turns on unexpected results:Ortho-McNeil can rebut the prima facie case if it can show that the prior art teaches away from the claimed range, or the claimed range produces new and unexpected results over the prior art range...

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