Patent Law

Is Charter Communications telling it "like it is" on patent reform?

Posted on February 10, 2008
Grier C. Raclin, executive vice president and general counsel of Charter Communications Inc., advocates passage of patent reform in an op-ed --Missouri's inventors need patent-law revision-- which notes:As a Missouri-based communications company, Charter Communications relies on advancements and improvements in information technologies to ensure that our customers have access to the most-valuable and -affordable communications and entertainment available...

Ferret plagiarism

Posted on February 10, 2008
Heath Urie, in a Daily Camera article titled Polecat plagiarism? Ferrets aid steamy tale , discloses plagiarism of original work by Paul Tolme, a 41-year-old wildlife writer which was later copied into a romance novel "Shadow Bear," a 2007 work authored by romance author Cassie Edwards...

Phantom reference used to back up phantom theory

Posted on February 10, 2008
X-ray diffraction is NOT a good way to measure fractional aromaticity, fa:In the x-ray diffraction of carbonaceous materials, there is no logical reason to assume an interrelation between the intensity of the (002) peak, reflecting intermolecular "stacking" order of aromatic planes, and the fractional aromaticity fa measured by carbon nuclear magnetic resonance...

A broad consensus, one way or another?

Posted on February 10, 2008
The Washington Post had an article mentioning several of the possible takes on whether patent reform will proceed, or not,in early 2008.There was a quote from the Coalition for Patent Fairness:Senators, representatives of the Bush administration and other interested parties have been meeting regularly "to find balanced solutions on all the issues," said Mark Isakowitz, spokesman for the Coalition for Patent Fairness, a group representing several large tech companies...

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"Sampling and borrowing" in the legal sphere [?]

Posted on February 10, 2008
The Wesleyan Argus had some memorable lines on plagiarism:?Emily Apter spoke really compellingly about how both legal and academic thinking about the production of art and ideas actually needs to catch up to the activities of artists and intellectuals themselves and embrace the basically plagiaristic quality of artistic production,? said Jason Kavett ?09 In writingSimultaneously, the Internet is illuminating new uses and forms of collaboration and cooperation amongst academics, artists, entrepreneurs and the general public...

Patent reform will pass soon [?]

Posted on February 08, 2008
A Feb. 8 piece in Reuters suggests that there will be patent reform:High tech companies and drug companies agree that U.S. patent reform will pass soon, but there is considerably less agreement on what it should look like.As might be expected, the significant disagreement concerns a money issue:Tom DiLenge, general counsel for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, has called calculating damages for infringement "the toughest nut to crack...

SIU students not responsive to survey on cheating

Posted on February 08, 2008
Within the SIUDE article by Joe Crawford: One of the students wrote, "Honest students are now very nervous about accidentally plagiarizing ? dishonest students have been emboldened because plagiarism is now seen as a badge of honor and as a way to fight the power...

No ruling in Tafas v. Dudas on Feb. 8

Posted on February 08, 2008
The PLI website noted: According to John White, Judge Cacheris said that "there is a lot of paper to consider" and that he would render his decision as soon as possible, schedule permitting. (...)Bob Spar was also in the courtroom along side John White and Bob agrees with John that the main issue seems to be whether the PTO has substantive rulemaking authority...

Ohio U students getting a pass on plagiarism?

Posted on February 07, 2008
On Feb. 7, the Athens Post had an editorial titled: Easy way out; Students who plagiarized theses need to rewrite reports, receive penalties with the first full paragraph noting:Recently, two former mechanical engineering students who were accused of plagiarism in their graduate theses were allowed to eliminate ? not revise ? massive sections from their reports and resubmit the edited theses with no penalty whatsoever...

The negative universe of patent reform

Posted on February 07, 2008
PatentHawk discusses the article by Patti Waldmeir titled When inertia is the better part of valour which article beginsThe US Congress seems to operate on the principle that, if you ignore problems for long enough, they will cease to exist. And in the case of US patent reform - which faces a make-or-break vote in the US Senate shortly - they could just about be right...

Feb. 8: oral arguments in Tafas v. Dudas

Posted on February 07, 2008
On February 8, Judge Cacheris in ED Va is hearing oral arguments on the competing motions for summary judgment in Tafas v. Dudas, on the topic of the (proposed) USPTO rules on continuing applications.

Mark Twain's one money-making invention

Posted on February 07, 2008
A self-pasting scrapbook.

Is patent reform going forward, or not?

Posted on February 07, 2008
In contrast to a breezy prediction from HP's Mike Holston (we're 95% of the way there on patent reform), ITWorld (Grant Gross) gave a different view on patent reform which included the text:The House in September passed a patent reform bill -- supported by many large tech vendors, but opposed by several small tech companies -- but similar legislation has been stalled in the Senate...

Monsanto whacks farmer David at CAFC

Posted on February 07, 2008
Monsanto whacked farmer Loren David for his seed-saving and use of saved Round-Up resistant soybean seeds protected by US 5,352,605.In the appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), attorneys for Mr. David argued that his activities were not infringing because the ?605 patent is not directed towards a plant or seed but rather to a gene...

Spinning in action: Yamanaka funding and CIRM

Posted on February 06, 2008
Of a discussion on IPBiz on factual inaccuracies in text on californiastemcellreport:"Now that grant money is flowing, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) reports it has wooed more than two dozen of the world?s top stem-cell scientists, including Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who lead the most recent skin-cell discoveries at the University of Kyoto...

