As a small business owner there are two things that you should hold dear: the most precious of resources that you have – namely money and time. But these are the reasons that most owners tend to either ignore or run in the opposite direction when the topic of intellectual property comes up. Surely, they […]
In the most recent iteration of the Patent Wars, the San Jose District Court ruled Apple Inc. would not be able to add Samsung Groups most recent smart phone, the Galaxy S4, to its patent infringement case. The Court ruled the addition of the Galaxy S4 would unfairly prejudice Samsung, as preparing witnesses to talk […]
Inventors and manufacturers often hit a roadblock called a patent. A question often asked to a patent attorney is “how can I get a patent invalidated or have a pending patent application rejected by the examiner?” With the enactment of the America Invents Act (AIA) the message to parties looking to invalidate a patent or […]
The recent Supreme Court ruling about the legality of patenting human DNA was groundbreaking in fields of genetic research, setting the tone for rulings to come. In its decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that human genes, even if they are isolated, cannot be patented under 35 U.S.C. §101. Myraid Genetics Inc. held patents […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City Asia Optical Company’s rejected the appeal of a judgment by the federal district court that awarded Eastman Kodak Co. $33,726,531 in damages for breach of a patent license agreement (Eastman Kodak Co. v. Asia Optical Co., Inc., May 1, 2013, PDF). The dispute involved a 2004 […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Patents for Humanity awards were handed out in a ceremony on Capitol Hill last week. In addition to receiving the award and national recognition winners get a certificate for accelerated processing of future patent USPTO matters. The Obama administration has pushed the USPTO to promote programs to solve long-standing development challenges in health […]
The micro entity provision of the Americas Invent Act is now law. Now all the rule changes mandated by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) have been implemented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). One reason for the change was to make the patent system more efficient and accessible to the independent inventor. […]
The new rules are now official and a first to file system has now been implemented by United States Patent and Trademark Office. This first-to-file is pretty much governed under the 35 USC 102(a) and the exceptions under 35 USC (b). Simply speaking 102(a)(1) – has to do with publications and 102(a)(2) – talks about the […]
It’s pretty apparent that nobody likes patent trolls except for the attorneys that represent them. I think the biggest problem with nonpracticing entities (NPE’s) is that they sue on cases that are not true infringement cases. At first blush this may seem unreasonable because why would you sue a case if you didn’t think […]
Guest Blogger: David Stephenson, Rochester, NY patent attorney The Thesaurus of Claim Construction is an essential tool for patent litigators, prosecutors and general counsel. The authors Stuart B. Soffer and Robert C. Kahrl have taken advantage of the wealth of claim construction information available in the record since the Markman decision led courts to begin defining patent […]