Patent Law

Fool born every minute? Lesley Stahl's shameful piece on Kanzius.

Posted on April 17, 2008
Of the Lesley Stahl interview of John Kanzius on "60 Minutes" on 13 April, a poster at Free Republic wrote:For John Kanzius it began with a simple idea, some pots and pans and even a hot dog! Now, the Kanzius machine, which generates radio waves, has developed into a possible breakthrough in cancer research...

S.1145: "Not dead, but on ice"

Posted on April 17, 2008
A Reuters report on April 14 noted: "I wouldn't say the bill is dead, but let's say right now it's on ice," said one Democratic aide.The report (by Diane Bartz and Tom Ferraro) suggested the opposition to S.1145 was partisan ("opposition mostly from Republicans")...

On McCain and "plagiarized" recipes

Posted on April 16, 2008
See a blogpost at the LA Times titled: Ooops, Cindy McCain's recipe for recipe plagiarism.See also the IPBiz post Two ingredients? about a certain recipe posted on "Hungry Girl."

"Patent troll tracker" Frenkel subpoenaed

Posted on April 16, 2008
A post on MarketWatch discusses a subpoena served on Rick Frenkel (the formerly anonymous patent troll tracker) by Scott Harris.The last three paragraphs of the post are interesting:Cisco belongs to a group of large companies called the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which has lobbied intensively for legislation that could make filing patent suits a more difficult process for small firms...

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Battling press releases on meaning of re-exam results

Posted on April 16, 2008
NeuralStem responded to a press release by StemCells about a re-examination of two StemCells patents:Neuralstem, Inc. today responds to an earlier press release by StemCells, Inc. by stating that StemCells, Inc. has completely mischaracterized the meaning of the US Patent and Trademark Office's most recent action...

Re-exam of StemCells' patents

Posted on April 15, 2008
See re-exam results on StemCells' patents related to litgation with Neuralstem Inc.

JAMA duped by ghostwritten paper about VIOXX

Posted on April 15, 2008
Kari Stark of the Philly Inquirer writes:[JAMA's] editor, Catherine D. DeAngelis, said her journal had been duped by a ghostwritten manuscript in 2002 that compared Vioxx with two competitors' drugs for knee pain, and she acknowledged that editors bore some responsibility...

Ranbaxy, AstraZeneca settle over Nexium

Posted on April 15, 2008
On April 14, 2008, AstraZeneca announced a settlement with Ranbaxy over the Hatch-Waxman litigation concerning Nexium.The WSJ reported:The settlement means that Ranbaxy will be able to begin selling a generic version of Nexium from May 27, 2014. "Under the settlement agreement, Ranbaxy concedes that all six patents asserted by AstraZeneca in the patent litigation are valid and enforceable," said AstraZeneca in a statement...

Lesley Stahl duped on "60 Minutes" on 13 April 2008

Posted on April 14, 2008
In a videoclip, Lesley Stahl watches like a child as John Kanzius injects a hot dog with "metallic" copper sulfate. Maybe it was the thermocouple in the hot dog. Funny how Kanzius didn't have a thermocouple to measure the "cold" side of the hot dog...

Solomon's appeal against Toyota over Prius

Posted on April 14, 2008
PRNewswire: Solomon Technologies, Inc. announced on April 14, 2008 the completion of arguments in its appeal of the decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging patent infringement by Toyota Motor Corporation and certain of its affiliates...

Editorial against the patent reform of S.1145

Posted on April 14, 2008
Note an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel titled >Protect innovation: Legislation being debated by the Senate would weaken the value of patents, which could be harmful to Wisconsin's... which includes the text about S.1145:But the bill does not address the problem of resources for the patent office...

NH high school students looking for patent attorney

Posted on April 14, 2008
JIM KOZUBEK in the Manchester Union-Leader writes: The Merrimack High School biodiesel club is searching for a patent attorney and could soon sell a license for a prototype biodiesel processor to a manufacturer.The item involved is a kit to instruct about biodiesel, and was developed in the context of the Global Venture Challenge at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory The article also noted: Tom Ballard of ORNL said the lab would "encourage the team to continue to pursue their idea and take it to market...

Dussold, SIU settle

Posted on April 14, 2008
SIUE text: "This decision should not be viewed as a vindication of either the claims alleged by Mr. Dussold or the defenses asserted by SIUE in this action. This issue is now behind us to allow all parties to move forward in their individual pursuits and careers...

ABA-IP section on "patent reform" on April 11

Posted on April 14, 2008
Richard Meyer of Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Washington was quoted: "It seems Congress has bought into the characterization of the problem by a few very big IT industry players." IPBiz notes: with a little help from various professors including Jaffe and Lerner...

Stick a fork in it: patent reform 2008 is done

Posted on April 12, 2008
CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, in an April 11 story, Patent reform hits wall in Senate, begins:A bill to reform U.S. patent law, which split the business community and sparked a fierce lobbying battle, hit a roadblock late Thursday in the Senate and may not move forward this year...

