EFF Press Releases
Nov 11, 8:24 AM PST
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, will defend the Yes Men and other activists in a lawsuit filed against them by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over political criticism of the Chamber's stance on climate change legislation. In...
Against Monopoly
Nov 11, 8:16 AM PST
Microsoft obtained yesterday patent 7,617,530 , a "rights elevator": Systems and/or methods are described that enable a user to elevate his or her rights. In one embodiment, these systems and/or methods present a user interface identifying an account having a right to permit a...
The IPKat has long been puzzled that the complex web of rules relating to the registration of .eu domain names and their somewhat begrudging nod towards the recognition of the interests of trade mark owners has not been the subject of extensive litigation in Europe's national and Community...
IP Watch
Nov 11, 1:27 AM PST
The Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Edition features top news on international IP policymaking, the latest on who is coming and going in the international IP community, news briefs and more. The November edition is now available for subscribers.
Patent Docs
Nov 10, 9:59 PM PST
By Donald Zuhn -- With oral argument before the Supreme Court in In re Bilski now concluded, patent practitioners can begin to turn their attention toward the next big patent case awaiting oral argument: the Federal Circuit's en banc rehearing of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co....
Patent Prospector
Nov 10, 7:43 PM PST
Samsung has been stung by Sharp at the ITC over flat-panel LCD display patents. One of the Sharp patents in the case went to LCD brightness and refresh rate, and another to minimizing flickering. Samsung has brushed aside speculation about the ruling's impact, stating that it won't...
Patently-O
Nov 10, 2:55 PM PST
The video prominently features BU law professor and economist Michael Meurer whose book Patent Failure (with Jim Bessen) uses economic analysis to make the case that patents (particularly software patents) are a net drag on innovation. The video is purely one-sided.
IP Watch
Nov 10, 9:24 AM PST
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) has denied two farmers’ advocacy organisations observer status to its governing Council on grounds that they have not demonstrated expertise relevant to the intergovernmental body’s work, stirring concern that...
Technology & Marketing Law
Nov 10, 11:50 AM PST
By Eric Goldman I recently got the following email from David Gingras, the relatively new General Counsel of the Ripoff...
IPWatchdog Patent
Nov 9, 11:00 PM PST
The highlights: for this argument, the general admission line formed before midnight on Sunday! Only the 1st 40-50 of the 300+ people in line were admitted. The rest of the seats were taken by press, court members, and those with reservations. So, it was, even in the world of the Supreme...
IP Watch
Nov 10, 7:33 AM PST
The European Generic medicines Association today issued a call for criminal sanctions rather than technology to stem the flow of counterfeit drugs. This will stop counterfeiters, not bar-codes, said Antonyia Parvanova, a member of the European Parliament, according to an EGA press release...
IP Watch
Nov 10, 5:54 AM PST
A compromise was found last week between the European Parliament and European Council on “internet access safeguards” in the last remaining open issue in the European Union telecommunications package, according to the Parliament. But public interest concerns remain that...
The IPKat has just been reading some fascinating data which has been issued on behalf of London and Milton Keynes-based law firm EMW Picton Howell . According to this release, headed "Court disputes over Intellectual Property jump 33% in the last year", we learn the following:...
IPKat
Nov 10, 12:11 AM PST
The IPKat has been running a poll on the four candidates in the running for the next President of the EPO (mentioned in previous posts here and here ). The Administrative Council couldn't decide, so the IPKat decided to leave the poll running for another week. After 282 votes the final results...
Patent Docs
Nov 9, 9:50 PM PST
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The highest form of tea leaf-reading is guessing how the Supreme Court will rule based on oral argument. Yet occasionally the Court's questioning suggests general trends and tendencies, and today's argument in Bilski v. Kappos may be one of those times. The claims at...
Patent Docs
Nov 9, 9:01 PM PST
By Christopher P. Singer -- As reported a few weeks ago, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a pre-OG Notice regarding the way it will docket requests for continued examination (RCE) beginning on November 15, 2009. For any RCE that is filed on or after that date, the...
Patent Baristas
Nov 9, 7:54 PM PST
It is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good. ~...
Patently-O
Nov 9, 6:47 PM PST
Bilski v. Kappos (Supreme Court 2009) (oral arguments) The transcript from the hour-long oral arguments are available online here . The following is the five-minute version of the questions and statements that I found most interesting. They are a bit out-of-order. JUSTICE SCALIA: Well, if the...
