Patent Prospector

Dispositive

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:42:52 -0800

CAFC Chief Judge Paul R. Michel graphed a signifying, that petitioning appeal upon appeal don't amount to more than just jivin'. En banc and certiorari might as well be in a dead language as to anyone's chances of being granted.

Clotted

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:30:29 -0800

Aventis owns 5,389,618 / RE 38,743, claiming a blood clotting drug. Amphastar and Teva filed FDA ANDAs, prompting suit by Aventis. Amphastar shot back with an affirmative defense of inequitable conduct - Aventis failed to disclose that relied-upon studies, done by a non-inventor, Dr. Uzan, had used different dosages, thus muddying the results.

Priority

Wed, 14 May 2008 19:41:08 -0800

DuPont sued MacDermid Printing for infringing 6,773,859, claiming digital thermal printing. '859 was based on a provisional application. The USPTO mistakenly issued the patent without reference to the provisional. DuPont had that corrected. MacDermid brewed a tempest in a teapot over priority date, confusing the district court judge, who refused a motion to issue a preliminary injunction. On appeal, the CAFC (2007-1568) ruled that DuPont had met the requirements for 35 U.S.C. § 119, and set the priority date to the provisional filing. Vacated the motion denial. Remanded.

Squashed Mango

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:49:42 -0800

6,148,377 claims a network-based device-shared memory space. Mangosoft hoped '377 might be an express to payout from Oracle, but its only stop was local.

Another Nail

Tue, 13 May 2008 17:10:02 -0800

Acumed successfully went after Stryker for infringing 5,472,444. After discovery, Strkyer started selling what Acumed would later, in a second complaint, accuse as further infringement. The district court dismissed the second suit as old news. Acumed appealed.

Useful

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:04:42 -0800

The CAFC's sua sponte en banc rehearing of Bilski's claimed risk management process, so far denied as unpatentable subject matter, indicates the appeals court's desire to draw a "bright line test for determining whether a claimed invention embodies statutory subject matter," a "quest" that a BPAI judge in Bilski's case deemed "an exercise in futility." That just shows the BPAI not having the sharpest tacks in the box, because a bright line test is exactly what's called for, and can be accomplished.

In The Weeds

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:32:46 -0800

Rep. Howard Berman, Chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing the USPTO, does his job in an April 29 letter to PTO Director Jon Dudas, demanding answers: did you sully the agency's reputation by consorting with RIM when it was under the gun from NTP, and you had NTP patents under reexamination?; why haven't you considered deferred examination?; explain inconsistencies in patent application projection for the future; document methodology in meeting application demand; why so pig-headedly clueless about examiner attrition?; justify managerial lurching in its various incarnations. One surmises from such inquiries that, under Dudas' direction, the PTO hasn't exactly been on the path of probity.

Multiples

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:45:31 -0800

Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker idyllically fuses discovery with invention in his thematic presentation of a strawman: "In The Air: Who says big ideas are rare?" The ostensible topic is that discoveries and inventions are often made contemporaneously by multiple people. However droll and obvious the observation may be, Gladwell spins his yarn in posh New Yorker fashion.

Going Solo

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:22:41 -0800

Last month, seven major telecommunications patent holders: Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson, agreed to limit patent licensing fees, so as to engender continuing evolution of 3G mobile technologies, and limit litigation. Others were invited to participate. Two notable holdouts: Nortel and Qualcomm.

Feathering the Nest for Inventors

Sun, 11 May 2008 05:00:32 -0800

Sensible patent reform should focus on feathering the nest for inventors in the United States. There is nothing more important to our long-term prospects within the global economy.

Pitiable

Sat, 10 May 2008 23:37:34 -0800

Professors James Bessen and Michael J. Meuer (BM), who should be thoroughly discredited for their tripe, appear to have duped many people who should know better. What they demonstrate to the discerning is how little patent emperors have no clothes.

Nadir

Sat, 10 May 2008 21:35:22 -0800

The phrase "with all due respect" is common to arguments traversing claim rejection. But how much respect is due for utter breakdown of "examination on the merits"? This is not a rhetorical question.

IP Is Not A Commodity

Sat, 10 May 2008 08:46:59 -0800

Earlier this week, Peter J. Wallison argued that conventions in fair value accounting may in part be the cause for the recent bubble markets. Specifically, Wallison pointed to the convention, implemented under FASB 157, that requires assets to be carried at "market" values, even when those assets are not being held for trading purposes.

Broken and Unbroken

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:04:05 -0800

Referring to patents, the Economist thinks it "a pity" that a "rewrite" of "broken laws" is "back on the shelf." Wrong. The patent statutes are not what's broken, with one ghastly exception. It's the USPTO and the courts that are broken.

Dead, For Now

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:41:47 -0800

The Economist: "On May 5th the Senate removed the bipartisan Patent Reform Act from its calendar."