Patent Law

Fishy

Posted on July 08, 2009
The single claim of 4,781,930 is a method of immersing fresh fish filet in vegetable oil, draining the oil off, sprinkling crumbs on it, then freezing it. If that sounds nasty, the patent case behind it is even nastier. Alfred and Paul Fraser, acting pro se, sued 11 companies over the expired patent...

Not Called Out

Posted on July 07, 2009
4,924,496 claims caller ID, using means-plus-function claims: look up a name for a number while the phone is ringing. There's a claimed "means for comparing the detected incoming telephone number with said directory of telephone numbers to identify the party associated with the incoming call number...

Another Round

Posted on July 07, 2009
The CAFC has granted en banc rehearing of Tafas & GSK v. Doll, over the PTO proposed continuation and claims limitations. The order did not state why it had decided to take another gander. In the first round, to general dismay, the CAFC panel ruled 2-1 that the rules were merely procedural, not substantive, overturning the reality-based verdict of the district court...

Exceptional?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Microsoft licensed encryption patents from TecSec. The negotiated license included a proviso, initiated by Microsoft, called the "Reserved Scenario," that would let it pay a lower royalty for not using a particular technology: encryption of less than an entire file (sub-file encryption)...

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Patent Americana

Posted on July 05, 2009
England's Statute of Monopolies, passed by Parliament in 1624, curtailed the crown's abuse in handing out monopolies, while codifying handing out monopolies, being only tangential to patents as we understand them. English letters of patent were monopolistic grants for inventing or importing new things, but also licensing business, as a means for restricting competition generally...

Gift from the Dead

Posted on July 04, 2009
5,761,645 claims a "system for enabling delivery of insurance gift payments" to beneficiaries. Owner Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance has sued rival American National Insurance over it, as part of an ongoing enforcement campaign. Other insurance companies have been taken to task over '645, and settled...

Cut to Commercial

Posted on July 02, 2009
In years past, big-screen TV buyers gravitated to plasma displays, as LCDs were prohibitively expense for 50+ inch screens. But as LCD screen technology has advanced, plasma sales have receded. In 2008, four million plasma screens were sold in North America, while 30 million LCD TVs found homes...

Researching

Posted on July 02, 2009
On patent reform, the Senate shoots first and ask questions later. Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy hustled his cockamamie patent bill out of committee in April on a 15-4 vote. Now judiciary committee member Jeff Sessions is wondering what impact the proposed post-grant challenge process might have...

Fully Fueled

Posted on July 02, 2009
The hyperactive Obama administration wants efficient cars, hoping to implement fleet fuel economy imperatives that politically ran out of gas forty years ago. The hope for fuel-efficiency lies with hybrids, which cruise on electric power and hit the gas when a driver hits the accelerator...

B+

Posted on July 01, 2009
Monday, an East Texas jury awarded $1.67 billion for infringing a single patent: 7,070,775, which Centocor and New York University jointly own. '775 claims an "antibody or antigen-binding fragment." The patent applies to an arthritis drug. Abbott was the infringing party...

Requisite Clarity

Posted on June 29, 2009
In Bilski, the rogue CAFC ruled on the wrong grounds, and in the process warped the law, by setting in stone what were intended as guidelines. To afford case-by-case consideration, a court writes itself wiggle room. Instead, the CAFC tends to sew itself straight-jackets...

Rich-Media Invalidity

Posted on June 27, 2009
Another PTO junk patent is on the prowl. How Neil Balthaser was allowed 7,000,180, claiming methods for creating and editing rich-media, is beyond rational explanation. There is a ton of prior art invalidating the patent. Balthaser has a four suits in East Texas with a slew of defendants...

Jackson

Posted on June 27, 2009
A contribution to the media obsession surrounding the death of the King of Pop: In 1993, Michael Jackson was granted patent 5,255,452 for a "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion." Specially designed shoes engaged with hitch members protruding through the stage, allowing the wearer to lean beyond their center of gravity...

Definitely Not

Posted on June 26, 2009
Bilski's claims are putrid, being neither useful nor definite, and hence non-patentable under §101 and §112 ¶2. The Supreme Court should rightfully ignore flawed CAFC case law, looking to its own precedents, most notably Diamond v. Diehr (for §101) and Markman v...

Convenience of Coincidence

Posted on June 26, 2009
Decisions made at the UPSTO have ironically spawned an anti-patent culture at the very institute created to protect innovation. These decisions have consequences. Conveniently though, the US economy has tanked, providing the PTO with a thick sheet of smoke to help veil countless managerial missteps...

