The New York Times reports,
Although patent litigation is not new in the technology world, these suits, specifically around mobile, point to the drastically changing mobile landscape. Lawyers I spoke with explained that mobile technology was still in its infancy and these large computing companies were trying to stake their claim [...]
As reported yesterday, Apple is suing HTC for infringing on twenty iPhone related patents. HTC makes mobile phones and smartphones including Google’s Nexus One and phones sold by Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile (1, 2) running Google’s Android operating system.
Below are the complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade [...]
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
via Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement - Barrons.com.
A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers study suggests that nonpracticing entities (NPE), more commonly referred to as patent trolls, are thriving.
The largest award went to Dr. Bruce Saffran who, in 2008, was awarded nearly $432 million in damages (and, not reported in the study, another $69 million in pre-judgment interest awarded by the judge after the trial). A [...]
The claim and continuation rules that were supposed to go into effect on November 1, 2007 are dying a slow death… thankfully.
via Law.com - PTO Rescinds Controversial Patent Rules.
So, will we see lawsuits for infringement, not of the patents that are sold, but for determining how much to sell them for?
7,493,262 Method for valuing intellectual property
7,386,460 System and method for developing and implementing intellectual property marketing
7,346,545 Method and system for payment of intellectual property royalties by interposed sponsor on behalf of consumer over [...]
Rambus replied that the game is hardly over.
via eWeek.com Nvidia Scores Win Against Rambus in Patent Fight.
TOP 10 Litigation Wins of 2008
via TOP 10 Litigation Wins of 2008.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday in a split decision that the Patent and Trademark Office did not overstep its authority in adopting a set of new rules that some intellectual property lawyers say fundamentally alter patent practice and threaten innovation.
via Law.com - Federal Circuit Sides With PTO in Dispute [...]
Method claim 1 does not recite any machine or apparatus or call for transforming an article into a different state or thing. A domain name is simply a series of characters representing the address of a resource, such as a server, on the World Wide Web.
Links: Ex parte Atkin.
PatentlyO:
BPAI: “Programmed Computer Method” Not Patentable Subject Matter
Software Method Claims: Bilski in light of Benson
Post-Bilski BPAI Approves of Beauregard Claims
Applying Bilski to Metabolite’s Diagnosis Claim
Applying Bilski to Biotechnology and the Life Sciences
Bilski: Adding Obvious but Meaningful Limitations
Professor Collins: In re Bilski: Tangibility Gone “Meta”
CLE: How to Draft Software Claims under Bilski
Patenting Tax Strategies Under Bilski
In [...]
Abbot Laboratories fought for 14 years (receiving 12 rejections) to get a patent allowed, only to have the patent found unenforceable because Abbot’s patent attorney withheld key information in connection with the patent filing. Lesson: disclose information which may be material to the patentability of any of your claims, as required under 37 [...]
The former anonymous blogger of Patent Troll Tracker has been outed as a patent lawyer at Cisco Systems. He was unmasked after a $15,000 bounty was offered by a senior partner at a law firm criticized on the blog after he filed suit for a client against Google. The blog has been taken [...]
A partial list of who is acquiring, licensing, and enforcing patents:
Acacia Research Corporation
IPotential
Inflexion Point
Altitude Capital Partners
Ocean Tomo
Rembrandt IP Management
NW Patent Funding Corporation
Intellectual Ventures
Gathering2.0 (online community for monetizing IP assets)
Articles:
Patent Attorneys, Clients Banking on IP Brokerages (law.com)
Patent Pirates (forbes.com)
U.S. District Judge James Cacheris granted GlaxoSmithKline’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from implementing the rules set to go into effect today. Glaxo filed its suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its director, Jon Dudas, earlier this month. The company plans to seek [...]
Blockbuster and Netflix have settled their patent dispute stemming from a complaint filed last year by Netflix. Netflix alleged that Blockbuster was infringing on its patents US7,024,381 and US6,584,450.
Links: Complaint, US7,024,381, US6,584,450.
If you haven’t heard already, the Supreme Court’s recent decision makes it easier to invalidate already issued patents, and will likely make it more difficult to obtain patents. More to come later.
Links: KSR v. Teleflex decision, Transcript of oral arguments.
The CAFC has nationwide jurisdiction in a variety of subject areas, including patents. All oral arguments are now available in mp3 format.
Websites such as shouldexist.org enable users to publish their inventive ideas and collaborate with others to refine and develop their inventions. Users may donate their time and money to the website and to specific projects. Of particular interest is that all discussions and projects are documented, dated, published on-line, and publicly available; this, [...]
The dispute with former Yale professor and Nobel Laureate John B. Fenn over a Nobel Prize winning invention has ended. Yale University was assigned ownership of a key patent and awarded $1 million in damages. John B. Fenn shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for his work in mass spectrometry.