Patent Law

Remember: S.1145 is off the calendar.

Posted on May 10, 2008
Newsflash to Laura Newpoff: of your text: There's also a looming Patent Reform Act in the U.S. Senate that, if passed, will drastically change the IP law landscape, the Senate already took S.1145 off the calendar. It isn't happening this year, and it isn't "looming...

Ex parte Fu and obviousness rejections over a genus

Posted on May 09, 2008
The 271 blog discusses the significance of the BPAI case Ex parte Fu to obviousness determinations, specifically as to the use of a genus to invalidate.

Invitrogen does deal with WARF on stem cell patents

Posted on May 09, 2008
You won't find it on californiastemcellreport, but California-based Invitrogen has signed a deal with Wisconsin-based WARF to license WARF patents in the stem cell area. A May 8 article in the North County Times stated:Invitrogen Corp. has deepened its involvement in the fast-growing field of embryonic stem cell research under a deal announced Thursday [May 8] with a holder of controversial patents to the technology...

Science manuscripts submitted to journals to be checked for plagiarism

Posted on May 09, 2008
from InformationToday :The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters (www.thomsonreuters.com) announced that it will be incorporating the iThenticate checking tool into its submission and peer-review process in Manuscript Central?s online workflow system...

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On the demise of the lobbying effort by the Coalition for Patent Fairness

Posted on May 09, 2008
In an article by John Letzing in MarketWatch titled Tech firms' millions get them a muddle on patent billReform bill pulled despite rich lobbying effort; a motley opposition, one has the text:Such [patent reform] legislation has now been pulled from the Senate's floor schedule, according to a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev...

John McCain's advisors on legal policy

Posted on May 09, 2008
The hotline of the national journal discusses the members of the Justice Advisory Committee of John McCain. The list of members includes current senators Sam Brownback and Jon Kyl, both of whom earlier urged caution on the patent reform bill in the Senate...

Surf's up for stem cell scientists; San Diego to spend $40 million in faculty recruitment

Posted on May 09, 2008
In an article titled State stem cell agency awards $271 million in grants, Terri Somers discusses an award by CIRM of $271 million in grants to 12 institutes. She particularly emphasizes a $43 million grant to the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine for the construction of a building in Torrey Pines, in the San Diego area...

More on issue with BPAI judges

Posted on May 06, 2008
ADAM LIPTAK of the NYT discusses Duffy's law review article on the appointments clause in a piece titled:In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges A blog at usatoday cited the NYT article, multiplying its impact.http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/constitutional...

Law&Order does mortgage crisis, trade secrets

Posted on May 06, 2008
Subthemes in the May 6 Law & Order SVU (with Stephen Collins) involved trade secrets (on buying a coffee plantation) and the mortgage crisis (bribing a juror who faced homelessness).In the end, in this one, the lawyer did it.

Albert Einstein and the Swiss patent office

Posted on May 03, 2008
Of Mike's comment on blogging/invention:Care to comment on what happened in the Netherlands and Switzerland in the 1800s when both countries went without a patent system?Gee, Mike, I already did. Is Alzeheimer's setting in? That "myth" was taken apart long ago...

Patent reform: doing the same thing repeatedly?

Posted on May 02, 2008
From a discussion of Oreos in China: Back then, Kraft was selling the U.S. version of Oreos in China. Albert Einstein's definition of insanity -- doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results -- "characterized what we were doing," says Mr...

Apple patent application on videoconferencing

Posted on May 02, 2008
US published application 20080100693, titled Method, System, and Graphical User Interface for Making Conference Calls, first claim: A computer-implemented method, comprising:establishing a first communication link between a first party and a user in response to a first action by the user;displaying a first image corresponding to the first party at an intensity that is greater than a threshold;while the first communication link is ongoing, establishing a second communication link between a second party and the user in response to a second action by the user;switching the user from the first communication link to the second communication link;while continuing to display the first image, displaying a second image corresponding to the second party; andvisually highlighting the second image so as to facilitate visual differentiation of the first and second images...

P&G sues J&J over tooth strips in WD Wisc

Posted on May 02, 2008
Reuters reports:The lawsuit, filed on May 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, alleges that the Listerine strips infringe P&G patents related to the tooth whitening active ingredient and delivery systems.P&G has asked the court to stop J&J and its company, McNeil-PPC, from making, selling, and importing allegedly infringing products...

Blogging as a model for invention?

Posted on May 01, 2008
The blog overcomingbias has an entry of relevance to inventors, as well as to bloggers:So where will blog posts fit in? While most academic papers and books are long, many ideas worthy of academic attention can be clearly explained in a short blog post...

Accused plagiarist Pukas gets reprimand

Posted on May 01, 2008
KIRA GOLDENBERG of theday wrote:The Board of Education late Wednesday [April 30] reprimanded Superintendent of Schools Natalie J. Pukas for allegedly plagiarizing a document distributed to the board in February.In a press release issued around midnight after a marathon executive session, the board announced the reprimand and said it considers the matter closed...

NY Times on patent reform, inequitable conduct

Posted on April 30, 2008
Within a New York Times article titled Patent Law Battle a Boon to Lobbyists, one finds the recent argument by Jon Dudas:Jon W. Dudas, the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property, said: ?We are getting more and more unpatentable ideas, worse and worse quality applications...

