Patent Law

Compact Appeal

Posted on June 10, 2008
Facing an onslaught of appeals because of abysmal examination, the USPTO has new rules to streamline the appeal process. Appeals in a single round. Gone: examiner response to an appeal brief, and the ability to raise new grounds of rejection in examiners' answers...

Enough

Posted on June 09, 2008
In a lucrative win-win only for respective law firms representing nimrod HP and upstart Acer, HP, with more to lose, backed down. The two computer firms have settled their patent spat. Terms undisclosed. HP had asserted ten patents against Acer in East Texas in March 2007, as well as sprouting an ITC investigation...

Exhausted

Posted on June 09, 2008
Justice Thomas, delivering the 9-0 opinion in Quanta v. LG Electronics: For over 150 years this Court has applied the doctrine of patent exhaustion to limit the patent rights that survive the initial authorized sale of a patented item. In this case, we decide whether patent exhaustion applies to the sale of components of a patented system that must be combined with additional components in order to practice the patented methods...

Cleaning Up

Posted on June 08, 2008
Filthy earth monkeys have soiled the planet. Belatedly, checking their virtual diapers, remorse comes in the form of adopting so-called "clean" technologies. A whole new area of patent infringement blossoms....

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Chorus

Posted on June 07, 2008
Patent licensing company Rembrandt IP cut its teeth in 2004, buying a nine-patent portfolio from Paradyne for $1 million. Paradyne was an AT&T spinoff. Eight of those patents went to cable modems, one to digital TV. Rembrandt then started an enforcement campaign, suing Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications, as well as the TV channels ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox...

Demo Derby

Posted on June 06, 2008
Brian L. Evans let his oversized ego get in the way of a grab at the brass ring of patent payout. 4,398,735 claims a truck assembly for roller skates and skateboards. Evans was the inventor. Evans insisted in acting as his own attorney in convoluted litigation over a licensing agreement dispute with Roller Derby Skate, in violation of the "longstanding rule that corporations and other unincorporated associations must appear in court through an attorney...

Interview First

Posted on June 05, 2008
The USPTO has a pilot program for select art units offering applicants the opportunity for an interview prior to first office action. Of course, a prosecutor could always voluntarily do the same. While pre-action interview may be "in the interest of compact prosecution," under the current USPTO regime, it is more a formula for vexation...

Reexamination

Posted on June 05, 2008
It has become a common tactic for a patent infringement defendant to request a reexamination. Courts have no obligation to acknowledge such, but many will stay proceedings pending reexam outcome if it occurs early enough in the lawsuit. Courts also have no obligation to heed the results of a reexam...

Out to Sea

Posted on June 04, 2008
Wall Street floats on an ocean of dumb money. Patent purveyor Ocean Tomo has patent-oriented stock indices, supposedly taking the heavy lifting out of picking patent-heavy stocks. Speculators, who may be hedge fund or large bank proprietary traders, or market research fabricators, collar patent lawyers for quick steps up on a steep learning curve...

Partially

Posted on June 04, 2008
Brocar sued retailer Target and others for infringing 6,049,928, claiming a baby diaper changing station able to resist vandalism. It's kiddie kung fu thing. Not really. Anyway, claim construction resulted in noninfringement. On appeal, affirmed....

Monopoly

Posted on June 03, 2008
To FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch, patents are inherently anti-competitive. To what degree depends upon the situation. Rosch reserves special ire for patent holders of technology standards, but would limit damages for inventors to what it cost to obtain a patent...

Slow Boat Arrives

Posted on June 03, 2008
After seven years of pretrial jockeying, Cornell University stuck HP with a $184 million tab, capping an eight-day jury trial in North New York, CAFC Judge Randall R. Rader slumming as presiding judge. Cornell succeeded with all five claims of the asserted patent...

Discovery

Posted on June 03, 2008
Bancorp sued Metropolitan Life Insurance for infringing 5,926,792, claiming tracking the value of life insurance policies. Unsuccessfully in the first round, as the district court judge granted summary judgment of non-infringement, which failed on appeal, albeit on an affirmed claim construction, because of a "genuine issue of material fact...

Coin of the Realm

Posted on June 02, 2008
The candy company Mars sucessfully sued Coinco for infringing 3,870,137 and 4,538,719, claiming ways to validate coins put in vending machines. Mars wanted damages on lost profits. After 15 years of enforcement action, those damages looked more like a lost cause...

Marked

Posted on June 01, 2008
Thursday, Stanford University had three HIV-monitoring patents invalidated in summary judgment, letting Roche off the hook. Northern California Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that the Stanford patents were obvious in light of a 1991 prior art article...