Dudas thinks patent reform will fly

Posted on February 06, 2008
Reuters quotes Jon Dudas, director of the USPTO: "I'm optimistic that we'll have patent reform because what we see is that there are very real answers." Reuters notes: both the Bush administration and the pharmaceutical industry staunchly oppose the damages portion of the House version of the bill...

"Coalition for Patent Fairness" not playing fair with universities?

Posted on February 06, 2008
InsideHigherEd, in an article titled We?d Prefer to Speak for Ourselves, Thanks , notes that the Coalition for Patent Fairness has been a bit tricky in representing the viewpoints of higher education on patent reform. Specifically, the Coalition circulated an article with the headline ?University Concerns With S...

Another scam from CIRM?

Posted on February 04, 2008
One can read the article at the Union-Tribune. Here's text from the first comment:The stem cell institute, understaffed and not in the lending business, wants to get into the lending business because venture capital investors are overly (rightfully) skeptical, and not terribly eager, to risk "their" money in this field...

Harvard duped by fraudster?

Posted on February 04, 2008
from a CNN report:[Esther] Reed assumed the identity of Brooke Henson, who was 20 years old when she disappeared more than eight years ago from Travelers Rest, investigators say.It's unclear how Reed obtained Henson's personal information, but Reed used Henson's identity to take the SAT and GED, and then applied to the schools, said Jon Campbell, a Travelers Rest [S...

Indirect benefits to scientists from CIRM: direct hosing of California taxpayers?

Posted on February 04, 2008
Don C. Reed made a comment to an earlier IPBiz post concerning whether or not Shinya Yamanaka accepted a CIRM grant in August 2007, as reported on californiastemcellreport:As to which scientists directly or indirectly received benefits from CIRM, I would urge all concerned to go to the source-- the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine...

On the absence of evidence that Yamanaka accepted a CIRM grant

Posted on February 04, 2008
Christine Vestal at stateline.org had written:Now that grant money is flowing, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) reports it has wooed more than two dozen of the world's top stem-cell scientists, including Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who lead the most recent skin-cell discoveries at the University of Kyoto...

Did Yamanaka "accept a grant" from CIRM in August 2007?

Posted on February 03, 2008
Further to text on californiastemcellreport -- Yamanaka accepted a state grant in August 2007 --, californiastemcellreport kindly forwarded a linkhttp://www.cirm.ca.gov/RFA/pdf/RFA_07-01/CL1-00514-1.pdfwhich is to a CIRM shared laboratory information form (part two) which does in fact mention Yamanaka's name...

To Don C. Reed on getting the facts straight about CIRM

Posted on February 03, 2008
Don C. Reed made a comment to the IPBiz post A response of sorts to Don C. Reed about covering both sides of CIRM, which comment included the text:My feeling is that the issues involved in stem cell research are so important that everyone's viewpoints are to be encouraged, which might suggest that the issue is about differing opinions (viewpoints)...

Steroid use and plagiarism: is there a political deterrent?

Posted on February 03, 2008
The cover story of CBS "Sunday Morning" on 3 Feb 08 was on steroids, which included a final comment by one Dr. Jeffrey Lenox [spelling?] of Emory University that the political winds of disapproval would be the best deterrent to the use of steroids for sports performance enhancement...

Matrka suggest TurnItIn not so effective in engineering area

Posted on February 03, 2008
Tom Matrka, of the Ohio University business, suggests that TurnItIn is not that effective in determining plagiarism in the area of engineering theses ["Turnitin is not suitable for checking engineering works for plagiarism."] Matrka gives an example of a thesis in the area of finite element analysis...

Giants win SuperBowl; message for patent reform?

Posted on February 03, 2008
Although not one of Fox TV's analysts predicted a victory for the Giants, the Giants won the SuperBowl. It was easy to go for the established 18-0 team, even when the (then) 10-5 team had already put up a fight in a losing 38-35 cause. Similarly, it's easy for Congress to listen to the established players such as Microsoft and Intel on patent reform, the analogs of the 18-0 Patriots...

Wyeth undercuts Teva on Protonix

Posted on February 02, 2008
Wyeth and Nycomed announced on Jan. 29 they are launching a generic version of heartburn medication Protonix. This hurts Teva's version, because the generic price will drop because of the additional generic competition.See also Teva to launch a generic version of Wyeth's Protonix

Another review of Shulman on Bell

Posted on February 02, 2008
In "Telephone Tag," Henry Petroski gives us one more book review of Shulman's "The Telephone Gambit."Petroski sets up the story:While reading Bell's 1875-76 notebook, which the Library of Congress has made available in high-resolution digital form on the World Wide Web, Shulman noticed a curious leap of inspiration after a 12-day hiatus in entries, a gap that coincided with an apparently sudden trip to Washington, D...

Judge Plager takes on Nard and Duffy: easier to critique than to be original

Posted on February 02, 2008
In an article in 101 Nw. U.L. Rev. 1735 (2007) titled RETHINKING PATENT LAW'S UNIFORMITY PRINCIPLE: A RESPONSE TO NARD AND DUFFY Judge S. Jay Plager and Lynne E. Pettigrew take on opinions in the article by Nard and Duffy titled Rethinking Patent Law's Uniformity Principle...

"We are all plagiarists" [?]

Posted on February 02, 2008
Steve Blackwell writes:We plagiarize all the time, by not giving due credit for an idea, method, style, or approach. It may be as simple as not putting a sentence in quotation marks or saying "I told you so" when it wasn´t you who "said so" initially at all...

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