Intellectual Property Law

USPTO Extends Comment Period For Deferred Examination

Posted on March 10, 2009
From todays' Federal Register:The USPTO conducted a roundtable to determine whether or not there is support in the patent community and/or the public sector for the adoption of some type of deferral of examination . . . The USPTO also invited written comments by any member of the public on the issues raised at the roundtable, or on any issue pertaining to deferral of examination ...

Defendant's Knowledge of Reexamination Certificate May Constitute "Objective Recklessness"

Posted on March 09, 2009
Ultratech International Inc. v. Swimways Corp., 3-05-cv-00134 (FLMD March 3, 2009, Order)Plaintiff sued defendant in 2005 alleging patent infringement, but the plaintiff did not plead willful infringement. Defendant filed a reexamination soon after, which the PTO granted...

Hearings Begin in Senate On Patent Reform

Posted on March 09, 2009
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing on "Patent Reform in the 111th Congress: Legislation and Recent Court Decisions" for Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.A webcast of the hearings will be provided and may be accessed here (link)The Witness List includes:Steven R...

Study: Small Firm Plaintiffs ("Trolls") Have Unexceptional Impact on Patent Litigation

Posted on March 08, 2009
A number of years ago, Jay P. Kesan and Gwendolyn Ball teamed together to write "How Are Patent Cases Resolved? An Empirical Examination of the Adjudication and Settlement of Patent Disputes" (link). Many practitioners have relied on the findings in the document, and the paper continues to enjoy a high rate of downloading in the SSRN E-Library...

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Directing Method Step to Be Performed Outside U.S. Negates Joint Infringement

Posted on March 05, 2009

USPTO Memo Explains Examination Standards under Bilski

Posted on March 05, 2009

Patent Reform Lobbying Off to a Fast Start

Posted on March 05, 2009

Will Economy Spur the Rise of "Asset Light" Companies?

Posted on March 04, 2009

EPO Releases Free Patent Valuation Tool

Posted on March 03, 2009

Say Hello To 2009 Patent Reform - Dual Bills Introduced In House, Senate

Posted on March 03, 2009

New Look for the 271 Blog

Posted on March 02, 2009

Short Note On "Top Patent Blogs"

Posted on February 24, 2009
?There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it?-- Mark Twain While these lists pop up from time-to-time, the IP Watchdog recently compiled a list of the "top 25 patent blogs." The list places yours truly at number 13:Certainly a respectable number, but not one to inspire vanity...

"No Risk For Me" Ex Parte Reexamination Sinks Motion to Stay in ED Tex

Posted on February 24, 2009
Affinity Labs of Texas, LLC v. Dice Electronics, LLC, 9-08-cv-00163 (TXED February 20, 2009, Order).Plaintiff Affinity filed suit against the defendants on a patent directed toward systems and methods for connecting a portable audio player to an automobile sound system...

3rd Time's The Charm? Obama Prepares to Nominate Commerce Secretary

Posted on February 23, 2009
Reports are coming out that President Obama's likely pick for Commerce Secretary will be former Washington Gov. Gary Locke. Locke was the first Chinese-American governor when he served two terms in the Washington statehouse from 1997 to 2005. Since leaving office he's been working for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations...

What Will Become of the "Check 21" Patent Reform Provision?

Posted on February 20, 2009
A 271 Blog reader brought up an interesting point regarding patent reform and the banking system. Recently, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) introduced the latest Patent Reform Act (S3600), which includes a "Check 21" exception (sec. 13, page 80):"With respect to the use by a financial institution of a check collection system that constitutes an infringement under subsection (a) or (b) of section 271, the provisions of sections 281, 283, 284, and 285 shall not apply against the financial institution with respect to such a check collection system...

Study Proposes Modifications to Patent Venue

Posted on February 19, 2009
Sidney Rosenzweig, a visiting fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, published a paper yesterday addressing issues related to patent reform and the venue statutes. Specifically, Rosenzweig identifies numerous deficiencies in the House and Senate bills...

Coalition for Patent Fairness Launches New Site, Blog

Posted on February 19, 2009
Ramping up for the 2009+ patent reform efforts, the Coalition for Patent Fairness (CPF) has revamped its website and refocused its message on patent reform, claiming a more economic-based rationale for supporting reform:"Deficiencies in our patent system are holding our economy back by dampening innovation and job creation...

Business Method Patents - Down, But Not Out (At Least Not Yet)

Posted on February 18, 2009
Transamerica Life Insurance Company et al v. Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, N.D. IA (1-06-cv-00110)Lincoln accused Transamerica and others of infringing U.S. Patent 7,089,201, titled "Method and apparatus for providing retirement income benefits...

