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December 31, 2007
So Nice of You to Call
After
shelling out to settle patent suits from Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, Vonage
gracefully settles for a cross-license with Nortel; a pleasant way to end the
year.
Continue reading "So Nice of You to Call"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:08 PM | Patents In Business
Rear View 2007
2007
was a raucous year for patents. The high courts and patent office shuffled the
deck chairs like madmen. Patents sleazed and slimed in the hallowed halls of the whores of Congress.
Business as usual as a few patents went big bang for the buck, while others
crashed on the shoals of a new artificial reef called KSR.
Continue reading "Rear View 2007"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:27 PM | The Patent System | Comments (4)
December 29, 2007
Packing Heat, Not Light
Sen.
Patrick Leahy [D-VT] and Sen. Orrin Hatch
[R-UT] were
kissing each other's ass on the Senate floor December 18. The comity is
affecting, but these guys are dangerous goons, given to impulsive action:
"urgent need to modernize our patent laws," they quiver. The real urgent need is
not to screw inventors into the ground to pacify serial patent infringers.
Continue reading "Packing Heat, Not Light"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:06 AM | The Patent System | Comments (2)
December 27, 2007
Hoot
A
patent embodies a simple concept of private property, that of invention. Those
opposed to the concept rage against it in vicarious ways, to weaken its power,
as the concept itself endures. Ironically, current USPTO management tries to
shuck its core responsibility of patent examination, by contriving elaborate
rules and justifications to render its sloth less odious. The patent office's
self-destruction has cheering supporters.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:20 PM | The Patent Office | Comments (5)
December 26, 2007
Singular
Hyperphase
sued Google for infringing four patents with Google's AutoLink and AdSense
technologies.
AutoLink, part of
Google Toolbar, adds links to a web page.
AdSense puts
context-sensitive ads on web pages. The district court granted summary judgment
of non-infringement on a narrow claim construction; overturned, because a
nominal claim reference to one can be plural.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:29 AM | Claim Construction
December 25, 2007
Unlinked
Online
auction house eBay and satellite virtual bank
PayPal dodged errant bullets shot by
Netcraft:
6,351,739 and
6,976,008.
The claims go to "an Internet billing method." Summary judgment of
non-infringement was granted because the claims required "providing a
communications link through equipment of the third party;" in other words, an
Internet service provider (ISP). eBay and Paypal don't do that.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:06 AM | Case Law
December 23, 2007
Proposed Patent Reform and the Market for Ideas
Back in September, Dennis Crouch published a good summary of the patent reform legislation. In an earlier post, I described how the Internet, by reducing the transaction costs associated with identifying valid patented technology, is facilitating an emerging market for ideas. Patent reform legislation obviously has the potential to either promote or destroy this emerging market. Here are a few thoughts on how the specific proposals for patent reform would affect the emerging market for ideas.
Continue reading "Proposed Patent Reform and the Market for Ideas"
Posted by Michael Martin at 11:51 AM | The Patent System | Comments (5)
December 22, 2007
Lexicography
Flexsys
slammed Sinorgchem at the ITC, winning a limited exclusion order. Sinorgchem
appealed. The CAFC instructed the ITC on claim construction.
Continue reading "Lexicography"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:38 AM | Claim Construction | Comments (5)
December 21, 2007
Rule-Crack
USPTO
management is pushing rule-crack on examiners, who are smoking it. Rule-crack:
crystallized infractions homeopathically processed so that they don't even exist
in CFR form. Before rampant rule-crack ingestion, the majority of examiners were
randomly competent at best. Engendering curmudgeonly denial of due process,
rule-crack is spawning egregious intellectual property theft.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:10 AM | Prosecution | Comments (7)
December 20, 2007
Strapped
4,976,388
claims a shoulder strap with a bit of give. John Wleklinski, dba Comfort Strapp, sued
Targus for infringement. Targus got a
summary judgment of non-infringement, its strap not meeting two claim
limitations; easily upheld on appeal in a non-precedential decision.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:26 AM | Litigation
December 19, 2007
Have a Cigar
Insisting
on injunctive relief for patent infringement by eBay for its
"Buy it now"
feature, MercExchange is like a pit bull with rags for brains. After last year's
overturning the CAFC practice of granting injunctions "automatic like a dog,"
the
Supreme Court decision in eBay v.
MercExchange sewed a new garment out of old cloth, updating "the traditional
four-factor test" for granting injunctions: (1) are you screwed without an injunction?; (2) what do you
mean, money's not enough? (the prostitution test); (3) considering both sides,
who's seriously damaged one way or the other?; (4) are consumers screwed by an injunction?. Back in
deliverance district
court after giving MercExchange $30 million in eBay bucks, the judge had MercExchange squeal like a pig.
Continue reading "Have a Cigar"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:29 PM | Injunction
Ritual Fulfillment
Patent
enforcer TPL Group and
Patriot Scientific, holding microprocessor
patents, witnessed
the ritual of bended knee and open wallet by Matsushita/Panasonic, Toshiba, JVC,
and NEC. Trial was docketed for next month in the Eastern District of Texas.
