Intellectual Property Law

Save the date: Seattle Lunch 2.0 Happy Hour

Posted on February 26, 2009
The following is cut and paste from Upcoming.org. My thanks to Josh Maher in advance for not suing me for copyright infringement! Axios Law Group, 1525 Fourth Ave Suite 800Seattle, Washington 98101 Get Directions What do you get when a law firm and a software startup share an office? ...

You?re a programmer, but should you be a union organizer too?

Posted on February 26, 2009
Back when I was working as one of hundreds of coders for the Fortune 500, every now and then the lunch conversation (usually at Schlotzsky?s) would turn to unionization. Personally, I wasn?t a big fan of it because I wanted to set my own rates, but a few were...

Principles of Software Contracts is on Westlaw

Posted on February 25, 2009
I first got a draft copy personally from Prof. Hillman a few years ago and now it's on Westlaw at ALI-SOFTWARE.

A Bilski update

Posted on January 07, 2009
A little while ago, I got a copy of Fenwick and West's Winter 2008-09 Intellectual Property Bulletin. In it, I read an interesting write up of Bilski by Robert Sachs and Robert Hulse. They say the decision "can only serve to disrupt settled expectations among patent holders, inventors, and the business ...

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Temporary aphasia and the art of provisional patent drafting

Posted on January 03, 2009
I'm currently drafting a provisional application for a piece of software technology I understand very well. I mean to say, I understand it really, really well. So why does my writing suck? I look over my drafts and I feel like Coderights is better written than this provisional...

Happy new year, and what I?ve been up to

Posted on January 03, 2009
Coderights kind of fell off the map for me after my finals, so my apologies. Maybe I've just been shocked and befuddled by Seattle's collective response to the snow. I've also been thinking about submitting a paper I wrote on standards setting organizations and open source communities to a few people...

Linux Defenders

Posted on December 10, 2008
I can hardly let Linux Defenders go without mention on here on Coderights. Since I'm a little busy studying for my one exam and working on my open source final paper, I'll just give you the summary and some links. Partners like the Open Invention Network and the Software Freedom Law ...

What is a motivation to combine?

Posted on December 10, 2008
Warning: total law geek post follows. One of the things I struggle to grasp is what can serve as an adequate basis for a motivation to combine references in a 103 rejection. Put more simply, a standard rejection of a patent application happens when a patent examiner combines two (or ...

Coderights is in slow down mode

Posted on December 09, 2008
As you can probably tell, I haven't been posting much. Right now all my free time is dedicated to writing a paper for class and studying for my one exam. See you later next week!

Tax policy should be changed to fuel innovation in startups

Posted on November 28, 2008
I came across an interesting article while I was researching a paper I'm doing on open standards. Xuan-Thao Nguyen and Jeffrey A. Maine observe that, if a technology company does its own research and development, it can write off those expenses. However, if that same company buys another company just to acquire ...

Even the pros seem a little confused about ?standards?

Posted on November 28, 2008
As I mentioned earlier, I have a paper I'm working on for class. It's on open standards, so I thought I'd look around Westlaw to see if there's anything significant written on the topic. What I've found so far shows that there is a little confusion about "standards" among lawyers--even ...

Remember, the name of the game is the claim

Posted on November 27, 2008
So, the 'net is currently all a twitter (no, not that Twitter) about McDonalds and its so-called patent on sandwiches. The story posted on Slashdot, "McDonalds Files To Patent Making a Sandwich," was good for 294 comments.  Matt Asay at CNet's Open Road seemed pleased that "software isn't the only industry that comes ...

A simple question nets 864 comments

Posted on November 26, 2008
Holy smokes. There is a massive comment thread going on over at Groklaw. Gene Quinn of IPWatchDog posed a simple question to Groklaw readers. He said, "From a conceptual standpoint why not allow for software to be patented. What is the harm?" 864 comments later, and we still don't have an answer.

Will Bilski keep the Federal Circuit in the driver?s seat?

Posted on November 26, 2008
Steven Seidenberg at InsideCounsel has a nice, easy to read article about that predates the Bilski decision but discusses the key cases leading up to it. His article reminded me of some of the things my patents professor taught me. In short, she taught us that the Federal Circuit has long ...

The latest Facebook case

Posted on November 26, 2008
Leader Technologies, Inc. v. Facebook (D.D.E. 2008) I know, it's been way too long since I've written up a case. How better than to resume with the latest Facebook litigation?  Leader Technologies invents and sells web- and internet-based communication technology...

