Bring on the New Year – What is in Store for IP in 2014? Happy New Year to all of our FilewrapperÒ followers! We hope 2013 was a productive year and wish you the best in 2014. As the New Year quickly approaches we would like to share with you a few predictions for 2014 for you to look forward to and for which to prepare! · Increased opportunities […] Continue Reading →
H.R. 3309 – The Innovation Act On December 5, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3309, the “Innovation Act”, with bipartisan support by an overwhelming margin of 325-91 votes. H.R. 3309 was drafted to address the perceived growing problem of abusive patent litigation attributed to alleged “patent trolls.” Early next year, the Senate will likely consider a companion bill, S. […] Continue Reading →
Changes to Implement and Guidelines for Examination under AIA The United States Patent and Trademark Office has released its rules regarding changes under first inventor to file provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The rules published by the USPTO in the Federal Register on March 16, 2013 provide guidelines for implementing the new patent law and guidelines for examination of patent applications under […] Continue Reading →
New and Useful – January 23, 2013 · In Wax v. Amazon Techs., the Federal Circuit upheld the TTAB’s denial of registration of the mark AMAZON VENTURES. Applicant filed and intent-to-use application to register the mark for “investment management, raising venture capital for others, . . . and capital investment consultation.” Amazon Technologies, Inc.—online retailer and owner of several AMAZON.COM marks—opposed the […] Continue Reading →
New and Useful – Janurary 14, 2013 · The Supreme Court handed down its decision in Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. The Court held that Nike’s covenant not to sue Alreadyfor alleged infringement of Nike’s AIR FORCE 1 trademark—entered into after Nike had filed suit and Already had filed a counterclaim challenging the mark’s validity—rendered both Nike’s claims and Already’s counterclaims moot. […] Continue Reading →
Another Billion Dollar Patent Verdict Another billion dollar verdict has been handed out in a patent case. Read the verdict in Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell Technology Group, LTD. here. This latest case continues a string of billion dollar verdicts highlighted by Jonathan Kennedy in the latest edition of MVS Briefs. Carnegie Mellon brought suit alleging infringement of two of […] Continue Reading →
USPTO will remain open until April 18 in the event of government shutdown In a press release, the USPTO stated it has sufficient available funds not tied to the current fiscal year that it will be able to remain open for six days following any shutdown of government functions. Based on the current appropriations, that would put the USPTO open until April 18, assuming a shutdown begins April […] Continue Reading →
Copyright Office issues new DMCA exemptions: iPhone jailbreaking, noncommercial use of DVD snippets Every three years, the United States Copyright Office seeks proposals for exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). As part of the DMCA, it became unlawful to circumvent access control measures copyright holders used to secure their copyrighted works. For example, it is arguably a violation of the DMCA to use a program to […] Continue Reading →
USPTO proposes tiered system for patent application examination speed In a press release today, the USPTO has proposed a tiered examination system where applicants could choose to pay a higher fee in exchange for quicker examination of an application or could opt for a delay of up to 30 months before docketing for examination. This is the latest in Director Kappos' attempts to control […] Continue Reading →
USPTO to allow accelerated examination for “green” applications without examination support document In a press release yesterday, the USPTO announced it was beggining a pilot program to permit accelerated examination of patent applications directed to "green" technologies. The announcement came on the same day that the EPA announced it considers greenhouse gases a threat to public health and the environment. The announcements came just before the start […] Continue Reading →