Under Pressure

Posted on June 01, 2008
Paris-based Alcatel SA bought the technology rump of Ma Bell in late 2006 - Lucent Technologies. The firm has been hyperactive in asserting patents from the combined portfolio. With good reason. Market capitalization has halved since the merger. CEO Patricia Russo and Chair Serge Tchuruk are besieged by shareholders for lack of performance...

Patent Retriever

Posted on June 01, 2008
Patent Retriever is a free pdf patent download site that piggybacks on Google. Because Google Patents takes too many mouse clicks, gosh darn. Patent Retriever is good for US, EU, and WIPO....

Defensive

Posted on May 31, 2008
Earlier this week, a thick-waisted but thin-skinned Nathan Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures CEO, ventured into incoherence, jockeying defensively when questioned by grizzled technology reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg: "Don't call me a patent troll," and "I'm not abusing the patent system...

Malicious

Posted on May 30, 2008
The common approbation "junk patent" is typically stuck on "patent trolls," that is, inventors asserting their rights. Only rubes buy that. Companies regularly pitch junk at each other. Case in point: Dow Chemical, whose advertising tripe is "responsibility begins here," found guilty of malicious patent assertion...

Tarnished

Posted on May 30, 2008
Landmark Screens had Thomas D. Kohler file a patent application in 2002 for an electronic billboard. Allegedly, after a restriction requirement, Kohler dropped claims and supposedly filed a divisional. But, according to Landmark, Kohler screwed up, lost continuity, thus losing the original priority date, making the parent and its own billboard prior art...

Reactor

Posted on May 29, 2008
TubeMaster makes custom catalyst reactors. Cat Tech asserted 6,905,660. Tubemaster counterclaimed for declaratory judgment (DJ). The district court granted summary judgment of non-infringement based upon claim construction, including DJ on non-accused configurations...

Bow to Light

Posted on May 28, 2008
Gertrude Neumark Rothschild developed a process necessary for making blue, green, violet and ultraviolet (high spectral) LEDs, used in many products, including flat-screen TVs, cell phone screens, computers, and traffic lights. All told, a market estimated at $7...

Another Piece

Posted on May 28, 2008
Most junk patents are created by incompetent prosecutors, with an assist from incompetent examiners granting bad claims. Example in point - Arthur A. Collins got a couple of junk patents: 4,701,907 and continuation 4,797,589. '907 sunk by §112 ¶2, an unconstruable claim term...

Such As

Posted on May 27, 2008
CAFC caprice is further confirmed in today's non-precedential Lawler v. Bradley. Bradley settled a patent infringement suit by Lawler by taking a license which was too complicated and unclear in its terms. 10% royalty on the actual selling price of infringed values...

Spudnik

Posted on May 26, 2008
J.R. Simplot, French fry innovator, blew his porchlight Sunday, aged 99. Supplier of dehydrated potatoes to the U.S. military during World War II, post-war, Simplot pioneered frozen French fries. In 1967, a handshake deal with McDonald's founder Ray Kroc helped put Simplot on the path to becoming a billionaire...

Enhanced Execution

Posted on May 25, 2008
After seven years of preliminaries, trial began last week. Cornell University, one of the eight Ivy League colleges, is suing Hewlett-Packard in Northern New York for infringing 4,807,115, claiming enhanced CPU execution. A judge experienced with patent cases flew in from Washington, D...

Politically Correct

Posted on May 24, 2008
Each patent is an invention. Do you think the number of patents says something? Would knowing the top-patenting companies be a meaningful statistic? Of course not. Patents are nasty. If you strive to be a member in good standing of the Coalition of Patent Fairness (CPF), keep your business clean...

Whining

Posted on May 24, 2008
Hal Wegner has his panties in a twist: Beyond the anonymous attack launched against the PTO by an "Institute for Progress", Professor Dennis Crouch in his highly reliable blog, Patently O, has now exposed a patent attorney or agent who has launched an anonymous website, "USPTOExaminers...

Puckered

Posted on May 23, 2008
John Wong got 5,568,779 for TALtech, claiming a seam for wash-and-wear dress shirts that don't pucker when laundered. Wong didn't disclose all the prior art he knew of, including the prior art that was the inspiration for his invention. The district court found inequitable conduct...

Rattled

Posted on May 23, 2008
Rattler Tools sued Bilco Tools and William Coyle for patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition. A Louisiana district court judge conducted a bench trial. Not even close. Rattler, rattled, appealed....

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