Patent Law

Black Crowes going after Gretchen Wilson, Sony BMG

Posted on August 07, 2008
VNU Entertainment News Wire noted on 30 July 08:Lawyers for the Black Crowes have served copyright infringement notices to Gretchen Wilson, TNT, Sony BMG and publishing company J Money Music over the band's 1991 hit "Jealous Again."The Mix noted: The Black Crowes are suing Gretchen Wilson - who plays Westbury Thursday, August 7 - for copyright infringement, alleging her "Work Hard Play Harder" exploits the Crowes' '91 single "Jealous Again...

Foreseeability and obviousness

Posted on August 07, 2008
In an article about possible changes to McDonalds "dollar menu," one has the text:Lower-priced beverages, including $1.89 iced coffee and a $1 fountain-drink and sweet-tea promotion, have pulled some sales away from the espresso drinks, which range from about $2 to $3...

IBM's 7,407,089 "paper or plastic" patent

Posted on August 07, 2008
There's a lot of buzz about IBM's US Patent No. 7,407,089 titled System and method for determining packaging preference with first claim:A method of determining a customer's packaging preference in a conventional point-of-sale retail location, wherein the point-of-sale retail location includes a person who performs the packaging of items purchased in the point-of-sale retail location for the customer, comprising the steps of:identifying the customer using a customer identifier; and retrieving available container packaging preference information for the purchased items using the customer identifier for the identified customer...

The origins of "truly innovative inventions"?

Posted on August 07, 2008
Of two comments to the IPBiz post titled PREVENTING THE ISSUANCE OF "BAD" PATENTS , IPBiz notes that the words truly innovative inventions appeared in a law review article titled Pioneers in Technology: A Proposed System for Classifying and Rewarding Extraordinary Inventions in 45 Ariz...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Sarnoff citing Quillen/Webster numbers in 2008 article

Posted on August 07, 2008
In an article titled BILCARE, KSR, PRESUMPTIONS OF VALIDITY, PRELIMINARY RELIEF, AND OBVIOUSNESS IN PATENT LAW ( 25 Cardozo Arts & Ent LJ 995 (2008)), Joshua Sarnoff writes:As Professor John Thomas recently remarked, there are two general types of errors at the Patent Office, wrongful grants and wrongful denials, and we currently "have only the first sort of error in the patent system...

Controlling already-created innovation?

Posted on August 07, 2008
In an article titled The Impact of Compulsory Licensing on Foreign Direct Investment: A Collective Bargaining Approach, Robert Bird and Daniel R. Cahoy cite Mark A. Lemley in Ex Ante versus Ex Post Justifications for Intellectual Property, 71 U. CHI. L...

Patent attorneys should NOT assume peer review is confidential

Posted on August 07, 2008
In the patent business, patent attorneys frequently encounter academic scientists who talk about the confidentiality of "peer review" or "grant review" processes. A recent case involving the journal Performance Evaluation illustrates that this can be a bad assumption...

Notice of Allowance on trademark "cloud computing" revoked

Posted on August 07, 2008
The USPTO canceled its "Notice of Allowance" for the trademark "cloud computing" on Tuesday, 5 August 2008.See also 4 Aug 08 IPBiz post: Dell gets "notice of allowance" for trademark on cloud computing

Flaw in domain name system [DNS] exploitable

Posted on August 07, 2008
The Washington Post [Brian Krebs ] noted that about one month ago, on 8 July 2008, Microsoft, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and dozens of other Internet companies shipped software updates to fix a fundamental design flaw in DNS, the communications standard that acts as a kind of phone book for the Internet, translating human-friendly Web site names like example...

Patent attorney Benassi dead at 59

Posted on August 06, 2008
Patent attorney John Benassi died at age 59. Benassi attended the University of Illinois and got his J.D. from George Washington University Law School in 1974. He was at Lyon & Lyon until around 2000, going to Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and then joining Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in 2003 and, in 2005, moving to Heller Ehrman...

Portable UV water sterilizer

Posted on August 06, 2008
Number 25 of a TIME "25 Gotta Have Travel Gadgets" was theSteriPen Ultraviolet Bacteria and Pathogen Killing Water Wandwhich was stated to be particularly good at killing Cryptosporidium.Number 22 was the "clear card" described as follows:The Clear Card ain't perfect, but at 20 airports around the United States flashing one allows you to cruise past most of the queued up suckers...

PREVENTING THE ISSUANCE OF "BAD" PATENTS

Posted on August 06, 2008
Justin Pats has an article in IDEA entitled: PREVENTING THE ISSUANCE OF "BAD" PATENTS: HOW THE PTO CAN SUPPLEMENT ITS PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES TO ASSURE QUALITY which concludes:Ensuring that only truly innovative inventions garner protection is critical to maintaining the value of the limited exclusive monopoly granted by a patent...

Inadvertent plagiarism again

Posted on August 06, 2008
An IPBiz reader gave a link to another case involving the invocation of"inadvertent plagiarism." -->Last year the university stood aside Professor Walker for 10 weeks while an industrial lawyer, Anthony Britt, investigated a complaint by whistleblowers...

More on Qualcomm

Posted on August 05, 2008
Trying to reduce damages in a case involving Broadcom, Qualcomm Inc. asked the CAFC on 5 Aug 08 to restore its rights to two video patents the cellphone chip maker forfeited last year when a judge ruled that the company engaged in gross misconduct.Money/CNN noted: very late in the court proceedings, Qualcomm admitted that it withheld internal documents that contradicted its earlier testimony...