New database of Australian patent applications

Posted on April 30, 2008
Marcus Browne of zdnet notes on May 1:The AusPat database, launched this week as part of a joint initiative between the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) and IP Australia, will allow researchers and the innovation industry to crosscheck patent applications with records dating back as far as 1979...

Patent law "survived" Edison?

Posted on April 29, 2008
Text by Brad Smith of Microsoft:And none of us claim to have anything even remotely approaching all of the answers, but as we thought more about this it struck us that a few things may be pertinent. And one is what we really need is that there is a multifaceted approach...

Google patent application filed by New Jersey firm

Posted on April 29, 2008
Google's published patent application 20080097833 , titled RENDERING ADVERTISEMENTS WITH DOCUMENTS HAVING ONE OR MORE TOPICS USING USER TOPIC INTEREST INFORMATION , was filed by STRAUB & POKOTYLO of Tinton Falls, NJ. The first claim states:A computer-implemented method comprising: a) providing, responsive to a received search query, a document with a plurality of search results, the plurality of search results including a first search result associated with a first document having content concerning a first topic and a second search result associated with a second document having content concerning a second topic; b) determining which of the first topic and the second topic a user is most interested in; c) selecting one of a first set of one or more ads relevant to the first topic and a second set of one or more ads relevant to the second topic using, at least, the determination of user topic interest; and d) serving, for rendering to the user, in association with the document, the selected one of the first and second set of one or more ads...

Judge Linn whacks BPAI in Reuning case

Posted on April 28, 2008
Judge Linn: "This is not a reflection of the Board's finest work."More darkly -- I would like to believe it represents an aberration [but] I am concerned that it does not.

Graphene (single layer graphite) in nanoelectronics

Posted on April 28, 2008
The 18 April 2008 issue of Science has an article "Graphene Nanoelectronics" which introduces a paper by Ponomarenko et al. (page 356), which discusses quantum dots.A figure on page 324 has a pyrene fragment postulated to be a graphene-based single electron transistor.

April 08 press release from "peer to patent"

Posted on April 28, 2008
The first non-final rejection by the USPTO in the "peer to patent" program pertained to a rejection of a claim of an HP patent based on prior art of an IBM employee (the second non-final rejection pertained to a claim of an IBM patent )In sending the program?s first non-final rejection, the USPTO examiner used prior art and commentary submitted by Steven Pearson, a senior software engineer at IBM, to reject claims of an HP application...

The problems faced by a pioneering inventor

Posted on April 28, 2008
Further to an earlier IPBiz post related to the aluminum engine of the Wright Brothers, note the difficulties a "first inventor" faces.After having returned to Dayton and caught up on work, the brothers sent out letters to the leading internal combustion manufacturers around the world, soliciting information on obtaining an engine producing at least 8 horsepower and weighing no more than 180 pounds...

Controversy over attorney billing in RIM v. Visto: mowing the lawn with your teeth?

Posted on April 28, 2008
Ben Moshinsky in an article titled A&O's BlackBerry patent win soured as costs inquest criticises hours tally noted:One source said: "It's a generalisation, but North American clients do like to spend three hours every night going through the documents to make them more American...

A Mylan connection in improper WVU degree matter

Posted on April 28, 2008
A panel at West Virginia University [WVU] determined that there was no academic justification for retroactively granting Heather Bresch, the daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin III.The Mylan connection, as reported by the New York Times, is as follows:Ms. Bresch, 38, works for Mylan Inc...

Gold nanoparticles and Curley paper

Posted on April 27, 2008
Steven A Curley and co-workers have an article: Intracellular gold nanoparticles enhance non-invasive radiofrequency thermal destruction of human gastrointestinal cancer cellsOf the rf field: A variable power 0?2 KW 13.56 MHz RF field generator (Therm Med LLC, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA) was built to specifications for use in these experiments...

Patent reform discussion in Delaware

Posted on April 27, 2008
The News Journal has text on patent reform:It may seem like an insider issue, but patent policy affects the public, said Dan Ravicher, executive director of the nonprofit Public Patent Foundation. He said policy makers need to consider the effect poor patent quality and other issues have on product prices, innovation and civil liberties...

Facts, relied upon, must be verified, when challenged

Posted on April 27, 2008
Of IPBiz's comparison of news coverage for#1. CIRM's claim for credit for the myelofibrosis research (with californiastemcellreport challenging CIRM's claim)#2. Californiastemcellreport's quote of someone saying Yamanaka accepted a CIRM grant in August 2007 (with californiastemcellreport crediting CIRM for luring Yamanaka to California)californiastemcellreport noted:Thanks for your comment, Larry...

UFlorida prof admits plagiarism

Posted on April 26, 2008
AP quotes the professor: "I have used the words of others and not properly attributed them. I am always in a hurry to get past descriptions to make my points, a hurry that has now rightly resulted in much shame and embarrassment. I have cheated by using pieces of descriptions written by others...

Stahl's "60 Minutes" piece on Kanzius: patents and conflict matters?

Posted on April 26, 2008
Although the Lesley Stahl "60 Minutes" piece on the Kanzius machine to treat cancer did mention the topic of patents, the piece did not mention that doctors are among the listed inventors. For example, in(WO/2005/118065) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RF-INDUCED HYPERTHERMIA USING BIOLOGICAL CELLS AND NANOPARTICLES AS RF ENHANCER CARRIERS [available on wipo...

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