Patent Law

Enlargement Stress

Posted on August 16, 2008
Todd Brady came up with "a building construction assembly that allows a header in a wall some vertical freedom of movement relative to the studs, such that stresses applied to the assembly do not result in wall cracks. Such a configuration is useful when stresses vary in a wall, for example, through accumulation of snowfall or from an earthquake...

Patent Agent

Posted on August 15, 2008
The USPTO has promulgated its final rule for CFR changes of authorized activities and sanctions for patent and trademark agents. The comments warn that being a patent agent does not cover activities, not necessary to prosecution, which would constitute practicing law...

The Scream

Posted on August 15, 2008
Prasco got so paranoid about infringing patents from competitors Medicis Pharmaceutical and Imaginative Research Associates that it filed a declaratory judgment motion. The problem for Pasco was that Prasco wasn't even on the defendants' radar screens...

Obzilla Refined

Posted on August 14, 2008
Whalen et al faced PTO patent board appeal on a chemical composition for embolizing an aneurysm. In a precedential opinion, the BPAI clarified the boundaries of inherency, and reinvigorated the seemingly orphaned stepchild of Queen KSR, grande dame TSM...

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Blue Ray

Posted on August 13, 2008
Acacia subsidiary Digital Security Systems likes the high-definition Blu-Ray DVD technology so much it wants a piece of the action. 6,052,780 claims copy protection which the patent holder considers incorporated into Blu-Ray players. Complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas, seeking reasonable royalty...

Remedy

Posted on August 13, 2008
With breathtaking alacrity for legislative enactment, President Bush signed into law revision of 35 U.S.C., the patent law, and the Trademark Act (of 1946), transferring authority of appointing administrative patent and trademark judges to the Secretary of Commerce...

Walk This Way

Posted on August 12, 2008
According to NationalJournal.com, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl has his own vector for patent reform, divergent from the Leahy-Hatch cluster fun. Kyl reportedly spent months in meetings "with critics of the Leahy bill, including representatives from the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industries, small tech firms, and other companies whose business models depend on patent licenses...

Business as Usual

Posted on August 12, 2008
The hoary adage "where there's smoke, there's fire" seems to apply. Law.com reported on USPTO favoritism for RIM and against NTP during their lawsuit, with apparent continuing punishment of NTP by malign neglect....

Greenhorn

Posted on August 11, 2008
Young James McDonough displayed inexperience in an interview in the Wall Street Journal. McDonough blamed patent trolls for the USPTO tightening examination, when it was media coverage of carping by patent-infringing computer technology corporations that provoked a PTO political response...

Habitat

Posted on August 11, 2008
In its Small Business section, The Wall Street Journal today used three anecdotes to survey the patent scene. The article "Caught in the Crossfire," stated "the clash:" "Big companies that pay for patent licenses and small companies that generate revenue by licensing patents are increasingly at odds...

Sensation

Posted on August 08, 2008
Kazuhiro Okada, inventor of 6,512,364, assigned the patent to Saitama, Japan-based Wacoh last month. '364 claims methods for testing sensors. Wednesday, Wacoh filed a complaint in the Western District of Wisconsin against auto makers GM, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Honda, Mazda, and Suzuki...

Summary Misjudgment

Posted on August 07, 2008
Uniloc sued Microsoft for infringing 5,490,216, claiming an anti-piracy software registration system. Microsoft's product activation system was accused. The district court judge granted summary judgment of non-infringement despite concession by Microsoft...

Just the Fax

Posted on August 07, 2008
The USPTO "is proposing to revise the rules of practice to limit the types of correspondence that may be submitted to the Office by facsimile." The successful 1988 trial program is now deemed not so successful. The office recommends its web-based EFS (Electronic Filing System)...

Junket

Posted on August 06, 2008
Considering that USPTO management spawns from Congressional aides, payback in the form of a junket to Copenhagen, Denmark should raise eyebrows only for its destination, not its blatant toadying. The Washington Post: "The purpose of the trip," Jefferson D...

Bag Lady, Technologist

Posted on August 06, 2008
In 2006, IBM instituted a "worldwide policy, built on IBM's long-standing practices of high quality patents," disavowing "business methods without technical merit." 7,407,089, granted to IBM, issued yesterday, claims storing customer preference for paper or plastic bags...

Sprayed

Posted on August 05, 2008
Proveris Scientific sued Innovasystems for infringing 6,785,400, claiming a device for evaluating drug delivery aerosol sprays. "As part of its defense, Innova invoked the safe harbor provision of the Hatch-Waxman Act." The district court had no safe harbor for Innova, finding infringement, no damages, but a permanent injunction...

