Patent Law

Pay Per View

Posted on July 22, 2008
The Qualcomm - Nokia patent battle is like a heavyweight prize fight. So much so, the trial, which begins Wednesday, is being televised on pay-per-view for $400 a day by Courtroom View Network via webcast. Qualcomm sells cell phone chips, manufactured under license, but half its profits are from patent licensing fees...

Prove It

Posted on July 22, 2008
In its battle to pry open Microsoft's wallet, Alcatel-Lucent has two parallel patent cases. Yesterday it filed an identical motion in both cases, seeking full production of all Microsoft's patent license agreements with third parties. Such agreements are almost always confidential, as a condition of settlement...

Tummy Ache

Posted on July 21, 2008
Eisai sued Dr. Reddy's Labs and Teva for infringing 5,045,552 after the two filed ANDAs to make a generic version prior to patent expiration. '552 claims a digestive antacid. Eisai overcame obviousness and inequitable conduct arguments to prevail. In its affirmation, the CAFC elucidated the current standard for chemical obviousness...

Inventor Scam

Posted on July 20, 2008
After an 11-year court battle, the FTC has squeezed, in settlement, a $10 million penalty from Davison for running a con on patent holders. The FTC claimed the company "enticed consumers with false claims about their selectivity in choosing products to promote, their track record in turning inventions into profitable products, and their relationships with manufacturers...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Wrap Up

Posted on July 18, 2008
Monster Cable likes its packaging. Monster wrestled licenses from Systemax and its subsidiary Ultra Products for D471,442. Monster has other packaging infringement actions against Timex, and Bizlink and its subsidiary Accell. Monster favors the Eastern District of Texas for its enforcement actions...

Hiding Peas

Posted on July 18, 2008
A recently published UPSTO Federal Register Notice regarding paperwork burdens for the proposed appeals rule change is oddly missing from all PTO lists of Federal Register Notices. The wafting scent is that this is something more than oversight, instead, a continuation of a two-year trend of failing to give sufficient notice of opportunity for public comment...

Try Triway

Posted on July 17, 2008
The USPTO, EPO, and JPO are joining forces once again to combat pendency and quality issues. With all their powers combined, they are Triway, planetary patent force. The one-year Triway pilot will launch July 28th, and will accept up to 100 participating applications...

Tipsy Stipulation

Posted on July 16, 2008
Dr. G. David Jang assigned 5,922,021 and 5,954,743 to Boston Scientific and SciMed Life Systems. The companies were supposed to pay royalties on products "covered by" (i.e., infringing) the patents. Jang sued because he thought he wasn't getting his share...

Slow

Posted on July 16, 2008
Dr. Olivia N. Serdarevic claims she was an inventor in six patents for laser eye surgery, owned by VISX, a subsidiary of Advanced Medical Optics. Serdarevic contacted VISX in 1998, and got an appropriate response, but failed to follow through until 2006, when she sued...

Fattening Peer

Posted on July 16, 2008
The USPTO is extending and expanding its Peer Review pilot program. While the original pilot was limited to "computer-related arts," the program is porking to eat business method applications too. 400 possible published applications will sweat it out under public grilling, up from the original 250...

America First

Posted on July 15, 2008
"I have to tell you that the innovation and the technology and the entrepreneurship of the world still lies in the United States of America. Every technological advance we've made in the 21st century and throughout the 20th has come from the United States of America...

Sieg Hiel!

Posted on July 14, 2008
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propagandist, must be smiling up from Hell at academics Bessen and Meurer, who concocted rubbish figures about the value of U.S. patents. Mainstream media hack Gordon Crovtiz has taken the numbers as gospel. "Empirical research" he calls them...

Unsold

Posted on July 14, 2008
With case law changing like a fashion model working the runway, Thomson had time on its side in slipping the surly bonds of patent infringement. Muniauction asserted 6,161,099, claiming auctions using a web browser. Thomson lost a jury trial, found willfully infringed, faced $77 million in damages and an injunction...

Watchdog

Posted on July 13, 2008
The FTC, this nation's competition watchdog, is anti-patent. Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch considers patents inherently anti-competitive. But mergers to create an illegal market-dominant company, well, that's a different topic, a matter of discretion. So the FTC okayed a merger between Flow and Omax, both Washington state companies, despite acknowledging that they "are each other's closest competitor in the highly concentrated U...

Not Invented Here

Posted on July 13, 2008
35 U.S.C. §102 - "A person shall be entitled to a patent unless - ... (f) he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented..." §102(f) dates to the 1836 Patent Act, and U.S. case law predates statute. Does §102(f) mean what it says? - That a patent is invalid if not invented by a patent applicant...