Re-exam of Tessara's 5,852,326

Posted on August 05, 2008
A press release concerning the Tessara matter notes:Tessera Technologies, Inc. a leading provider of miniaturization technologies for the electronics industry, today announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) on August 1, 2008 issued a second office action in the ongoing ex parte reexamination of Tessera's U...

Rai's wrong on reform

Posted on August 04, 2008
Artie Rai, who wrote a guest editorial on why the district court decision in Tafas was wrongly decided, is back on Patently-O with a guest editorial on why Barack Obama is good for the patent system.Some comments:For example, requiring disclosure of prior art by applicants (who presumably know a lot about their area of invention) might seem sensible...

"Inadvertent plagiarism" rage continues

Posted on August 04, 2008
I apologise to all my readers. I didn't do this intentionally. At the time I wrote I didn't really think citations were necessary. t didn't cross my mind that I was doing something wrongAlthough it sounds a bit like Glen Poshard's defense to his plagiarized Ph...

Video with Justice Samuel Alito

Posted on August 04, 2008
Pepperdine has a video involving Justice Alito.The video also includes Judge Michael McConnell, a conservative who greatly assisted the career of Barack Obama. McConnell noted of Obama:"To understand what someone else is trying to say isn't just an editorial skill...

Dell gets "notice of allowance" for trademark on cloud computing

Posted on August 04, 2008
PCWorld/WashingtonPost discuss information on the USPTO site indicating that the trademark "cloud computing" has received a notice of allowance. The applicant is Dell Inc. of Round Rock, Texas.The mark has serial number 77139082[TARR]. The class scope is described:Design of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; customization of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; design and development of networks for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; Consulting services for data centers and mega-scale computing environments in the fields of design, selection, implementation, customization and use of computer hardware and software systems for others; Consulting services for data centers and mega-scale computing environments in the fields of design, selection, implementation, customization and use of computer hardware and software systems for others...

CIRM's relationship to Remcho law firm

Posted on August 03, 2008
Californiastemcellreport discussed issues with CIRM's use of the Remcho law firm.As a separate matter, one wonders if those folks know anything about intellectual property.See alsohttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/07/tamar-pachter-quits-cirm.html

Major step with iPS cells

Posted on August 03, 2008
The Boston Globe referenced a paper by Kevin Eggan and co-workers in Science: Eggan and his colleagues created iPS cells from skin cells taken from an 82-year-old ALS patient, then prompted the stem cells to become motor neurons, the type of cells that die off in ALS...

Microsoft ripped in RCT v. Microsoft (CAFC)

Posted on August 02, 2008
The conclusion in Research Corporation Technologies [RCT] v. Microsoft states:Because the trial court incorrectly held RCT's patents unenforceable due to inequitable conduct, this court reverses that holding and vacates the award of attorney fees. We also vacate the trial court's grant of Microsoft's noninfringement and invalidity motions as well as the grants of Microsoft's motions in limine...

Having an offer does not guarantee having a job

Posted on August 02, 2008
The Jobfinder section of the Newark Star-Ledger has an article titled "Job Insecurity" which beginsGrandmothers always have advised not to count your chickens until they hatch. In today's economy, the wise among us have a new pearl of wisdom: don't assume you have a job just because you received a job offer...

Patent angle at bottom of anthrax scare?

Posted on August 02, 2008
The Los Angeles Times reports:Bruce E. Ivins, the government biodefense scientist linked to the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, stood to gain financially from massive federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings, the Los Angeles Times has learned...

Howard Berman and patent reform

Posted on August 02, 2008
The article contains the text:When Berman first began working on patent reform several years ago, he was surprised at how strong the passions were for these arcane matters of "apportionment of damages," "post-grant review," and "defense of inequitable conduct," he said, adding that it quickly became clear that a bipartisan effort would be needed to advance the initiative...

Preliminary injunction denied in Novo Nordisk case

Posted on July 31, 2008
The CAFC noted: In this case, the district court denied the preliminary injunction because the patentee failed to show a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits. (...) After reviewing the intrinsic record, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion...

PubPat still getting it wrong in its Tafas brief

Posted on July 31, 2008
Further to the IPBiz post PubPat, Consumer WatchDog get it wrong in Tafas brief, one commenter pointed to the illogic manifested in the Ravicher quotations of Lemley/Moore's "Ending Abuse":Maybe its true that bad claims are allowed after multiple continuations, but does any patent examiner or patent prosecutor really think "wearing down" examiners really occurs? The count system encourages the opposite behavior...

PubPat, Consumer WatchDog get it wrong in Tafas brief

Posted on July 31, 2008
The "public interest" amicus brief on the Tafas case includes citations to the Lemley/Moore law review in BULR ("Ending Abuse...")page 12-->it is impossible for an examiner to ever actually finally reject a patent application so long as the applicant has sufficient financial resources to keep paying for continuation applications...

Relenza as good as Tamiflu

Posted on July 31, 2008
Bloomberg reports on 31 July: Daiichi Sankyo Co.'s longer-acting version of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's flu drug, Relenza, was as effective as a course of Tamiflu, a patient study found.The safety and efficacy of a single dose of the inhaled medicine was ``statistically indistinguishable'' from a twice-a- day dose of Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu taken for five days, said Melbourne-based Biota Holdings Ltd...

The muse strikes twice

Posted on July 31, 2008
Patently-O had a recent post on the "simultaneous invention" factor, which evoked the Lemley-ism found in the March 08 New York Times ("Edison"). Note text from Editor&Publisher in the recent [alleged] plagiarism case involving a political cartoon:Jim Hope was accused, in a cartoon submitted July 22, of nearly copying a July 21 cartoon by Nate Beeler of the Washington Examiner...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.