Thopmson Reuters Issues 2009 Patent Focus Report

Posted on February 18, 2009
Each year, Thomson Reuters issues an annual report on patenting issues at the world?s major issuing authorities, to "take a look at the stories behind the statistics." This year's report has some interesting findings, especially in China.CHINAOne of the big stories for 2008 was the emergence of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a telecom company based in Shenzhen, as the top PCT filer (1,737), placing it ahead of Panasonic (1,729) and Philips (1,551)...

Joff Wild Speaks With Dudas at IAM

Posted on February 17, 2009
Joff Wild, editor of IAM Magazine and author of the IAM blog is providing a preview of his interview with former USPTO Director Jon Dudas. As expected, Dudas claims to have "no regrets" over his 6-year tenure, stating that "[d]ifferent industries and different sectors always have different priorities, and that is where disagreements occur...

Software Patents at the UK IPO

Posted on February 12, 2009
While the USPTO marches to find consistency on patentable subject matter, I found this practice notice from the UK IPO dated December 8, 2008, dealing with computer programs in light of the recent Symbian decision (link). At first glance, this appears to be a more rational test than the "tied to a particular machine" analysis used at the BPAI under the post-Bilski era:4...

Friday Shorts - Deferred Examination, Gregg Withdraws, NEW ITC Blog

Posted on February 12, 2009
Post Mortem at the PTO Deferred Examination Roundtable: Today, the PTO held their roundtable discussion on deferred examination. Tech companies voiced lukewarm support, manufacturers/biotech said "nice idea, but who needs it?", and the PTO claims they have ?huge, huge challenges in examining the applications coming through the door? and that, other than deferred examination, no one has come up with any better ideas...

Another Bilski Decision From the BPAI

Posted on February 11, 2009
Ex Parte Nawathe et al., Appeal No. 2007-3360, February 9, 2009The applicants claimed a system and method for representing a normalized eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data structure as fixed sets of tables in a relational database (RDB). The examiner rejected the claims under 35 U...

China Approaching 1M Domestic Patent Filings Per Year

Posted on February 10, 2009
The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) has published some year-end statistics, and the numbers are striking - based on an annualized projection of Chinese patent filings (SIPO only gives 11 months in the report), over 780,000 applications were filed in the year, of which 213,000 are utility model applications and 290,000 are design patent applications...

Letter to Obama from U.S. Manufacturers Questions Rationales For Patent Reform

Posted on February 10, 2009
Earlier today, the Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy, representing more than 130 US manufacturing companies, sent a joint letter to President Obama voicing concerns over patent reform legislation. More specifically, the letter states that, if 2009's patent reform efforts are a repeat of 2007-08, the legislation would "harm the competitiveness, investment and employment of [the manufacturing] sector...

Patent Reform 2009 Gets Underway

Posted on February 09, 2009
While rumblings persisted over the last two weeks, Congressional spokesmen and staffers have now come out publicly to confirm that (1) patent reform will be a "top priority" over the coming year, and (2) any resulting legislation will be on a "fast track...

Unlikely Duo Set Out to Set The Record Straight On NPEs and Patent Litigation

Posted on February 04, 2009
"When the cat and mouse agree, the grocer is ruined."-- Iranian proverbToday it was announced that Nathan Myhvold is teaming up with Professor Mark Lemley to conduct a two-year study on patent litigation, and further analyze the frequency and effect of non-practicing entity (NPE) litigation on the patent system...

"Recession IP" - It's All On Sale!

Posted on February 04, 2009
From Yesterday's Chicago Tribune:As firms streamline operations to save money amid the recession, a growing number are looking to generate cash by selling or licensing their dormant trademarks and patents. That's creating new demand for Chicago-based Ocean Tomo's intellectual property appraisals, auctions and other services...

"Crowdsourcing" Patent Peer Review

Posted on February 03, 2009
Andy Oram over at O'Reilly Media penned an interesting article, titled "Peer-to-Patent and Article One Drag the Reclusive Patent Onto the Thoroughfare," which compares and contrasts various peer review models for the patent process. The article focuses on the recent efforts of Article One and Peer-to-Patent to challenge issued patents...

Obama Nominates Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) For Sec. Commerce

Posted on February 03, 2009
It was officially announced today that President Barack Obama nominated Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to be Commerce secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Gregg would be in charge of overseeing the USPTO and instrumental in setting patent policy.Of course, now that it's official, let the dirt digging begin:Gene Quinn, "Judd Gregg?s Columbia University Patent Past" (link) - "One thing is for certain though, Judd Gregg does not have a long history to review on patent matters, but the man who will be the boss of the next Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office does have one thorny patent issue in his past, namely the misguided attempts by Columbia University to extend its patent protection on a multi-million dollar process...

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