Topic selected: really open standards

Posted on November 26, 2008
I've selected a topic for my IT Standards and Open Source Software class. I'm going to write about what I call "really open standards." It will be a list of principles similar to those promulgated by the OSI for open source. You see, participants in standards settings organizations usually license their ...

Is someone from Google heading to the White House?

Posted on November 26, 2008
I felt like I had to get at least one election day story in here. Christopher Saunders asks: Who Will be Obama's CTO? I guess I didn't realize that Obama promised to appoint someone like a chief technology officer. Maybe even at the cabinet level. Saunders goes on to quote ...

Bilski offers a little something for everyone

Posted on November 26, 2008
Kind of like Katrina, Bilski completely flooded my email while I was in New Orleans, and now it's taking me days to empty it! I want to just start with the heavy hitters: Patently-O, Peter Zura, and the like. The day after the decision came out, Patently-O posted on How to ...

Bilski?s out

Posted on November 26, 2008
The Federal Circuit just released a 132 page opinion in the Bilski case. Luckily there was a security breach at the Seatac airport, so I'll have plenty of time to read it. UPDATE: it looks like software patents will be "left to another day." Update-2: looks like manipulations (transformations) of "data" of ...

Anticipation for Bilski builds

Posted on November 26, 2008
I've been seeing more and more posts over the past few days the Bilski -- which is supposed to be released in October... that only gives the Federal Circuit a few days to get their act together. Mostly they rehash the issue with more or less accuracy...

Heretical questions about open source

Posted on November 26, 2008
I was reading RedHat assistant general counsel Rob Tiller's post on an intellectual property symposium while I was riding on the Fourteen into downtown Seattle today. The Fourteen was an interesting backdrop because it takes the most populated route through the city...

What will Drizzle mean for Mysql?s dual license model?

Posted on November 26, 2008
Apologies for being an echo in the echo chamber, but Stephen O'Grady at RedMonk posted an interesting commentary on the Mysql fork that is Drizzle and what the fork portends for Mysql's (owned by Sun) dual license business model. Mr. Grady suggests that Drizzle is a rejection of the Mysql approach, even ...

Bilski?s first victim? In re Halligan

Posted on November 26, 2008
If you're interested in the patentability of software and the impact of the recent Bilski case, this decision may be of some import. You can find a more detailed write up of the decision at Patently-O. I'm just going to summarize it here and offer some comments...

I've been moonlighting: Airlift Ventures and AFB

Posted on February 21, 2008
I realized it's been over a week since I've posted here on Coderights. I thought I should give you a little update. While Coderights is still my first love, I've been moonlighting on a few new sites. The first, I'm proud to tell you about, is Airlift Ventures (available at airliftventures...

What does Romney's campaign tell us about startups?

Posted on February 08, 2008
What message does Mitt Romney's failed campaign have for startups? You and I would have been in agreement in saying not much--until this morning. I was reading Elizabeth Holmes's WSJ piece, "Romney's Screen Test Falls Flat." (Click here.) As I read, I realized that this parallels a lot of failed startups that I've known...

Replay: Seattle is the new Silicon Valley, says NY Times

Posted on February 08, 2008
I just noticed that Adam Hanig passed along a recent New York Times article likening Seattle to Silicon Valley. The article notes that a "start-up ecosystem needs social networks, support businesses and a business culture that views failure as a badge of honor, not shame...

The next Ingite Seattle is less than two weeks away

Posted on February 07, 2008
I completely blew it on the last one, but I definitely make it to this one. Ignite Seattle is a kind of a Big Deal. According to the site, there were over 350 attendees at the last one (would have been 351). Apparently, this year:we are going to have 16 Ask Later talks...

This is kind of what I'm talking about

Posted on February 07, 2008
Last week I was bemoaning the state of relations between lawyers and startups. It still seems to me that lawyers are strangely missing in the startup scene. Oh sure, they're around at events (relegated to "service provider" status) and willing to sell some hours...

January traffic rankings are out, skillbit debuts big

Posted on February 07, 2008
Marcelo Calbucci's eagerly awaited monthly traffic ranking of Seattle startups has been released, and the Seattle Startup Weekend project, skillbit, debuted at position 134. I think that's pretty impressive!

Will YHOO+MSFT=good news for startups? Or bad?

Posted on February 07, 2008
I've seen a few different perspectives fly across my GOOG Reader in the past week on this issue. The first were some rumblings about whether having one entity serving as a startup offramp would be bad for the startup market. These posts showed up on both Tech Confidential and VentureBeat...

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