EFF Press Releases
Nov 9, 4:26 PM PST
EFF has big news in our long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) battle over telecom lobbying documents: the government will finally release some additional records this week. This
Patently-O
Nov 9, 1:50 PM PST
As she has done with past cases, Jill Browning provides the following same-day analysis of the Supreme Court oral arguments in Bilski v. Kappos. By Jill Browning The Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed the Patent Office's decision that the applicant's claims directed to a method of...
• $1.26 Billion Reprieve for PepsiCo - On Friday a Wisconsin judge vacated the $1.26 billion judgment in default against PepsiCo (see last week’s AmeriKat letter here ). PepsiCo stated that they were now looking forward to defending the case. • “There’s a suit for that” - AT&T has filed a...
IP Watch
Nov 9, 9:37 AM PST
During the most recent negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Seoul, Korea on 4-6 November, about which no information is available, US industry and public interest groups issued statements taking widely divergent positions on progress of the talks.
Patently-O
Nov 9, 8:05 AM PST
By Professor John Duffy The last two decades have seen an extraordinary growth in the number of patent applications for business technologies and methods. Critics of business method patents tend to assign responsibility for this development to judicial activism by the judges of the...
IP Watch
Nov 9, 7:34 AM PST
Martin Khor, executive director of the intergovernmental South Centre on critical issues facing the global South related to intellectual property - such as climate change, and the challenge of global IP infrastructure - and what the South Centre’s plans are to address them.
IPWatchdog Patent
Nov 8, 11:00 PM PST
Later today the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Bilski matter. It is not an overstatement to say that the fate of much future innovation rests squarely on the Supreme Court getting this one right, so lets hope for the best and pray that they do get this one right. There is...
Stanford Professor Mark Lemley is probably the most prolific academic writer on IP at the moment. In his latest (well, latest when I hit post – it might well be his second latest paper by the time the post is published) paper, he takes an empirical look at US patent examination. For the paper, he...
Patent Docs
Nov 8, 9:28 PM PST
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases, and a few interesting cases will be selected for periodic monitoring. Novartis AG et al. v. Apotex Inc. et al. 1:09-cv-06950; filed November 4, 2009 in the Northern...
Patently-O
Nov 8, 12:12 PM PST
Novo Nordisk v. Caraco Pharma (Fed. Cir. 2009) Unlike most interlocutory orders, the grant or denial of preliminary injunctive relief may be immediately appealed. A district court only awards preliminary injunctive relief after determining that the moving party is likely to win on the...
No-one ever died of a question but, the IPKat says, there are an awful lot of questions hanging over European trade mark law right now -- and they've just been added to. On 22 May, in Interflora, Inc. Interflora British Unit v Marks and Spencer PLC Flowers Direct Online Limited [2009] EWHC...
IPWatchdog Patent
Nov 6, 11:00 PM PST
I have been an ardent supporter of first to invent for years, but I have been questioning my views for some time, as I speak with attorneys, inventors and others. Then several things recently caused me to realize the benefits of first to file for the independent inventor community, and then I...
Patent Docs
Nov 6, 9:54 PM PST
On Monday, November 9, 2009, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in In re Bilski, and two CLE providers plan to offer same day or next day coverage of the proceedings. Practising Law Institute (PLI) will be offering same day coverage on its Patent Practice Center blog...
IPWatchdog Patent
Nov 5, 11:00 PM PST
There were many, including myself, who wondered what direction the Patent Office would take under new leadership, and while it is early to give a grade, if we are going to be honest and give an interim report card the only fair grade to give at this point is an A. From top to bottom...
Patent Prospector
Nov 6, 2:59 PM PST
Inventors and small companies, flush with money burning a hole in their pockets, regularly file an excess of crappy patent applications. Belatedly recognizing this inviolable fact, the patent office now promises to shoot you in the head faster if you'll shoot yourself in the foot first. Under...
IP Watch
Nov 6, 11:10 AM PST
World Trade Organization members reached agreement today to recommend extension of a moratorium on customs duties on electronic commerce, and a moratorium on challenging other WTO members under intellectual property rules for actions not in violation of the WTO, according to a...
