Patent Law

Masnick and Lemley-isms

Posted on February 22, 2009
In a post titled How Reporters Contribute To Misconceptions About Patent Lawsuits, Mike Masnick uses Joe Mullin as a cover for some previous fuzzy thinking by Lemley and Cotropia. Masnick should have at least credited Lemley and Cotropia for their idea...

CBS Sunday Morning on Feb. 22 on Shepard Fairey matter

Posted on February 22, 2009
On 22 Feb 09, CBS Sunday Morning had a piece on Shepard Fairey, including mention of the Obama Hope poster. CBS was way behind on its facts, neglecting to mention that Lemley's law firm had brought a DJ action on behalf of Shepard Fairey against AP. Also didn't mention issue of "who owns" the copyright in the picture...

"Fire of genius" speech and Google Books

Posted on February 22, 2009
With the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, there were a lot of articles on Lincoln in February 2009. One was "Presidents who value science," by James J. McCarthy, which appeared in 323 Science 853 (13 Feb. 09). There was an allusion to Lincoln's "fire of genius" speech, well-known to patent attorneys and the inspiration for the name of a blog, which has the text:"The patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things...

Agreements over genetically modified seeds limiting research?

Posted on February 22, 2009
Andrew Pollack in the NYT has a piece titled Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research which includes the text:?No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions,? the scientists wrote in a statement submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency...

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Cloning in Korea. Hwang's patent applications back in business?

Posted on February 19, 2009
Still gun-shy from the Hwang Woo Suk fiasco, the South Korean government is moving slowly on a request by K. Y. Cha and affiliates. The Korea Times reported on Feb. 5, 2009:After a lengthy meeting Thursday, the National Bioethics Committee decided to delay its decision over whether to allow the Seoul-based Cha Medical Center to conduct research on embryonic stem cells created from cloned human embryos...

"Disruptive innovation" and lawyers don't mix

Posted on February 19, 2009
Jackie Hutter invokes buggy whips numerous times in a post about legal billing, including in text wherein a misplaced modifier relates Jackie to buggy whip manufacturers:Like buggy whip manufacturers, I believe that many lawyers have become so entrenched in the law firm business that they have effectively forgotten that they are first legal services providers...

Apotex and Olivieri

Posted on February 19, 2009
Patent lawyers are familiar with the name Apotex in a Hatch-Waxman context.Another area concerns science fraud. From an abstract by Rhodes:The Olivieri/Apotex affair is just another instance of academic medicine?s dereliction in a case of scientific fraud and misconduct...

Google would rather "fight than settle" in patent litigation

Posted on February 18, 2009
Bloomberg reports: Google Inc. is going on the offensive to fight patent claims, a strategy the Internet-search company says will deter frivolous lawsuits.The number of patent challenges against Google rose to 14 last year, from 11 in 2007 and three in 2006...

High energy physics on race for Higgs boson

Posted on February 17, 2009
The BBC reported on the race to discover the Higgs boson:Cern and Fermilab officials squared up at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago.Echoing themes in so-called races to patent, one had the quote:"It's a race...

Of boat rockers and mattresses

Posted on February 16, 2009
Sam Martin wrote on CNET:I?m no patent expert, but it?s clear after a little research that patent laws were put into place for two reasons: 1) they want to encourage secretive inventors to stop stashing their cool ideas under a mattress somewhere and make them public and 2) they want to rock the boat...

Crock pots and energy

Posted on February 16, 2009
Crock pots seem to be coming back. The following contains some commentary:**from green yahoo: Save Energy Crock-Pots, particularly today's models, are energy-sippers compared to most other cooking methods like a traditional oven, stove-top, or toaster oven...

More on Suppes and Missouri

Posted on February 15, 2009
The Baltimore Sun ran, on Feb. 15, a version of an AP story on Galen Suppes that had circulated as early as February 7.Neither variant gets into the issue that some of Galen Suppes' work, now at issue at Missouri, may have derived from work Suppes did at Kansas, and, as such, would be beyond the purview of Missouri's reach, barring an explicit assignment on the point...

Earthquake hits New Jersey on Valentine's Day

Posted on February 15, 2009
NBCNewYork reported: The latest earthquake, with a magnitude of 2.2, was recorded shortly before 5:30 p.m. Saturday [Feb. 14], said Scott DiGiralomo, a coordinator with the county's office of emergency management. He told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the quake's epicenter was about 6 miles north of Boonton, and it was felt in neighboring Montville...

More on Leapfrog and secondary considerations

Posted on February 14, 2009
From Leapfrog Enterprises, 485 F.3d 1157, 1162 (CAFC 2007):Finally, we do not agree with Leapfrog that the court failed to give proper consideration to secondary considerations. The district court explicitly stated in its opinion that Leapfrog had provided substantial evidence of commercial success, praise, and long-felt need, but that, given the strength of the prima facie obviousness showing, the evidence on secondary considerations was inadequate to overcome a final conclusion that claim 25 would have been obvious...

"Top 50" in biofuels according to Biofuels Digest

Posted on February 14, 2009
'The 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy' according to Biofuels Digest on 22 Dec 08:1. Coskata2. Sapphire Energy3. Virent Energy Systems4. POET5. Range Fuels6. Solazyme7. Amyris Biotechnologies8. Mascoma9. DuPont Danisco10. UOP11. ZeaChem12. Aquaflow Bionomic13...