Continue reading "Ritual Fulfillment"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:12 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (1)
December 18, 2007
VoIP
As
Vonage is learning, VoIP is an acronym for "voice over intellectual property." After acquiring Digital Packet Licensing last year, which had its own patent
assertion going against Nortel Networks, Vonage unwisely let it continue. Slow on the
uptake from its expensive losses to
Verizon,
Sprint-Nextel and
AT&T, Vonage now faces
a counterclaim from Nortel.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:19 PM | Litigation
Citing Prior Art
In
many instances, the proposed IDS rules will create a prior art search dilemma
for patent prosecutors. The new rules require extensive analysis of cited art,
reportage that characterizes the claims and thus invites prosecution estoppel,
hence hampering enforcement potential, particularly applying the doctrine of
equivalents. In a field crowded with art, to minimize cost while maximizing
patentability under the new IDS rules, a crafty prior art strategy is
imperative.
Continue reading "Citing Prior Art"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:21 AM | Prosecution | Comments (2)
December 14, 2007
Compact Prosecution
Unable
to staff its way out of its pendency hole, USPTO management seeks to address the
problem by limiting continuations and RCEs. Seeking to gratify a grotesque bias,
Ayal Sharon & Yifan Liu set out to statistically validate that conclusion.
Instead, they proved what many prosecutors already knew: examiners' refusal to
grant deserved patents. The root of the problem is a culture now steeped in
political fear of being considered slack by granting junk patents, inspired by a
short-sighted and incompetent management responding to pressure from well-funded
propagandists.
Continue reading "Compact Prosecution"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:08 AM | The Patent Office | Comments (12)
December 13, 2007
Covered
Randi
Black's
7,152,606 covers a nipple cover, one that got good coverage from Eastern
District of Texas Judge John Love's Markman hearing, adopting most of the
language the plaintiff preferred on the crucial term "nipple cover." The
defendants had argued for an unreasonably narrow construction.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:48 AM | Claim Construction | Comments (1)
Buy It Now
Judge
Jerome Friedman of Eastern Virginia district court put the final tab of eBay
infringing MercExchange's
5,845,265 with eBay's "Buy It Now" feature at $30 million. The case spawned
a muddled
SCOTUS ruling in May 2006 scotching the prospect for injunctions in many
cases, to a nominal regime of payoff for infringement. Post-trial continuing
infringement is not covered in the eBay case, and MercExchange hopes to squeeze
more for it; while eBay likely appeals.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:14 AM | Litigation
December 12, 2007
The Borderline
MPT
successfully sued Marathon Labels and Polymeric Converting for patent
infringement, and even got a permanent injunction, but an extra-territorial
injunction that didn't withstand appeal.
Continue reading "The Borderline"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:00 PM | Litigation
What's the big IDeaS?
The
Office of Management and Budget has approved the
proposed Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) rule changes (full proposed rule).
As poet Walt Whitman penned: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I
contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." But the USPTO isn't
supposed to be poetic, or self-contradictory; it's supposed to grant valid
patents. Worrying about decreasing pendency sets up an inherent
self-contradiction, especially since the direct path to do so is closed: while
management clings to denial as to cause, the agency admittedly suffers
horrendous examiner turnover. So, the only way left to decrease pendency is to
decrease examination time. Decreasing examination time necessarily increases the
risk of granting patents badly: either erroneously granting junk patents, which
the office used to regularly do, to not granting what should be valid patents,
as the PTO has recently made its regular practice. Burden shifting to applicants
is no substitute for impartial examination, and that's exactly the spirit of the
proposed IDS rules.
Continue reading "What's the big IDeaS?"
Posted by Mr. Platinum at 3:06 PM | The Patent Office | Comments (1)
December 11, 2007
Overplay
Qualcomm was the product of the vision and determination of founder Irwin
Jacobs. Jacobs furthered a technology derived from torpedo guidance systems
used during World War II into a global wireless standard. Jacobs also forged a
business model with patents at the core: manufacturing via outsourcing, Qualcomm
became, in essence, a patent licensing company. Facing a relentless squeeze, resentment built among licensees
and competitors, igniting courtroom warfare, with the Big Q lighting the match.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:05 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (1)
December 10, 2007
Can't Touch This
Mere
days after Margaret
J.A. Peterlin was appointed Deputy Director of the patent office, before she
even had a chance to prove herself an
incompetent nincompoop, she's attacked in court by a self-righteous goon
squad of do-gooders who don't want to give her the chance to prove herself an
incompetent nincompoop. But the government isn't to be held
accountable, and so a district court judge shucked the matter because the law is "vague."
Continue reading "Can't Touch This"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:25 PM | The Patent Office | Comments (3)
December 8, 2007
Patent Blog Troll
Anti-patent
blogger Patent Troll Tracker (PTT), notoriously anonymous, has generated a lot of
heat and little light in his spat with hugely successful patent litigator
Ray Niro. PTT
flatters himself that Niro put a $5,000 bounty out to identify him. Niro
nails PTT with "I view these people [anonymous bloggers] as know-nothings,
afraid to reveal their identity." Niro's missed opportunity was coining the term
"patent blog troll," for patent bloggers who aren't patent practitioners. What
special level of hell would
Dante have reserved for the anonymous patent blog
troll?
