PTAB Opinion Provides Reminder that Indefiniteness Rejections Must Establish a Prima Facie Case By Jonathan L. Kennedy In a recent USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) opinion, the PTAB reversed an Examiner’s indefiniteness rejection as the it failed to establish a prima facie case of indefiniteness. InEx Parte Kimura, Appeal No. 17-1293 (PTAB Jan. 25, 2018), the claims were rejected for reciting, “normal pumping operation.” The rejection stated the term was […] Continue Reading →
The Broad Institute has a Patent Revoked by the EPO on Technical Grounds By Blog Staff The CRISPR/Cas9 landscape continues to evolve around the world. On January 17, 2018, the EPO’s Opposition Division revoked Broad’s patent EP2771468 on the grounds it lacked novelty. The revocation will not be take effect until after any appeal is heard. EP2771468 claimed priority to a US provisional application, which would have allowed the patent to […] Continue Reading →
U.S.P.T.O. Remains Open By Kirk M. Hartung Despite the shutdown of a significant portion of the federal government, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will remain open, at least for the short term.This government agency is self-funded through user fees, and therefore will continue business as usual for the next two weeks. If the government shutdown continues into February, the PTO […] Continue Reading →
Global Intellectual Property Indicator in 2017 Published by WIPO By Blog Staff World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its annual report, Global Intellectual Property Indicator 2017, on January 8, 2018. The report is 226 pages long and contains mostly statistics and colorful graphs. Although it is not a “must read” for everyone, it is definitely an informative resource for anyone who is in the business of creating […] Continue Reading →
The Mandatory Deposit Requirement of The Library of Congress: A Little Known and Little-Complied-With Law By Mark D. Hansing What is it? The United States Library of Congress says it has the largest collection of published works in the world. Housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, with warehouses elsewhere, estimates are on the order of 32 million catalogued books and other printed materials in 470 languages, and that many more […] Continue Reading →
Sail On: Former Commodores Guitarist Fails to Establish Rights in Band’s Trademark By Nicholas J. Krob Who owns a band’s trademark when that band is composed of multiple people? And more importantly, what rights does a band member have in that trademark when they leave the band? Earlier this week, the Eleventh Circuit addressed these very questions in a case involving legendary funk/soul band the Commodores. The Commodores, famous for chart-topping […] Continue Reading →
Music Publishing Company Sues Spotify for $1.6 Billion By Spotify has a growing copyright problem and as previously discussed on this blog (here and here) they are no stranger to copyright infringement lawsuits. Wixen Music Publishing Inc. recently filed a complaint seeking $1.6 billion in damages alleging copyright infringement. On December 29th, Wixen filed suit in California federal court claiming Spotify has repeatedly failed […] Continue Reading →