Patent Law

The issue of paying for human eggs to support SCNT

Posted on July 31, 2008
Californiastemcellreport has a post about an AP story on the issues related to payment to egg donors.LBE made a comment:To turn the guideline argument inside out, note that Hwang Woo Suk, in a footnote in his second paper in the journal Science, spoke of his compliance with the then-recently enacted guidelines in South Korea...

July 31, 1790: first US patent granted

Posted on July 31, 2008
July 31 is the anniversary of the first US patent, granted to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1790. See also What have non-technically trained lawyers contributed to IP law?Wired reports:Hopkins got his patent at New York City (then the national capital) July 31, complete with signature of President Washington...

An obstacle to examiners in referencing non-patent literature

Posted on July 31, 2008
In a 2004 report, WIPO had noted:At previous sessions, the Working Group had considered copyright issues raised by the international search and international preliminary examination procedure, in particular, the possibility that the making and sending, by the International Searching Authority, of copies of documents cited in the international search report, as provided by Article20(3) and Rule44...

Reality check for California and CIRM

Posted on July 30, 2008
New York's Governor Paterson noted on 29 July: "Our state now faces increasingly harsh economic times. When I travel across the state, I see communities suffering. Everywhere I go I see people losing their jobs and their homes. My message to the Legislature is that next year's budget process starts now...

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ConsumerWatchDog and PubPat: they're back

Posted on July 30, 2008
Fresh from their stinging defeat in the WARF patent re-examinations, ConsumerWatchDog and PubPat are back with a brief advocating reversal of ED Va in Tafas v. Dudas. MarketWatch writes:The groups joining in filing the Public Interest Amici brief are: The Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT"), AARPP, Computer & Communications Industry Association ("CCIA"), Consumer Watchdog (Formerly the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights), Essential Action, Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge ("I-MAK"), Prescription Access Litigation ("PAL"), Public Knowledge ("PK"), Research on Innovation ("ROI"), and Software Freedom Law Center ("SFLC")...

Margaret J.A. Peterlin leaving USPTO

Posted on July 30, 2008
A press release on 29 July from the USPTO notes: Margaret J.A. Peterlin, deputy under secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and deputy director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), has announced that she will be leaving the USPTO in August with plans to pursue employment opportunities in the private sector.

Does "culture of rejection" influence patent grant rates at USPTO?

Posted on July 29, 2008
Ocean Tomo people James Malackowski and Jonathan Barney made much of the declining grant rate at the USPTO, but made no comment on the "culture of rejection" at the USPTO. An op-ed/blog in Genetic Engineering began with the words: Virtually all of the problems of the U...

Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute confused?

Posted on July 28, 2008
In his post of 25 July 2008, Bob Park wrote:By now everyone has heard the news frenzy over Ronald Herberman, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, advising faculty and staff to limit cell phone use because there is no proof that it's not a cancer risk...

C&E News lays into Taleyarkhan

Posted on July 28, 2008
The first two paragraphs of the 28 July C & E News story stated:A Purdue University nuclear engineering professor, Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, who reported having achieved "tabletop" nuclear fusion by sonoluminescence, later falsely published claims that the study had been independently replicated, according to an academic committee investigating his research...

The metric of cited references in patent "quality" discussions

Posted on July 28, 2008
Of the comment on IPBiz on the Ocean Tomo article asserting an increase in patent quality, the IAM blog wrote:As far as I have seen, there have not been any other criticisms of the Malackowski and Barney piece yet; although ? to be fair ? there is a lot to digest in the article and a full critique will take time to produce...

Tamar Pachter quits CIRM

Posted on July 28, 2008
Californiastemcellreport notes that CIRM's general counsel has quit, and observed:The agency has retained outside counsel, Remcho, Johansen & Purcell of San Leandro, Ca., since 2005 at a cost exceeding $1 million. CIRM has at least three other attorneys, not including Pachter and Chairman Klein, who wrote much of Prop...

Endo sues Impax over oxymorphone HCl

Posted on July 28, 2008
The Philadelphia Business Journal reports: Hayward, Calif.-based Impax has applied to make a generic form of the pain drug known as Opana ER. Endo (NASDAQ:ENDP) and Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co., which make and sell Opana ER, sued Impax based on an amendment to that application...

Judge Ward of ED Texas authors CAFC opinion

Posted on July 28, 2008
T. John Ward, of ED Texas and sitting by designation, wrote the nonprecedential opinion in In re Stauffer.Although involving obviousness, and motivation to combine, the opinion relies on Dystar, 464 F.3d 1356, and not KSR. Substantial evidence comes up, and In re Jolley, 308 F...

Update on Kanzius cancer research

Posted on July 27, 2008
The Erie Times News (goerie.com) noted the following of research planning on the Kanzius effort:Steven Curley, M.D., visited Erie on Wednesday (23 July 08) and toured the Regional Cancer Center, Hamot Medical Center and Saint Vincent Health Center.The principal investigator for Kanzius? cancer-killing device at M...

Indian American Festival in Bridgewater in July 2008

Posted on July 27, 2008
The 9th Annual Indian American Festival was held in Bridgewater, NJ on 26-27 July 2008. It was sponsored by the Hindu Temple & Cultural Society of USA (Sri Venkateswara Temple (Balaji Mandir)).