Continue reading "Patent Blog Troll"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:06 PM | The Patent System | Comments (8)
Big Iron
IBM
used to be known as a supreme hardball player, even fending off a Justice Department antitrust suit. In present time, its increasing reliance on
services has been an impetus to soften its public image. Its public patent
stance is similar, recently espousing eschewing business method patents, which are
subject to especial derision by the software companies that IBM has for its
client base, as they are generally a threat. IBM terms such patents "soft,"
while continuing pursuit of that ilk deemed most significant. The
anti-patent puttyheads may be fooled by IBM's feints, but make no mistake: IBM
is still a hardball player. This week it filed against Taiwan-based
ASUS, makers of excellent computer equipment,
particularly motherboards, at the ITC, whose only remedy to offer is injunctive
relief.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:12 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (3)
December 7, 2007
The Polka
Fulbright
& Jaworski has released its fourth annual survey of companies getting pipped
and waltzing others in that toe-tapping polka affectionately known as
litigation. In the patent department, F&J finds infringement claims rising like
yeasty bread, with the big boys flinging more dough as well as being more
frequently flung upon. Speaking of dough, the cost of the attending the polka
parlor is worry number one, not the prospect of injunctive relief. Yet spend to
dance they do.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:40 AM | Litigation
Golden Handshake
Kamil
Idris, WIPO director general for the past decade,
agreed to step down, after a typographical error in his birth date and some
mix-up about his educational degrees caused an uproar. Idris will get a full
year's salary of over $300,000 and full pension benefits. In related news, WIPO
is changing its name to WIMPO, and, in Japanese, CHIMPO.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:38 AM | International | Comments (4)
December 6, 2007
Withdrawal
Over the next few years, the pharmaceutical business will hit a wall. Some of the top-selling drugs in industry history will become history as patent protections expire, allowing generics to rush in at much-lower prices. Generic competition is expected to wipe $67 billion from top companies' annual U.S. sales between 2007 and 2012 as more than three dozen drugs lose patent protection. That is roughly half of the companies' combined 2007 U.S. sales.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:26 AM | Patents In Business
December 5, 2007
Swearing Back
In
a losing battle for priority, Harold Garner showed the USPTO as a curmudgeonly
weasel that doesn't abide by its own rules. Constructively, what today's appeals
court decision reminds is that swearing back requires independent corroborating evidence showing
prior reduction to practice, convincingly demonstrating that
the claimed invention "worked for its intended purpose" at the claimed
pre-filing priority date.
Continue reading "Swearing Back"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:26 PM | Prosecution
Patent Plasma Sensibility Spasm
In
but a single example of an endless stream, Samsung and Matsushita, the world's
largest plasma screen manufacturers, suffered a litigation meltdown: settling
their dispute over their respective plasma screen patents. Fortunately for the
companies respective lawyers, the two companies continue to bash
each other over semiconductor and memory patents.
Continue reading "Patent Plasma Sensibility Spasm"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:59 AM | Patents In Business
December 4, 2007
Patent Tax
The United States' best known
racketeering syndicate turns its green eye of
jealousy towards patents: the IRS wants to know of any transactions
under the aegis of a tax-related patent. As David Boundy at Cantor Fitzgerald wondered: "20%-off-sales at
Sears of dishwashers covered by patents could become transactions that have to
be reported to the IRS. Has the entire executive branch taken leave of its
senses?" Who said there was ever any sense to take leave of?
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:33 PM | The Patent System | Comments (4)
December 3, 2007
Opprobrium
Patent rube Viet D. Dinh in the right-wing
American
Spectator sucks corporate fumes for air as he goes gung ho for the sorriest
patent legislation since 1793.
An example of the litigation abuse engendered by the current system is the rise of "patent trolls," speculators who acquire and sue bona fide patentees but neither contribute to or otherwise expand the marketplace of ideas nor increase or improve consumers' choices. These speculators profit at the direct expense of consumers and risk-taking inventors and investors.
Wrong. Many inventors must rely upon patent enforcement firms, as they do not have the resources to practice their inventions, and infringing corporations more often than not refuse to negotiate patent licenses, relying upon their overwhelming financial resources to crush inventors in legal costs. Besides, patents are a commodity (that's why they are called "intellectual property"), subject to free trade; only a fascist would want it otherwise.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:27 PM | The Patent System | Comments (2)
December 2, 2007
Not Rusty
Edward
"Rusty" Rose III stuffed his piggy bank, starting in the 1970s, shorting stocks. In 1989,
Rusty and a rascal named George "Dubya" Bush, along with other investors, bought
a controlling stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team. Oh yeah, Rusty's
bankrolled King George along the way. Rusty kept shorting, acquiring a
whiff of taint by shorting
Terayon Communication Systems, then publicly bad-mouthing the company so as to make
his prophesy bet self-fulfilling. Randy Rusty then decided to try his hand at
the "sport of kings."
prior art search + 
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