Patent Law

People with bad feelings about IP matters?

Posted on May 31, 2008
On the topic, [Docket No. PTO-T-2007-0051] RIN 0651-AC18 Changes in RulesRegarding Filing Trademark Correspondence by Express Mail or Under aCertificate of Mailing or Transmission, IPBiz was cited concerning the McKenna incident in Chicago:In December 2006, a disgruntled former client shot a patent attorney in Chicago, alleging he had been cheated in connection with a patent application...

"Ethanol Boom Heralds Changes in Brazil"

Posted on May 31, 2008
The 29 May 08 issue of "The Epoch Times" sub-leads with "For sugar cane growers, old customs may fade away was world demand [for ethanol] rises."The article notes that Brazil's largest sugar/ethanol group [Cosan] bought some Exxon/Mobil assets in April 2008...

When a figure is bad in a patent application.

Posted on May 31, 2008
An article on Ex parte Khan (concerning nanoparticles of MoO3) stated:The Board agreed that "a picture is worth 1000 words."(23) Pictures are invaluable tools to depict what the invention is all about. However, here it harmed the patent application. As a matter of fact, the Board visualized more "needle-like" nanoparticles in the Fig...

Just-n-examiner on apologies and 35 USC 101

Posted on May 31, 2008
from just-n-examiner:Another instance where I get the urge to issue an apology has to do with 101 rejections. For a while, the guidance that we were receiving on the interpretation of 101 was, um, evolving.I'd send out a 101 rejection, and by the time the amendment came back, the Office's position on 101 interpretation had changed...

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PatentHawk chomps Myhrvold

Posted on May 31, 2008
The patenthawk blog takes a bite out of Nathan Myhrvold in a post titled Defensive, which in turn derives from a post on webware titled Nathan Myhrvold at D6: Don't call me a patent troll which in turn comes from an interview of Myhrvold by Walt Mossberg at D6...

An Illinois high school does what SIU didn't do about plagiarism

Posted on May 31, 2008
The Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois School District 203's superintendent moved to reassign Naperville Central High School Principal Jim Caudill next school year, while student Steve Su is being asked to return his valedictorian's medal, after each plagiarized portions of speeches they gave during commencement events last week, the district announced Thursday, May 29...

The pot and the kettle are both black: Mee vs. Dow

Posted on May 30, 2008
The patenthawk blog has a post about Dow vs. Mee Industries. In that post, Dow does not look too good.Contemplate however a ruling in March 2008 in Mee Industries vs. Dow Chemical, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24405 (MD Fl (Orlando)):In its motion, Dow objects to Mee's efforts to evade the page count limits...

HR 5638: crash parts and patents

Posted on May 30, 2008
Further to an earlier IPBiz post [Design patents and the costs of auto repairs], note H.R. 5638, which states that, ?It shall not be an act of infringement to make, use, offer to sell, or sell within the United States or import into the United States any article of manufacture that itself constitutes a component part of another article of manufacture, if the sole purpose of the component part is for the repair of the article of manufacture of which it is a part so as to restore its original appearance...

Story of Schundler campaign in New Jersey

Posted on May 30, 2008
Within the story:Franks and the McCain PlaybookWith the old campaign dynamics radically altered, Schundler's strategy essentially remained the same. He continued to pound the same issues - his Jersey City record, taxes, education and "those darn tolls" - and would steadily drop Leonardo's mail pieces promoting them...

Boston Scientific gets whacked for $250 million in ED Texas

Posted on May 29, 2008
In yet another chapter in the stent patent wars, a jury in Marshall, Texas (ED Texas) has awarded Medtronic damages of $250 million for patent infringement by Boston Scientific.Mass High Tech reported: The U.S. District Court jury in Marshall, Texas, found that certain Boston Scientific balloon catheters and stent delivery systems infringe on patents held by Minnesota-based Medtronic, and that the patents are valid...

Stem cell companies to prosper under Democrats?

Posted on May 28, 2008
Seekingalpha has a post: 10 Biotechs in Stem Cells that Could Profit Under the Democrats, which includes the text: Pay particular notice to management - a bad management team can destroy a good product.IPBiz notes lots of VCs pay more attention to management than to invention...

Patent case management

Posted on May 28, 2008
Lawyers on the Advisory Board for the "Patent Case Management Judicial Guide":-- Kenneth R. Adamo of Jones Day, Cleveland -- Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella, Los Angeles -- John M. Desmarais of Kirkland & Ellis, New York -- William F. Lee of WilmerHale, Boston -- Mark Lemley of Keker & Van Nest, San Francisco -- Roderick McKelvie of Covington & Burling, Washington, D...

Carbon dioxide transformation and sequestration

Posted on May 28, 2008
Carbon Sciences announced filing of a PCT application based upon an earlier nonprovisional filing of US 11/749,741. The technology concerns a method for carbon dioxide transformation and sequestration.See also http://www.carbonsciences.com.

Lincoln at Gettysburg on 19 Nov. 1863

Posted on May 27, 2008
In the realm of obviousness (and KSR v. Teleflex), things that might seem obvious to one person are not necessarily obvious to another. Take the location of "where" Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. One might think that that one was nailed down a long time ago...

Which way is California going in education?

Posted on May 27, 2008
Although californiastemcellreport, and other sites, discuss how Proposition 71 is causing an INFLUX of talent INTO California, a report on NBC Nightly News on May 26 by Rehema Ellis ("Class Struggles") illustrated how budgetary shortfalls in school budgets in California are causing an exodus of qualified teachers FROM California...

