USPTO announces e-Office Action program for patent applications In a press release, the USPTO announced the availability of the e-Office Action program for patent applications. Under the program, applicants or attorneys may sign up to receive an email notice when an office action is mailed in an application, and can then download the office action from Private PAIR. This avoids the time delay […] Continue Reading →
Obama to nominate David Kappos for USPTO director According to the website of Senator Patrick Leahy, President Obama will nominate David J. Kappos to be the next Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office. The nomination does not yet appear on the White House's nominations and appointments page (Update: here is the While House press […] Continue Reading →
Pirate Bay operators guilty of criminal infringement in Sweden; no webcast of US file sharing case In the past day, there has been two interesting bits of news in the world of cases alleging copyright infringement by way of peer-to-peer file sharing. The first is that the individuals who operate and maintain the servers that host The Pirate Bay, the world's largest bittorrent tracker, were held to have committed criminal copyright […] Continue Reading →
Patent Reform Act of 2009 back before Senate Judiciary Committee today to consider compromise Today at 10:00 Eastern time the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an executive business meeting to discuss the Patent Reform Act of 2009. The committee will consider some proposed amendments that represent a compromise on several key issues that have been points of contention over the course of the past several years when patent reform […] Continue Reading →
Patent reform back again for 2009 Yesterday Senators Patrick Leahy and Orrin Hatch (chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Representatives John Conyers and Lamar Smith (chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee) introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2009. Click below for more detail of the newly-introduced legislation, as well as links to other coverage […] Continue Reading →
Patry copyright blog is no more It's a sad day in the blogosphere, as Bill Patry, author of Patry on Copyright and the Patry Copyright Blog, has announced he is shutting down his blog. We've linked to Professor Patry's commentary on copyright law on many occasions, and his additional insight into copyright issues will be missed. Other blogs noting his departure: […] Continue Reading →
Patent litigation by the numbers PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published its annual litigation study entitled 2008 Patent Litigation Study: Damages awards, success rates and time-to-trial. The study examined a wide range of variables pertaining to patent litigation from 1995 to 2007. With the number of patents granted increasing every year, the number of patent cases has continued to grow. Also, with the […] Continue Reading →
USPTO proposes fee increases for Fiscal 2009 In a Federal Register notice today, the USPTO has proposed fee increases for its Fiscal Year 2009, which begins October 1, 2008. The increases are based on the projected Consumer Price Index for the period ending September 30, 2008, which is 4%. Comments on the proposed changes are due by July 3, 2008. Click below […] Continue Reading →
Highlights from Drake Law School Summer Institute in Intellectual Property, Biotech, and Ag Sciences The Drake University Law School Summer Institute in Intellectual Property, Biotechnology, and Agricultural Sciences was held in Johnston, Iowa on May 19-20. The event, sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, addressed diverse topics including the impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on biotechnology patents, the patent landscape of the nascent biofuel industry, ethical considerations in […] Continue Reading →
Wal-Mart learns a lesson in copyright licensing the hard way A story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (via Bill Patry) illustrates how important it is for parties to a transaction to know what they're getting up-front. Starting way back in the 1970s, Wal-Mart hired an outside company, Flagler Productions, to document various aspects of Wal-Mart's operations. Flagler produced videos of Wal-Mart corporate officers and directors, […] Continue Reading →