Patent Law

CAFC decision in Qualcomm/Broadcom on Oct. 14

Posted on October 15, 2008
On October 14, Judge Rader wrote an opinion in the Qualcomm/Broadcom matter which determined:#1. Broadcom's '983 patent is NOT invalid.#2. There is NO direct infringement by Qualcomm.#3. Because the ITC misapplied the standard for induced infringement, the CAFC issued a vacate and remand...

Salaries of coaches at public schools

Posted on October 15, 2008
In previous posts, IPBiz has noted that Rutgers football coach Schiano is the highest paid NJ state employee.At Kansas State, an ASSISTANT coach has a comparable base salary to Schiano's -->That would be Wildcats assistant Dalonte Hill, Beasley's former AAU coach in the Washington, D...

"Can law students get away with plagiarism?"

Posted on October 15, 2008
One expected the article in the Times-online titled Can law students get away with plagiarism? to have a line, Ask Joe Biden, but it didn't.Instead, author Rebecca Attwood had textThe reseachers of Plagiarism in UK Law Schools: is there a postcode lottery? found that staff are unable to agree on the dividing line between poor academic practice and misconduct, cases of plagiarism are going unrecorded, and as well as wide variations in plagiarism regulations there is a willingness among some staff to depart from their institution?s official procedures...

14-year-old newspaper column becomes prior art in patent litigation

Posted on October 15, 2008
GraniteGeek of the Nashua Telegraph illustrates how a newspaper article can become prior art in a patent litigation. It also illustrates (as does the Ciba-Geigy v. Alza case) that enablement standards for prior art can be looser than for patent applications...

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Plagiarism whimsy?

Posted on October 14, 2008
from msnbc-->Republicans reacted by, for the first time, invoking the scandal that ended Biden's 1988 presidential campaign, saying that the Democrats' plan "mirrors the proposals that President Hoover implemented at the onset of the Great Depression...

Californiastemcellreport finally getting it?

Posted on October 14, 2008
In a post titled CIRM's financial immunity, californiastemcellreport finally shows signs of waking up to reality:Nonetheless, it is likely to appear a bit unseemly to a good segment of the public for the stem cell agency to hand out tens of millions of dollars while California is so hard pressed that it may have to ask the federal government for a $7 billion short term loan so that it can pay its bills...

The real problem with patents and the IT industry?

Posted on October 13, 2008
A blog post at ZDNet contains the following text:Another register correspondent later reported on his efforts to get the Open University and the IEEE, which had published the offending paper in IEEE Software (a prestigious, peer reviewed, academic journal) to either defend or modify their actions, but essentially got stonewalled on the gibberish and relevancy issues - and could get the IEEE to move no further than a weak acknowledgment that:? this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE?s Publication Principles...

Judge Michel on state of the USPTO

Posted on October 13, 2008
Intellectual Property Watch discussed a talk by Judge Michel on 6 Oct. 08.The pliability of grant rate numbers was noted-->?It?s very suspicious to me? that the allowance rate - or applications accepted - was 78 percent a few years ago and is now around 40 percent, Michel said at a BNA/ABA intellectual property patent law conference in Washington...

Symbian case to open floodgates to software patents in UK?

Posted on October 13, 2008
A recent Court of Appeal decision in the UK suggests that so-called "software" patents may become more prevalent in the UK, and that UK policy may conform more closely to that of the EPO.A blog noted:The Court of Appeal has refused to accept the UK Intellectual Property Office's rejection of a patent for a piece of software in a move which experts say will open the door for more software patents in the UK...

CBS Sunday Morning on Obama race issue

Posted on October 12, 2008
The lead story on CBS's Sunday Morning on October 12, 2008 was how the (rarely mentioned) race issue will play out in the presidential campaign. This was noted to be a vexing issue, hiding in plain sight, and the electoral decision is unavoidably colored by race...

"The Perfect Storm of Patent Reform?'

Posted on October 12, 2008
UC/Davis will host on Nov. 7 a panel titled: The Perfect Storm of Patent Reform? Panelists include:Barbara Caulfield, partner, Dewey & LeBeouf, East Palo AltoColleen Chien, assistant professor of law, Santa Clara UniversityMark Lemley, professor of law, Stanford UniversityDoug Luftman, associate general counsel, intellectual property, Palm Inc...

Constantine sues Columbia University

Posted on October 10, 2008
Clinical psychology professor Madonna G. Constantine, fired by Columbia University on June 23, argues in papers filed October 10 in New York state Supreme Court (trial court) that her discharge was arbitrary, irrational and unauthorized.See also Constantine fired by Columbia on June 23 http://ipbiz...

The Recorder on Immersion's litigation strategies

Posted on October 10, 2008
Law.com on Immersion:Observers say Immersion's era of aggressive litigation and licensing was a success. In defending its patents on "haptic" technology for applying touch sensation and control to computer programs, the company beat Sony, got money out of Microsoft, and has signed up medical, car and cell phone companies for patent licenses...

Bodog scalped by CAFC

Posted on October 09, 2008
The First Technology/Bodog patent matter came to a simple end in a terse, non-precedential opinion affirming the judgment that Bodog loses. Foley & Lardner represented Bodog.IPBiz has been covering the case, which has evoked allegations of patent troll-ism:Bodog and 1st Technologies contest patentMore on First Technology and BodogPatent trolls to be scalped?Of the last post, recall the text-->As a separate piece of trivia, the first Congressional investigation ever conducted pertained to the Battle of Beaver Dams in which Americans (led by the first U...