Canseco and Sikahema

Posted on May 27, 2008
Vai Sikahema, author of "Rutgers is Wrong," is now tangling with Jose Canseco, author of Juiced:Jose Canseco, because things are going so well for him these days, has been looking for someone to go toe-to-toe with him in a celebrity (and I use that term very, very loosely) boxing match...

Cases on "failure to disclose" by patent applicants

Posted on May 27, 2008
The topic of inequitable conduct by drug companies, highlighted in an April 2008 NYT piece by Robert Pear, shows up in the recent Aventis case, discussed in some detail by Patent Docs.In the Aventis case, plaintiff-appellant Aventis was represented by Donald R...

Inter partes re-exam: merely an adjunct to litigation?

Posted on May 27, 2008
The 271 blog writes: recent research strongly suggests that Inter Partes Reexamination has become "an augmentation of litigation strategy rather than an alternative" (more than half (52%) of patents in inter partes re-exams are known to be in litigation during that time)...

J. R. Simplot

Posted on May 27, 2008
The patenthawk blog notes the death of French fry guy J.R. Simplot of Idaho. IPBiz noted the death in June 2007 of Edwin Traisman, who got a key 1962 patent on frozen French fries.Seehttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/06/la-times-obit-on-edwin-traisman.html

Solar cells for iPhone

Posted on May 27, 2008
PhonesReview evaluates Apple's application and asks: has Apple filed a good enough patent [application]?See for example, published application 20080094025, Solar cells on portable devices.****The Des Moines Register notes: Des Moines-based Aviva USA received a patent last week for a process the life insurance company uses to assess and reduce risk involved with indexed universal life insurance products...

On usptoexaminers.com

Posted on May 25, 2008
The patenthawk blog has come comments about usptoexaminers.com.IPBiz made some comments a while back. Snore.

Desperately seeking Yamanaka on CIRM award page

Posted on May 24, 2008
As a headsup to californiastemcellreport, if one searches the page on the CIRM website titled "Awards and applications approved for funding" for the word --Yamanaka--, one won't find anything.See alsoDid Yamanaka "accept a grant" from CIRM in August 2007?Facts, relied upon, must be verified, when challenged

Yes, Virginia, patent reform 2008 is really dead

Posted on May 24, 2008
More than one month after the IPBiz post Stick a fork in it: patent reform 2008 is done, various news entities have figured out patent reform 2008 is gone:HEATHER CHAMBERS, Patent Reform Now Unlikely in 2008[from San Diego, reporting site of Terri Somers]Dana Blankenhorn, Patent reform dead for 2008, which includes the dull-witted text:That?s because one of the act?s main aims was to end ?forum shopping,? the practice of filing lawsuits in, say, the Eastern District of Texas, which never saw a patent plaintiff it didn?t like...

Will VW shut down the patent biz of ED Texas?

Posted on May 24, 2008
VW got sued over a defective part in ED Texas, although the accident occurred in Dallas. VW tried to move the case to Dallas. Judge Ward said no, and VW appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.Bloomberg notes: U.S. District Judge T. John Ward, in rejecting Volkswagen's bid to have the case moved from his court in Marshall, said the choice made by Amy Singleton, the girl's mother, and two relatives who sued is of ``paramount consideration...

Coalition for Patent Fairness: do as I say, not as I do

Posted on May 24, 2008
In a post Patent Hypocrisy Patent Docs points out that some of the members of the Coalition for Patent Fairness [CFR] are on a "top 10" list of issued patents. This is not exactly a news flash. See also PatentHawk's Politically Correct.Back in March, no less an authority than Jon Dudas, Director of the USPTO, took a not so subtle jab at the IT folks, by making a remark about IBM's toilet queue patent, without referencing IBM by name...

Fundamentalists of Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado prevail

Posted on May 23, 2008
The AP reported:The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.The state agency responsible was the Child Protective Services agency.

Lemley as a big thinker...

Posted on May 23, 2008
In discussing the Transatlantic Information Law Symposium, Lawgarithms refers to the symposium as "featuring such big thinkers as Mark Lemley and Stefan Bechtold."Expresiounius writes:A few years ago Mark Lemley, at the time an Intellectual Property professor, made this exact metaphorical statement when he left "BerkeleyLaw" for Stanford...

US 7,375,802: quantum dots, spooky radar, and StarTrek

Posted on May 23, 2008
US 7,375,802, titled Radar systems and methods using entangled quantum particles includes a referenceQuantum Entanglement and Teleportation, http://www.cakes.mcmail.com/StarTrek/teleportation.htm., pp. 1-8, 2005. cited by otherand looks for enablement inA publication entitled "Entangled Microwaves From Quantum Dots" by C...

The illusory world of trade secret protection

Posted on May 23, 2008
In an article titled Inside Entrepreneurship: Patent protection isn't only option , SUSAN SCHRETER discusses the trade secret alternative to patenting in a favorable light. Quoting attorney Warren Rheaume, "Unlike patents, trade secret protection does not require inventors to publicly disclose the specific attributes of their innovations, which appeals to entrepreneurs who worry about educating their competitors...

More on Bessen/Meurer

Posted on May 22, 2008
In a post Maybe It Isn't Going to Get Much Better, Patent Docs discusses Bessen/Meurer.Patent Docs refers to Professor Wegner who questions some of the implausible numbers found in the Bessen/Meurer book:Further, Professor Wegner notes that when Eli Lilly and Company lost its patent on Prozac® in 2001, "its market cap dropped $36 billion in one day, roughly triple what the authors say is the annual profit for the entire pharmaceutical and chemistry industries in one year...

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