Double Zap

Posted on June 26, 2009
Samsung and Sharp have been warring over TV patents at the ITC. Earlier this month, Samsung was found infringing Sharp patents. All the ITC does, or can do, is issue an exclusion order. Now the ITC has determined that Sharp infringes a single Samsung patent...

Mastered

Posted on June 25, 2009
Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum scored one against Microsoft in their Xbox patent match, ongoing since 2004. East Michigan Judge Paul D. Borman has adopted a critical claim construction determined by his special master in the case. Claim 39 of 5,292,125 involves a communication circuit...

Paid As Used

Posted on June 25, 2009
Richard P. Mettke got 5,602,905, claiming a "public on-line, pay-as-you-use communications terminal." He wanted his claims directed to the Internet, so he filed for reissue, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §251, "submitting with his application a declaration stating that he believed the '905 patent to be 'wholly or partly inoperative or invalid by reason of me claiming less than I had the right to claim...

Unappealing

Posted on June 23, 2009
More than ever, patent prosecution is a gambler's game. As Admiral Adama in Battlestar Galactica observes: "sometimes you have to roll the hard six." In prosecution, facing an objectionable rejection, appeal. Professor Dennis D. Crouch has taken a cold-eyed look at rejection rates for BPAI appeals...

Shoo-in

Posted on June 22, 2009
The fix is in. Movers and shakers in the patent community are falling down squirting over Dave Kappos as USPTO honcho. CongressDaily reports praise from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke (as if a cabinet member is going to toot another horn on his President's pick)...

Innovation Limited

Posted on June 22, 2009
In post-war Japan, W. Edwards Deming taught the natives quality control methods, with which the Japanese dazzled the industrialized world. Deming said, "expect what you inspect." That's why companies don't innovate: the same patterns of communication and problem-solving in the same narrow niches leading down the same old roads, seldom blazing new trails...

Compatible

Posted on June 22, 2009
"We are revising all the doctrines and laws related to patents, which should be compatible with the international treaties that we have signed and respect and honor. Patents have become a barrier to production, and we cannot allow them to be barriers to medicine, to life, to agriculture...

Ink Spilled

Posted on June 21, 2009
Printer makers follow the razor blade business model: the razor is a loss leader to the highly profitable blades. So, with inkjet printers, the lucre accrues from selling the ink. To wit, Seiko Epson has just sued six inking infringers over its ink cartridge patents...

Unspooled

Posted on June 19, 2009
Emsat has a patent enforcement campaign against wireless providers such as Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Alltel, AT&T and T-Mobile. The claimed technology is an FCC requirement: determining the location of cell phones, one (the required) use being for emergency response networks...

Combination of the Two

Posted on June 18, 2009
A combination of two patent blogs yields a well-worn path to researching patent case law. Michael Giles Sullivan's IP Law Outline & Analysis provides an excellent directory and synopses of precedents. The Patent Prospector provides the most extensive reportage of case law quotes of any blog, covering practically every precedential case from 2005 to date, as well a few historical Supreme Court cases...

Waste Not...

Posted on June 18, 2009
President Obama announced today nominees for two related governmental posts: Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Department of Energy; and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office...

Off the Block

Posted on June 17, 2009
Two-bit patent auctioneer Ocean Tomo has been snapped up by British ICAP, the world's largest interdealer broker, for $5 million cash and a hypothetical $5 million in shares. More precisely: "Application will be made for the listing of 692,226 ordinary shares of 10 pence each which have been conditionally allotted as satisfaction for the stock consideration...

Order of Magnitude

Posted on June 17, 2009
Heeling Sports has an enforcement campaign against infringers of its roller skate shoes. It botched the first round requesting damages for default judgment. As a result, Central California District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper awarded only $280,000 in damages, without explanation...

Out of the Ditch

Posted on June 17, 2009
Cartner Jack got 5,197,284, claiming a deceleration circuit for a hydraulic motor. Cartner sued Alamo for infringement. Claim construction went poorly for Cartner. So poorly that Cartner stipulated, under the district court's construction, that the patent was "invalid for failure to meet the written description requirement of 35 U...

Cull

Posted on June 16, 2009
"It is in the sterilisation of failure, and not in the selection of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an improvement of the human stock lies." - H.G. Wells. Antithetical to rampant free-to-breed populist sentiment, government support for eugenics has no prospect...

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