Does "telling whoppers" lead to insurmountable credibility problems?

Posted on April 12, 2008
In a thread about anonymous blogging, one anonymous commenter wrote:Truth and facts are what matters. If it is ever a fact that the pundit lies, then there will be a credibility problem that will be hard to bridge.IPBiz notes that, if telling whoppers were fatal, Hillary would not currently be in the race, and people would not be paying big bucks to hear Bill...

Patent reform 2008: it's the economy, stupid

Posted on April 11, 2008
Of the state of things with S.1145 on patent reform, IPBiz commenter Jason Taylor wrote:I personally think S.1145 was brought down by the unions? recognition that it would effect job creation and the subsequent fear by S.1145?s backing politicians that they might actually lose too many votes and be held especially accountable for their actions by the voters during an election occurring in a recession (see, e...

Doomsday scenarios in 1959 and 2008

Posted on April 11, 2008
Jeff Poor of the Business & Media Institute covered the presentation on April 10 in ?World News with Charles Gibson? of a piece on the high increases, in the last year, of the cost of food worldwide. ABC noted that 80% of the income of third world people goes for food, in contrast to 10% for America, leaving one to figure out who gets really destroyed if the cost of food goes up 150% (or more)...

"Plagiarism pervades university society" [?}

Posted on April 11, 2008
And so the Chart titles an article.

Patent reform slip sliding away: "Arlen Specter has killed the patent bill"

Posted on April 10, 2008
In discussing a possible political link between judicial nominations and the patent reform bill, Keith Perine of CQ Staff writes:Leahy said ?there?s no linkage? between the patent bill and judicial nominations since ? Arlen Specter has killed the patent bill anyway...

Budens

Posted on April 10, 2008
Some blogs are picking up on testimony by Robert Budens of POPA given before a Congressional committee on 27 February 08. The existence of different viewpoints between the examiner's union and USPTO management is not a new phenomenon.

Some bad reporting on Tafas v. Dudas

Posted on April 10, 2008
An article titled "Feds may appeal biotech patent ruling," concerning Tafas v. Dudas illustrates how reporters frequently fail to come to grips with patent law issues.Some text:The biotech discovery process is very different than designing a machine or computer program where the intent and use of the invention is known from the beginning...

Cisco's chief patent counsel is not a registered patent attorney?!?

Posted on April 01, 2008
An earlier IPBiz had quoted Rick Frenkel, the patent troll tracker and Director, Intellectual Property at Cisco Systems, Inc. , as stating:Although my direct manager at Cisco knew I was writing the blog, the content was entirely my own, and nobody at Cisco ever wrote any content for me or made any attempts to edit me, nor was anyone up the chain above my direct manager aware that I was the author...

On Tafas v. Dudas: selected excerpts

Posted on April 01, 2008
Of continuations:As the Court described in Part I of this Opinion, under the existing patent system an applicant may file an unlimited number of continuation or continuation-in-part applications, RCEs, and claims. As to continuation and continuation-in-part applications, Section 120 provides that such applications ?shall have? the benefit of the priority date of the initial application...

Dudas/USPTO smoked in Tafas case on continuation application rules

Posted on April 01, 2008
The Tafas decision states:GSK, Tafas, and the USPTO make numerous arguments for summary judgment in their favor. After thorough examination of the parties? briefs, the arguments of roughly two dozen amici curiae, and the extensive administrative record, the Court finds that the Final Rules are substantive in nature and exceed the scope of the USPTO?s rulemaking authority under 35 U...

The Google safe-harbor for plagiarism?

Posted on April 01, 2008
The Lede blog at the NYT covered the UTSA "plagiarism of plagiarism code" story and had the words:The U.T.S.A.?s version may have also included a citation page, a student in charge of the code said. ?We are still looking for it,? Akshay Thusu said. But experts treated the explanation like the proverbial homework eaten by the dog...

Belichick was interviewed by NFL about Rams' walk-through

Posted on April 01, 2008
Further to Belichick and the Patriots, note the article NFL Interviewed Belichick a Second Time Over 'Spygate' which includes the text:The interview was revealed by Belichick at the AFC coaches' media breakfast in Palm Beach April 1, 2008 at the league meeting, and confirmed by NFL officials...

Is being pro-active a good thing?

Posted on April 01, 2008
Patent Docs has an interesting post on the relevance of 35 USC 121 (which immunizes divisionals against obviousness-typedouble patenting rejections) to the Mircera matter between Amgen and Hoffman:The Federal Circuit's decision in Pfizer, Inc. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc...

Bayer appeals Yasmin loss

Posted on April 01, 2008
Further to Bayer's loss to Barr over Yasmin, Bayer has filed an appeal to the CAFC over Judge Sheridan's opinion.

Takeda, Abbott whack Teva over Prevacid

Posted on April 01, 2008
U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson of D. Delaware said on March 31 that a patent on Prevacid is both valid and enforceable. Teva, which had conceded it infringed the patent, plans to appeal the adverse decision.

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