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House Hearing Highlights China, E-Commerce Contributions to Cluttering of U.S. Trademark Register
At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet this morning, titled Counterfeits and Cluttering: Emerging Threats to the …
Last Week at the PTAB: Three Intel Petitions Instituted on Qualcomm Patent, Major Tech Firms Join Google IPR
Last week, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued 39 decisions regarding petitions for inter partes review (IPR) patent validity proceedings, instituting 26. Eight of those proceedings involve …
A Look at Five Cases at the International Trade Commission: Apple v. Qualcomm, Jurisdiction Issues, and Overlap with the FDA
Case filings at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), a popular venue for resolving intellectual property disputes, reached record levels in 2018, and 2019 appears likely to be …
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Federal Circuit Makes Wasteful Attempt to Side with Patent Challenger in General Electric v. United Technologies
Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in General Electric Co. v. United Technologies Corp., which continued the trend …
Five Tips for Keeping Safe with Your Head in the Cloud
Management of trade secrets is fraught with competing interests. There is the tradeoff between security and inconvenience—for example, the annoying wait for a special code to …
Big Tech Under Fire in Congress
A hearing of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law held yesterday examined whether big tech companies—Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple—are becoming too …
Unified Patents Seeks Experienced, Registered Patent Attorneys
Unified Patents is again growing its legal department, and seeks experienced, registered, patent attorneys. Applicants must have at least 3 years of law firm or other relevant experience …
Consider the Courage of Judge Newman at the Federal Circuit
With more dissents than any other Federal Circuit Judge in history, Judge Pauline Newman is driven by a need to safeguard our national system of innovation. Judge …
Antitrust Laws Are Not Enough to Kill Big Tech Monopolies
The United States is looking to antitrust law to break up big tech. Later today, for example, the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law will …
Evidentiary Hearing Held in Engineer’s Suit Against U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Alleging Bad-Faith Patent Examinations
The extent to which the existence of a patent system will promote “the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to ... inventors the …
This Week on Capitol Hill: Copyright Office Oversight, Threats to the Trademark System and Big Tech Antitrust Issues
This week features a busy schedule of hearings on Capitol Hill involving technology, innovation and intellectual property topics. In the House of Representatives, the House Financial Services …
The Federal Circuit Must Revisit Its Imprudent Decision in Chargepoint v. SemaConnect
I recently authored an article for IPWatchdog arguing that the Federal Circuit in ChargePoint Inc. v. SemaConnect, Inc., (2018-1739) effectively overruled the new U.S. Patent and …
Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 12: Final Rule on Drug Prices in TV Ads Blocked, Huawei Pronounced Top Chinese Patent Earner, and Brazil Joins Madrid Agreement
This week in Other Barks & Bites: The Trump Administration’s Final Rule that would have required list prices of drugs to be displayed in television ads is …
How Senate IP Subcommittee Witnesses on Patent Eligibility Responded to Questions from Senator Blumenthal
Through the first half of June, a series of hearings on the state of patent eligibility in America held by the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee rendered a …
Hauptman Ham Seeks to Expand its Patent Prosecution Practice
Hauptman Ham, LLP, an intellectual property law firm located in Northern Virginia, seeks experienced candidates with industry experience for its patent prosecution practice due to its rapid …
Last Week at the PTAB: Comcast Successful on Multiple Petitions, Unified Patents Sees Mixed Results
Last week, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued 31 decisions related to petitions for inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, instituting 14 IPRs and denying the other 17. Although …
Amidst Push for a Summer Vote on USMCA, Report Argues RDP Requirement Would Not Raise Drug Prices
In the face of pressure to pull provisions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that would grant 10 years of regulatory data protection (RDP) for biologics inventions, a …
Blackbird Technologies Seeks Mid to Senior Level Litigation Associates
Blackbird Technologies, is looking for experienced mid to senior level associates with at least three years of patent litigation experience, who can handle most day-to-day case demands …
Google v. Oracle and the Battle to Protect Software Via Copyright
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court invited the United States Solicitor General to file a brief expressing its views in the long-running case of Google LLC …
Music Industry Groups Square Off Against Songwriters, Small Publishers in Mechanical Licensing Collective Battle
On October 11, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA) was enacted into law after passing both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The …
Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB Ruling Finding Graphical User Interface Claims Patent Ineligible
In Trading Technologies International, Inc. v. IBG LLC, Interactive Brokers LLC (2018-1063), the Federal Circuit agreed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that the contested …
As Google’s Ad Revenue Slows, Alphabet May Soon Regret Its Anti-Patent Strategy
This morning’s edition of the Wall Street Journal carried a front-page article describing how the once mighty and untouchable online-advertising operation at Google has begun to …
Qualcomm Survives Apple Manipulation, But FTC Continues Reckless Pursuit
Now that Apple and Qualcomm have made peace it would be easy to allow the case and the issues to recede into the background. That is likely …
USTR Special 301 Report Highlights Continued Issues with IP Enforcement, Notorious Markets in China
On April 25, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released both its annual Special 301 Report and an updated Notorious Markets List, each of which highlights …
Judge Koh Delivers Qualcomm Brutal Defeat Despite Apple’s Proven Manipulation
In a 233-page Order issued yesterday, Judge Lucy Koh of the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of California handed Qualcomm a stinging defeat …
Bipartisan Agreement That Drug Prices Are a Problem (and Patents are Complicated) Could Mean Changes for Pharma
During a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday titled, “Intellectual Property and the Price of Prescription Drugs: Balancing Innovation and Competition,” senators heard …
USPTO Seeking Patent Examiners for DC/Metro Office in Multiple Areas of Expertise
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is seeking Patent Examiners for it's DC/Metro office location in the areas of Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, Biomedical, and Industrial …
This Week on Capitol Hill: 5G, National Security and IP; Oversight of the FCC; and Renewable Energy Technology Development
There will be debate on Capitol Hill this week around tech and innovation, as hearings get underway on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate on 5G networking …
Other Barks and Bites, Friday, May 3: CASE Act, China Leads in 5G SEPs, and SCOTUS Requests Government’s Views in Oracle v. Google
This week in IP news: the CASE Act, which would create a small claims system for copyright claims, is reintroduced in both houses of Congress; Qualcomm earns …
SCOTUS Ruling in Return Mail Delivers Blow to Government Use of IPRs
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service in which the 6-3 majority held that the …
Senate IP Subcommittee Hears from Sports Industry Reps on Need to Step Up IP Protections
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committeee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), said last week that the subcommittee will “explore increasing criminal penalties and …
Huawei/CNEX and the Role of Trade Secrets in the U.S.-China Trade War
In late May, news reports surfaced regarding allegations of trade secret theft committed by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies that had been made in an Eastern District …
Cray Wins Summary Judgment Against Raytheon Following Successful Venue Transfer Post-TC Heartland
On April 15, U.S. District Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin issued an opinion and order in Raytheon Company v. Cray, Inc. granting summary …
Registering your website with the Chinese government?
