PRESS RELEASE: Suffern, N.Y., March 4, 2009 – General Patent Corporation (GPC), a leading patent licensing and enforcement company providing assistance to small inventors and entrepreneurs throughout the United States, announced its disappointment with the latest Congressional initiatives to reform America’s patent laws. With the nation expecting more from the new Congress and the newly-elected Obama administration, it was hoped…

PRESS RELEASE: Washington, D.C, March 3 – The Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy (MAPP) released the following statement regarding introduction of legislation to modify the U.S. patent system. Chief among our concerns is the language that reduces penalties on those who take the intellectual property of others. While we appreciate the sponsors’ willingness to hear our concerns, the legislation as…

As scary as it is, it is becoming harder and harder to believe anything other than that we are in another period of depression, call it the Great Depression II.  The Dow Jones industrial average closed today at 6,763.29, which marks the lowest close of the Dow since April 25, 1997.  It also means that we are now 52.4% off…

Rob Clarke, the Director of the Office of Patent Legal Administration at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, just finished his presentation at the 3rd Annual Patent Law Institutesponsored by PLI.  It was an extremely interesting presentation with quite a number of interesting factoids coming out.  Chief among them is that the Patent Office is extremely worried about its…

Today in New York City the Practising Law Institute begins its third annual Patent Law Institute.  I am not in attendance this year at the event at PLI headquarters at 810 Seventh Avenue, which is just two blocks away from the David Letterman Theatre (known to some as the Ed Sullivan Theatre) and right around the corner from the best…

It is almost impossible to believe that given all the turmoil  our economy is facing, with trillions of dollars being spent by the US government as if the US dollar were some kind of Monopoly money, but patent reform legislation is likely to be introduced this week, perhaps as early as Monday, March 2, 2008.  Why is Congress thinking about…

Hello everyone.  I am coming to you live from a Hampton Inn located just south of Cleveland, Ohio, in a town named Independence.  I have to tell you that I am staying at the nicest Hampton Inn I have ever stayed at.  I have a living room, full kitchen and a jacuzzi all for $130 a night, so if your…

Earlier today I was contacted by the Wall Street Journal asking whether I had heard about the United States Patent and Trademark Office laying off employees in such a way that it would create problems for the Office with respect to keeping up with the growing backlog of patent applications.  From what I can tell this rumor was started by…

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, USPTO Director John Doll joined members of Congress and officials of the National Inventors Hall of Fame last week to announce the 2009 class of inductees. All those recognized are inventors of advances related to or enabled by integrated circuit technology. The 2009 inductees includes inventors such as Jean Hoerni,…

PC Tools, a leading security software vendor with offices in Sydney, San Francisco, London, Shannon (Ireland), Melbourne, Kiev, and Boulder,  today issued a warning  to caution Internet users that virtual venues for dating, social networking, and adult entertainment all present dangerous digital risks from computer viruses, spyware and phishing, and with Valentine’s Day tomorrow the holiday is likely lead cybercriminals and…

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), and Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., announced on February 11, 2009, that the two settled the patent litigation between the parties. Also announced on February 11, 2009, was a settlement between BCD and Power Integrations. Although BCD maintains it did not infringe, and the claims asserted by Power Integrations are under final rejection in reexamination, the settlement was for business reasons so BDC could move forward.

PRESS RELEASE – Fordham Law School’s Intellectual Property Law Institute has announced that for the first time, its Annual Conference on Intellectual Property Law & Policy, the world’s leading intellectual property law forum, will be held outside of New York City. The 17th annual conference will be held at Cambridge University, U.K., on April 15 and 16, 2009. It will…

Last Updated: February 21, 2009. This will be the last update of this list for now, but I will revisit it in several months again. I was wondering what the top patent blogs were so to inject some sense of objectivity I did some search using Technorati, which was not as easy as I had anticipated.  While Technorati is the…

Earlier today more than 130 US manufacturing companies sent a joint letter to President Obama detailing their serious concerns about the economic impact that enactment of patent reform legislation would have on the US economy should such reform look anything like what was proposed during the 110th Congress last year. The letter sent to President Obama coordinated by the Manufacturing Alliance on Patent…

In a strange twist, Shepard Fairey, the artist of the popular print made famous through the 2008 Presidential Campaign, has sued the Associated Press in federal District Court in Manhattan seeking an order from the court that his use of the underlying photograph owned by the Associated Press is a fair use.  Mr. Fairey’s lawyer, Anthony T. Falzone, the executive…