Home Grown

Posted on July 11, 2008
Vonage, the erstwhile VoIP patent piñata, now has one of its own: 7,386,111 "Method and apparatus for placing a long distance call based on a virtual phone number." Also this week, Vonage and Comcast announced a collaborative agreement to work on network congestion management related to VoIP...

Chipper

Posted on July 11, 2008
Rambling Rambus is putting Nvidia on the litigation griddle for infringing 17 patents. Nvidia specializes in graphics processing chips. Rambus specializes in raking it in for patented semiconductor technologies. Founded in 1990 by two geeks, Rambus has been an nonstop patent litigator paradise, suing for licenses rather than the pesky process of making anything...

No Reverse Spin

Posted on July 09, 2008
Apotex filed two ANDAs with the FDA to market generic formulations of eye inflammation treatment patented by Roche. Naturally, Roche sued, in two separate actions. The first case was decided in 2007, with Apotex infringing a valid patent. In the second case, more of the same bad news...

Dogging An Application

Posted on July 08, 2008
While there is no formal channel for an external party to submit potentially invalidating prior art to the USPTO to derail a patent application, there are ways. But a bark that doesn't bite can bite back later....

Peer-to-Petering Out

Posted on July 08, 2008
Peer-to-Patent declared itself a success in its First Anniversary Report. Self flattery had patent blogger praise piled on. The hoopla is not entirely unmerited. What a great concept: the patent community contributing back to the patent system, examination quality improving with an influx of peer-cited art, and pendency decreasing without the PTO lifting a finger...

Disappointed

Posted on July 08, 2008
InterDigital is trying to hammer Samsung into licensing submission for five of its cell phone patents though the ITC. An ITC staff recommendation, just issued, recommended against granting injunctive relief. On that news, InterDigital shares shed 22.6% of their value, dropping $5...

Old & Improved

Posted on July 07, 2008
Patent Prospector service was erratic on Sunday, as the blog was transferred to a faster server. Thanks for your patience....

Replay

Posted on July 07, 2008
The CAFC heard oral arguments today in the jury-trial fantasy $1.5 billion award to Alcatel-Lucent from Microsoft for infringing two MP3 audio patents. The district court judge pitched the jury verdict, finding non-infringement on one, and lack of standing on the other...

Gulp

Posted on July 05, 2008
Up-and-comer Platform Solutions, a computer mainframe startup backed by venture capital, including contributions from Intel and Microsoft, is folding its pup tent. Platform is owner of freshly minted 7,386,670: "Processing of self-modifying code in multi-address-space and multi-processor systems...

Silver Bullet

Posted on July 04, 2008
Playing catch-up to Apple's QuickTime and Adobe Flash, Microsoft has been pushing Silverlight, its multimedia offering to let users watch video through their web browsers. Massachusetts-based Gotuit Media, a multimedia vendor, is having a go at Microsoft for infringing three patents, in the Northern District of California, which is usually considered defendant-friendly...

Pacing

Posted on July 03, 2008
Paice successfully sued Toyota for infringing hybrid vehicle drive train patents. Toyota couldn't get the verdict overturned on appeal, and SCOTUS blew them off. Not having the sense to settle, Toyota now faces a new suit....

101 Clarification

Posted on July 02, 2008
An interoffice memo on examining claims for § 101 compliance issued to the USPTO examiner corps in mid-May. Based on Supreme Court precedent and recent Federal Circuit decisions, the Office's guidance to examiners is that a § 101 process must (1) be tied to another statutory class (such as a particular apparatus) or (2) transform underlying subject matter (such as an article or materials) to a different state or thing...

Fishing Expedition

Posted on July 01, 2008
France-based Gillet Outillage sued Taiwan competitor Fisher Tool in central California over 6,189,190, claiming automobile pliers. Gillet suffered a narrow claim construction, so dropped the suit. Fisher lashed out for malicious prosecution under California law, and antitrust...

Debauchery

Posted on June 30, 2008
Hal Wegner displays astonishing senility in a disjointed and practically schizophrenic review of pulp fiction by academics Bessen and Meurer (B&M). Wegner: "The U.S. patent system is not working. It stands accused on all sides of stifling innovation instead of nurturing it...

Doubled Over

Posted on June 29, 2008
Boehringer Ingelheim sued Barr and Mylan for infringing 4,886,812 after the two filed ANDAs seeking to market generic versions of Mirapex, used to treat Parkinson's disease. Delaware district court Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. penned a careful decision, invalidating the patent over nonstatutory double patenting...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.