"Playstation Wars", capacitors, and Lemley-isms

Posted on July 25, 2008
A story loosely titled "Playstation Wars" is making the rounds, suggesting that demand for Playstations has stoked a vicious war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The concept is de-bunked in a post What's All This "PlayStation Wars" Business?Most of the posts do not go into detail about what in Playstations is creating a demand from the metal tantalum, which can be refined from the ore coltan...

The dominance of RCE's and the Lemley/Moore conjecture

Posted on July 25, 2008
The Patently-O blog presents data showing the growth in RCEs as a total fraction of all continuing applications.The dominance of RCEs had been noted by LBE in a comment to the USPTO and in an article in JPTOS ["On the proposal to restrict continuing applications," 88 JPTOS 743 (2006)]In arguing FOR limitations on continuations, Lemley and Moore had written in Ending Abuse ...

Taleyarkhan appeals

Posted on July 24, 2008
AP reports: Purdue spokesman Joseph L. Bennett said Rusi Taleyarkhan informed the school Tuesday [July 22] that he will challenge a panel's findings that he engaged in two instances of research misconduct.See alsoPurdue report on Taleyarkhan finds misconduct on the smaller issuesUPDATE: Purdue prof files misconduct appeal

IP issue between 50 Cent and Taco Bell

Posted on July 24, 2008
AP reports: 50 Cent has sued Taco Bell, claiming the fast-food restaurant chain is using his name without permission in advertising that asks him to call himself 99 Cent.

Lex Luther on Ocean Tomo "Patent Quality" paper

Posted on July 24, 2008
Lex Luther trying to understand the logic of Ocean Tomo arguments.Lex Luther suggesting Ocean Tomo get to the point.

USPTO issues warning about outsourcing patent applications

Posted on July 24, 2008
The PatentHawk blog noted: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...

The Patent Quality Arguments of Ocean Tomo

Posted on July 23, 2008
IPBiz mentioned the paper of Ocean Tomo personnel James Malackowski and Jonathan Barney in posts on Sunday, July 13 and on Friday, July 18.The post of July 13 noted text by Joff Wild of IAM concerning an appropriate response to the Ocean Tomo paper from hypothetical critics-->However, what the critics would be better off doing is to read through the whole article very carefully to work out whether the research that the two authors have done is flawed...

Nokia beats Qualcomm in Germany

Posted on July 23, 2008
CNN reports:Nokia Corp. on 23 July 08 said a German court has ruled Qualcomm's GSM patent suit against it is invalid.This is the third court to conclude that Qualcomm's patent claims against Nokia are without merit, Nokia said.The United Kingdom High Court, and the U...

Nintendo loss in ED Texas

Posted on July 23, 2008
Bloomberg writes: Nintendo Co., the world's biggest maker of handheld game machines, is facing a ban on U.S. sales of some controllers for its Wii and GameCube systems after it lost a bid to overturn a $21 million patent-infringement verdict.U.S. District Judge Ron Clark in Lufkin, Texas, rejected Nintendo's request for a new trial in the case won by closely held Anascape Ltd...

Favre and the cell phone: plot line for a Law and Order?

Posted on July 23, 2008
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (via yahoonews):...Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an interesting bit of information in a piece he wrote about the quarterback today.McGinn writes that a source said Favre had continued to use a Packers-issued cell phone and that when the team checked the phone records it found ?repeated calls to coach Brad Childress and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell...

"Tissue of lies" patent litigation case tossed by SDNY

Posted on July 23, 2008
The 271blog discusses a problematic patent litigation under the headline: Patentee's Litigation Deemed "A Collosal Waste of Time"; Sanctions Granted with text from the decision:In a brazen demonstration of willfulness, AMC proceeded to trial without an expert, empanelling a jury for three days without even the remotest possibility of success on its infringement claim...

Purdue report on Taleyarkhan finds misconduct on the smaller issues

Posted on July 22, 2008
A report in Nature authored by Eugenie Samuel Reich on the most recent Purdue investigation of Rusi Taleyarkhan did assert misconduct on two smaller charges; Reich wrote:The report finds Taley­arkhan guilty of misconduct for citing a paper by junior researchers in his lab as if their work was an ?independent? replication of his own findings...

Appeal of Dr. Reddy's, Teva rejected in rabeprazole case

Posted on July 22, 2008
The CAFC affirmed the decision of SDNY in Eisai v. Dr. Reddy's and Teva, sending appellants Dr. Reddy's (represented by Budd Larner) and Teva (represented by Goodwin Procter) to the showers.The drug concerned was rabeprazole, which is part of a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors, which suppress gastric acid production by inhibiting action of the enzyme H+K+ATPase...

The deck chairs on the Titanic CIRM

Posted on July 22, 2008
Commenting on a "rearranging deck chairs" post on californiastemcellreport, LBE submitted the following:Although it is admirable that Mr. Simpson is concerned with the distinction between grant making (distributing the money of others) and grant receiving (using the money of others), the greater concern should be with "what is going to be done...

USPTO relies heavily on Chevron in its appeal brief in Tafas v. Dudas

Posted on July 22, 2008
Patently-O has a copy of the USPTO's appeal brief in Tafas v. Dudas.Of statutory authority:The USPTO?s principal source of patent rulemaking authority is 35 U.S.C. § 2(b)(2). Section 2(b)(2) authorizes the USPTO to ?establish regulations, not inconsistent with law, which shall govern the conduct of proceedings in the Office...

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