Seventh Circuit issues a stinker of an opinion in copyright case The Seventh Circuit succinctly sums up the field of commerce of its decision today in JCW Investments, Inc. v. Novelty, Inc.: Somewhat to our surprise, it turns out that there is a niche market for farting dolls, and it is quite lucrative. The case presents some interesting issues, such as whether the copyright in such […] Continue Reading →
Decision to accept later filing date due to omitted items not correctable via reissue When you make a conscious choice between alternatives during prosecution, the Federal Circuit says you’re stuck with it. That’s the message from In re Serenkin, where the court held that an inventor could not, through reissue, claim priority to his provisional filing. Serenkin had filed a PCT application just before the one-year anniversary of his […] Continue Reading →
USPTO to cease emailing full trademark office actions (updated 4/27) In an effort to simplify transmittal of trademark office actions, the USPTO today announced that it will soon stop emailing trademark office actions to applicants. Instead, emails will be sent containing a link to the office action in the TDR (Trademark Document Retrieval) system. This will avoid the problems of large attachments requiring multiple emails […] Continue Reading →
First patent issues from USPTO’s accelerated examination program On Tuesday, Brother, the company best known for printers and copiers, received the first patent issued based on an application filed under the USPTO’s accelerated examination program. The patent, number 7,188,939, relates to ink cartridges, and resulted from an application filed on September 29, 2006, just over a month after the accelerated examination procedure became […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Addresses Claim Differentiation The Federal Circuit further clarified the doctrine of claim differentiation in Anderson Corp. v. Fiber Composites, LLC. Andersen Corp. owns a number of patent relating to composite materials made from a mixture of polymer and wood fiber as well as patents that relate to structural parts made from those composite materials. Fiber Composites manufactures and […] Continue Reading →
USPTO rescinds partial waiver of restriction requirements for nucleotide inventions In a news release yesterday, the USPTO has rescinded its partial waiver of the requirements of 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.141 and 1.475 et seq. Under the former policy, a “reasonable number” of nucleotide inventions, typically up to ten, would be considered in a single application without a restriction requirement or issues regarding unity of invention. […] Continue Reading →
Viacom sues YouTube, Google for copyright infringement In a press release today, Viacom, owner of the MTV and Comedy Centraltelevision networks (among others), announced it is suing YouTube and its parent company, Google, for copyright infringement. The lawsuit seeks over $1 billion in damages. The parties had been in negotiations for YouTube/Google to have a license to provide Viacom’s content on YouTube, […] Continue Reading →
USPTO to institute pilot project to allow public comments on pending applications The Washington Post today provided more detail about a pilot program previously mentioned in this post. Under the program, the USPTO would post pending patent applications that have become accessible to the public (such as after they have been published). Members of the public would then be able to comment on the applications, and even […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit again deals with standing In yet another case, the Federal Circuit has dealt with whether a party asserting a patent infringement claim had title to the patent, and thus standing to bring the claim against the defendant. Here, once the standing issue was raised at the district court, the Plaintiff opted to fix the chain of title, voluntarily dismiss […] Continue Reading →