2006 World Patent Review

Posted on August 04, 2008
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published its 2008 statistical review. 2008 is the publication date. The statistics are for 2006. The highlights: a 4.9% rise in patent filings from 2005 to 2006, mostly in China, South Korea, and the U...

Hubris

Posted on August 04, 2008
The USPTO has unveiled a new electronic "portrait gallery" "highlighting past and present individuals who have made a contribution to America's intellectual property (IP) system." Included are "digital electronic portraits of United States Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; famous inventor Thomas Edison; National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees Helen Free, who developed home testing for diabetes, and Steve Wozniak, the inventor and co-founder of Apple Computer; and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Jon Dudas...

Hypocrite Nation

Posted on August 03, 2008
The United States has a foolish first-to-invent priority date system for U.S. applicants, but refuses to recognize the filing or invention date of foreign applications for the purposes of prior art, with the infinitesimal exception of the inscrutable 102(e)...

Injunkedtion

Posted on August 03, 2008
Novo Nordisk sued Sanofi-Aventis for infringing 7,241,278. Novo then motioned for a preliminary injunction. Denied. Affirmed on appeal because Novo "failed to show a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits." Sanofi had "raised substantial questions," including whether claim construction would go Novo's way...

Tossed Salad

Posted on August 02, 2008
Sollami sued Kennametal over three patents. Kennametal was granted a stay pending USPTO examination of a reissue application of one of the asserted patents. Sollami appealed. In a non-precedential decision, CAFC ruled that a stay is not appealable, unless it puts the patent owner "out of court...

Inequitable Conduct

Posted on August 02, 2008
Proving inequitable conduct requires jumping "a high bar." There are two prongs to inequitable conduct: the materiality of omission (failing to disclose relevant information to the patent office), and intent to deceive. The Eisai CAFC ruling last week elucidated the current standard, with the contentious Aventis ruling in May shedding heat and light...

Not Mousing Around

Posted on August 01, 2008
Microsoft asserting patents is as rare as hens teeth. But Wednesday Microsoft filed a complaint at the ITC against Primax Electronics of Taiwan, over seven mouse patents. One portfolio, dubbed "U2," is for connecting a mouse to either a USB or PS/2 port...

There Is No Arizona

Posted on August 01, 2008
Whether Arizona has a functioning patent court remains an open question. Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) sued Microsoft for infringing its halftoning six-pack patent portfolio. After RCT won summary judgment of infringement, the case was transferred to a different judge, who reversed the ruling and granted Microsoft's motion of non-infringement, without opinion...

Nincompooped

Posted on July 29, 2008
USPTO Deputy Director Margaret J.A. Peterlin is throwing in the towel, not a day too soon. From the PTO announcement: In addition to enhancing operational efficiencies, Deputy Under Secretary Peterlin strategically positioned the USPTO as a leader in such important policy debates as patent modernization legislation, in which the USPTO played a lead role in forming and communicating the Administration's position...

Not Untoward

Posted on July 26, 2008
Rambus got patents covering computer memory standards, set by JEDEC, an industry group. Defendant chip makers Hynix, Samsung, Nanya and Micron went after Rambus for bad juju, in the Northern District of California. Defendants lost. Following a seven-and-a-half week consolidated trial on the jury issues set forth in the parties' Joint Pretrial Statement filed January 14, 2008, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Rambus and against the Manufacturers...

Silly Syllables

Posted on July 25, 2008
The University of Texas (UT) can't be sued for patent infringement, but it's more than happy to sue. Fairness has little to do with patents, and even less with the power of the State. UT sued a slew of companies for infringing 4,674,112. It lost on claim construction, and so appealed, but with only silliness to back it up...

Inventorship Eruption

Posted on July 24, 2008
In 2004, Magma Design Automation, an automated chip design company, sent a threatening letter to rival Synopsys about patent infringement. Synopsys responded with a declaratory judgment motion that two Magma patents were conceived while its inventor, now Magma chief scientist Lukas van Ginneken, was employed at Synopsys, hence the patents were rightfully Synopsys property...

Sweetness & Light

Posted on July 23, 2008
Courtroom View Network has stopped licking its chops. The very day its $400 per day pay-per-view webcast of the Qualcomm-Nokia courtroom prizefight was to commence, they settle. Worldwide, no complaints now between these two. A 15-year agreement. Essentially, a comprehensive cross-license...

Illegal

Posted on July 23, 2008
The USPTO posted a warning in the Federal Register about using foreign patent prosecution companies. Under 15 CFR 730-744, technology exports are subject to government approval by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the Department of Commerce...

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