Patently-O
Nov 6, 8:34 AM PST
In a recent posting on Patently-O , I asked for advice on whether it is a better practice to use a generic preamble (e.g., "A method comprising") versus a more detailed preamble (e.g., "A method for content selection of digital media stored in a memory…., the...
Technology & Marketing Law
Nov 6, 7:17 AM PST
By Eric Goldman Parts Geek LLC v. US Auto Parts Network Inc.,3:2009cv05578 (D.N.J. complaint filed Nov. 2, 2009) [warning: 3MB...
There's something new-ish on the IPKat's sidebar: a blogroll of weblogs which are in some way or other connected with the IPKat or its various authors. To his slight alarm, the Kat notes that this feature, which comes as a standard Blogger gadget, has its own rather idiosyncratic approach towards...
Fans of The Beatles will recognize the title of this piece as a line from The Beatles’ song “You Can’t Do That” -- and that is exactly what EMI’s labels, including Capitol Records, told BlueBeat.com when it filed a federal lawsuit against them in the US on Tuesday. EMI filed the copyright infringement...
CDT: PolicyBeta
Nov 5, 3:46 PM PST
CDT and other advocates sent a letter to President Obama today once again urging greater transparency as the US negotiates a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ( ACTA ). While the administration has permitted some advocates (including my colleague David Sohn) to review...
EFF Press Releases
Nov 5, 2:39 PM PST
After a long two days of legislative battle, the House Judiciary Committee just finished its second day of debate on Chairman Conyers' PATRIOT reform bill, HR 3845 (see our wrap-up of the first day ). Thanks in no small part to those of you who used our action alert , the Committee rejected...
Some good folk would say that quite enough has already been said about Tuesday's Patents Court for England and Wales ruling of Mr Justice Floyd in Grimme Landmaschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG v Derek Scott (trading as Scotts Potato Machinery [2009] EWHC 2691...
Copyfight - The Politics of IP
Nov 5, 7:23 AM PST
...the Cartel are once again attempting to use law and regulation to control your home entertainment experience. Funny, it seems like just yesterday I was ranting about how they had stupidly misunderstood the value of PVRs . Oh, right, sorry, that was two days ago. Can't expect busy...
Against Monopoly
Nov 5, 6:39 AM PST
I heard about this first from Richard Corsale who directs us to this article about the ACTA . The highlights? Three strikes and you are out...the music companies would get to shut down anybody for any reason...The entire "negotiation" - read big media wish list - taking place under the guise of "secrecy...
IP Watch
Nov 5, 2:21 AM PST
As governments negotiating the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) meet in Seoul this week, public interest concern has surfaced over leaked information on internet enforcement.
Patent Docs
Nov 4, 9:31 PM PST
By Suresh Pillai -- Mayo Seeks Supreme Court Review in Prometheus Labs Case Following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's ruling that Prometheus Laboratories' method patents were valid under In re Bilski, the Mayo Clinic has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the...
IP Watch
Nov 4, 3:44 PM PST
BARCELONA - As a global climate change convention is being discussed in Barcelona, the US House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology scheduled a hearing on 5 November about the implications of large-scale climate intervention, also called...
IPWatchdog Patent
Nov 3, 11:00 PM PST
I will be in attendance at the oral argument, which will take place after a lunch recess. I will be joined by John White , the creator of the PLI Patent Bar Review Course and patent attorney with Berenato and White. My intention is to write and post throughout the day on Monday, leading up to the oral...
EFF Press Releases
Nov 4, 8:55 AM PST
San Francisco - Please join the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for a panel discussion on "The Future of DVD" at the Varnish Gallery in San Francisco on Monday, November 9, at 5:30 p.m. Panelists include Kaleidescape CEO Michael Malcolm, Real Networks Vice President and...
Patently-O
Nov 4, 7:12 AM PST
Imation v. Koninklijke Philips Electronics (Fed. Cir. 2009) At its heart, this case is simply one of contract interpretation. Philips and Imation (via 3M) had originally cross-licensed a set of patents relating to CD and DVD technology. The agreement expired in 2000, although the licenses...
IP Watch
Nov 4, 3:41 AM PST
A struggle over the power and reach of the World Intellectual Property Organization Development Agenda may be looming as members of the UN agency begin to take control of implementation with differing views. Key developing countries say members must not only focus on...