Outsourcing again

Posted on October 09, 2008
The Economic Times of India noted: The US slowdown has kicked off a heated debate in the US legal circles. At the heart of debate is a recent notice by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) barring companies who send information overseas regarding inventions and patents without government clearance...

Charles Greenwood and the HumanCar

Posted on October 08, 2008
Supposedly can go 60 mph. At $15,000, a real steal, and you can use it to generate electricity for your home, too. [which might make sense, provided food is less costly than gasoline in the dystopic future.]In the near term, more likely to appear in a sequel to "Mad Max" than at your neighborhood store.

"Unhappy with the Ex parte Appeal Rule? Read This Now"

Posted on October 08, 2008
The following is an article by Dr. Richard B. Belzer (former White House staff economist)-->BACKGROUNDToday the PTO published a notice in the Federal Register inviting public comments on paperwork burdens associated with the Ex parte Appeal Rule (73 Fed...

Adipose-derived stem cells

Posted on October 08, 2008
MarketWatch reported on 8 Oct 08: A Notice of Allowance was issued to the University of California by the United States Patent & Trademark Office ("USPTO") for composition of matter claims pending in a patent application licensed by Cytori Therapeutics ...

On walking the [scaffold] plank

Posted on October 08, 2008
In an earlier post, IPBiz made reference to the "scaffold plank incident" (a story used to illustrate business ethics) and the ironic situation that an on-line company was selling papers on the "scaffold plank incident".In a separate twist, IPBiz notes that the "scaffold plank incident" is taught on Semester at Sea, the drinking cruise that expelled Allison Routman of Ohio University for copying fragments of three sentences from wikipedia...

Reviewing the value of old patents?

Posted on October 07, 2008
IPBiz ran across a review ("community patent review") template for an old, not-so-good, patent (4250057)

Oddly named chemical suppliers

Posted on October 07, 2008
How about "Armageddon Chemical Company", with a "trademark" of a mushroom cloud?Or Butt Park or AnalTech? Lawyers lack such naming skills.

IAM features Bessen/Meurer (again)

Posted on October 07, 2008
from IAM -->The new issue of IAM is now available on-line to the magazine?s subscribers. The cover story focuses on Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk. Written by James Bessen and Michael Meurer, the book has attracted a great deal of attention across the world because of its central message; namely, that the US patent system is failing to incentivise innovation and, in fact, is actually acting as a disincentive to the inventive process...

CIGS: the next big thing in solar?

Posted on October 07, 2008
Technology involving photovoltaics comprising copper indium gallium diselenide [CIGS] was hyped in WIRED.For one patent, note US 7,306,823 [Nanosolar], issued on 11 Dec. 07, with first claim-->A method for fabricating coated nanoparticles, comprising the steps of: obtaining core nanoparticles containing one or more elements from group IB and/or IIIA and/or VIA and coating the core nanoparticles with one or more layers of metal from group IB, IIIA or an element from group VIA in a controlled fashion such that the resulting coated nanoparticles have a desired stoichiometric ratio of elements, wherein the core nanoparticles contain copper...

McCain science advisers: two guys and a dog?

Posted on October 07, 2008
The 26 Sept 08 issue of Science presents the winners in the 2008 visualization challenge. First place went to "The Glass Forest" which comprised an image of the diatom Lcimophora ehrenbergii on a marine invertebrate Eudendrium racemosum.The 26 Sept 08 issue of Science reports that descendants of the Galapagos Floreana tortoise, once thought extinct, is alive and well on Isabela...

Great moments in chemistry at the CAFC

Posted on October 07, 2008
Cohesive Technologies v. Waters-->Waters argues that the specific disclaimer of divinylbenzene should suffice to disclaim the polymers in the particles of the 30 ?m columns, because those particles are ?made from 80% divinylbenzene.? Br. of Defendant-Cross Appellant Waters Corp...

Delaware as a slave state?

Posted on October 07, 2008
IPBiz ran across this comment related to Joe Biden:Biden stepped into further controversy along racial lines when he responded to a question about his viability in conservative Southern states by claiming, inaccurately, that his home state, Delaware, "was a slave state" in the early days of the republic...

Verizon loses its infringement case against Cox Communications

Posted on October 07, 2008
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided against Verizon in its infringement suit against Cox Communications concerning claims within six patents.Mike Masnick discussed the Vonage/Verizon case in the context of Verizon's loss to Cox:So, with those patents, Verizon began suing -- and it started with the lame duck in the VoIP space: Vonage...

TiVo's win against Dish/EchoStar sticks

Posted on October 06, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle reported: TiVo's patent battle with Dish Network Corp. turned in favor of the Alviso company Monday [Oct. 6, 2008] when the Supreme Court declined to take up Dish Network's appeal, forcing the satellite television company to pay $104 million in damages.

Who can you believe?

Posted on October 06, 2008
On Oct. 6, bizjournals noted:And on Friday, Sept. 26, a ?silent run? began on Wachovia?s deposits, as borrowers drew down on lines of credit and depositors removed funds from their accounts, the suit states.The company?s ability to borrow from other banks was also compromised as the price of credit-default swaps ? the insurance products that lenders need to cover the risk of lending to Wachovia ? began to soar...

Aventis smokes Impax at CAFC on riluzole case

Posted on October 06, 2008
Impax, represented by Kenyon & Kenyon, appealed a decision of Judge Farnan of D. Del. to the CAFC, and lost. In the case, issues of enablement of an asserted prior art patent, US 5,236,940, were argued.Impax had asserted that the '940 anticipated claims 1-5 of U...

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