Warner-Lambert and Listerine

Posted on February 14, 2009
Jeopardy on 14 Feb 09 seemed to suggest Listerine was invented at Johnson and Johnson. As wikipedia points out: First formulated by Dr. Joseph Lawrence and Jordan Wheat Lambert in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic, it was given to dentists for oral care in 1895 and it was the first over-the-counter mouthwash sold in the United States in 1914...

Something in Nyce matter?

Posted on February 14, 2009
Internet searches on a new trial for Jonathan Nyce are making the rounds.See alsohttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/01/bayh-dole-act-and-murder-case-of.html

"Post Issue Peer to Patent" involved in Red Hat matter

Posted on February 14, 2009
On Red Hat and IP Innovation, from OS News :Back in 2007, IP Innovation filed a lawsuit against Red Hat and Novell. IP Innovation is a subsidiary of Acacia Technologies. You may have heard of them -- they're reported to be the most litigious patent troll in the USA, meaning they produce nothing of value other than money from those whom they sue (or threaten to sue) over patent issues...

Rick Weiss tackles the challenge of patent reform

Posted on February 12, 2009
The first paragraph of Weiss's report in Science Progress, directed to the Obama administration and Congress on the topic of patent reform:Large-scale investment in science and technology could simultaneously help jump-start the flagging economy and generate solutions to the pressing problems of climate change, sustainable energy, and national security...

Sun-Times on Lincoln on his 200th

Posted on February 12, 2009
On 12 Feb. 09, the Chicago Sun-Times had a story including the text:A new book, Fighting Slavery in Chicago by Tom Campbell, recounts how Lincoln, in a couple of cases, represented slave owners as a young lawyer.In one 1847 case, a man named Robert Matson brought a group of slaves, including Jane Bryant and her children, to Illinois from Kentucky to help plant crops...

Lemley law firm plays litigation hardball with AP over Fairey Obama Hope poster

Posted on February 12, 2009
Mark Lemley's new law firm, Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent, has wasted no time in taking a whack at Associated Press (AP), in filing a declaratory judgment action in the Shepard Fairey matter involving the Obama Hope poster. IPBiz had earlier suggested that the parties might resolve the issue, but Lemley's firm is playing litigation hardball...

"Mutually assured destruction" in patent litigation viewed as a porcupine fight

Posted on February 12, 2009
Palm chief Ed Colligan on a possible fight between Apple and Palm over the Pre and patents:It's like two little porcupines going around, and you don't want to touch each other because you might get stung. You peacefully coexist and everything's OK and you keep working together...

Gregg gone at Commerce

Posted on February 12, 2009
Yahoo news noted:Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew his nomination as commerce secretary Thursday [Feb 12], the third Cabinet-level pick scuttled. The move left President Barack Obama without a full team to lead the government...

Financial guys and patents

Posted on February 12, 2009
From tradingmarkets:David Stewart states in his report: "The software really is dynamic. But, again, the important thing is that it's also heavily patented and the patent has been so heavily infringed on that triple damages are now being sought. If the adage is true, if "imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery", then the same thing could probably be said of plagiarism or even the outright piracy of an intellectual property...

Bailout for biotech?

Posted on February 12, 2009
Fierce Pharma has an opinion piece by Daniel J. Nevrivy, Ph.D. the founder of Nevrivy Patent Law Group, :The global financial crisis and economic downturn has created a world of extraordinary government intervention in markets and industry, unthinkable even a year ago...

WSJ on compulsory licensing, China-style

Posted on February 11, 2009
WSJ writes:In other ways, however, the Third Amendment [of Chinese patent law] takes a wrong turn. One of the worst offenses comes in provisions for compulsory licenses. These support expansive authority for the state to issue licenses, without the approval of the patent holder, to anyone who is able to produce the product once given access to the patented technology...

Microsoft obtains 10,000th US patent

Posted on February 10, 2009
7th space reports:The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Microsoft Corp. its 10,000th U.S. patent. The invention, U.S. Patent No. 7,479,950, applies to surface computing technology and outlines how users can place real objects ? anything from cell phones to their own fingers ? on the computer?s tablelike display and the computer will automatically identify the objects and track their position, orientation and motion...

Sacramento Bee says nuts to Vacaville's Nut Tree

Posted on February 10, 2009
The Sacramento Bee on 10 Feb 09 went after an historical inaccuracy at Vacaville's Nut Tree:Vacaville's Nut Tree, a famed tourist site that has been recast into a more commercial vein in recent years, has hung a series of banners that highlight celebrities who have visited...

Ranking lobbyists? Who's the best at ?finding, grinding, and minding??

Posted on February 10, 2009
Internet posts with rankings are good for getting hits. IPBiz ran across this 2007 article from the Washington Post on ranking lobbyists. There's some interesting text within.Of lawyers, lobbying, and advertising:Legal Times recently listed 50 firms with revenues of more than $7 million a year...

Article One announces prize award concerning US 6,784,873

Posted on February 10, 2009
Article One announced award of a $50K prize for art (potentially) invalidating U.S. Patent No. 6,784,873 (relevant to accused infringer Garmin). There were two pieces of art, and the split was 35/15.A press release noted:The Study was won by Article One community members, called Advisors, from the United States...

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