Doing business in China is exciting and potentially lucrative; however, there are “hidden” traps. Most of these hidden traps have been extensively discussed in the Western world – …
What happens when lifestyle drugs like Viagra and Cialis lose patent protections?
Each year, millions of men rely on pharmaceuticals like Viagra and Cialis for their erectile dysfunction (ED), but they may not be the only ones facing dysfunctionalities. …
Alternate Approaches to the Valuation of Intellectual Property
Techniques for valuing intellectual property continue to develop, especially as access to information becomes easier and more efficient. The practice of valuing intellectual property has only been …
Federal Circuit Affirms TTAB Refusal to Register ‘CHURRASCOS’
In a May 13, 2016 decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision upholding an Examiner’s denial of registration based on a finding …
The Myth of the 18-Month Delay in Publishing Patent Applications
Starting in November 2000, the USPTO started publishing patent applications 18 months after their earliest filing date. So the simple assumption is that you file a patent and 18 months …
Reflections on Taking the Patent Bar Exam
If you are reading this article beyond the title, you are either preparing to take the USPTO’s patent bar exam or you are considering whether you …
Design Patent Infringement: How to decide if you should sue
First, look at the merits of the infringement claim. They may be stronger than you think, and you can thank a 2008 ruling for that. That year, the …
Top Patent Law Firms for 2017
We compiled a list of the top patent firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2017 where the …
Top Patent Firms for 2016
A list of the top patent firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2016 where the patent firms …
Beat the Odds: How to Get Your Invention Licensed
Many inventors believe the way to get a company interested in their inventions is to write a letter – and then hope they receive an invitation to begin …
Does University Patent Licensing Pay Off?
Patent licensing or creating new companies is not a get rich quick path for schools despite the occasional blockbuster invention or Google spin-out. Indeed, enriching universities is …
These Are the 20 Hardest and Easiest Art Units
Art Unit 3689 has the lowest allowance rate at 7.7%. Art Unit 3659 has the highest at 98.3%. Oddly enough, these two art units are from the same technology center. It’…
Comic-Con Considerations: Cosplay, the Right of Publicity, and Copyright Concerns
For as much as Comic-Con is about comics, TV, and upcoming movies, it’s not hard to see that a large portion of its allure for fans …
Do Patents Truly Promote Innovation?
Invention, it has been shown, is driven primarily not by genius or happenstance but rather by markets and the expectation of the profit that can be gained …
10 Years Later – A Look at the Efficacy of the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Program
For 61% of the non-defective requests, the panel decided that there was an actual issue for appeal, such that the applicant would either need to file an Appeal …
The Cost of Obtaining a Patent in the US
Estimating US patent costs is a difficult matter because so much depends on the technology involved, but answering "it depends" is not particularly insightful or helpful. What …
Protecting Ideas: Can Ideas Be Protected or Patented?
Unfortunately, despite what you may have heard from late night television, satellite radio commercials or snake oil salesmen, there is no effective way to protect an idea… …
Moving from Idea to Patent – When Do You Have an Invention?
In order to protect an idea it must mature into an invention first. This means that you need to be able to explain to others how to …
Patent Searching 101: A Patent Search Tutorial
Inventors and entrepreneurs who are looking to cut costs frequently want to do their own patent search. This is a wise first move, but inventors need to …
Patent Claim Drafting 101: The Basics
When writing a claim it is important to describe how the various components are structured and how the various components interact and connect. First, include a claim …
The Top 5 Mistakes Inventors make with their Invention
Generally speaking the first step toward commercializing an invention and making money is typically to pursue the patent path. For those new to the industry it is …
Getting Your Invention to Market: Licensing vs. Manufacturing
Of course, whether you are going to pursue licensing or manufacturing, for the first lesson is to realize that there are no tricks to invention marketing. It …
Tricks & Tips to Describe an Invention in a Patent Application
One excellent way to make sure you are including an appropriately detailed description that treats a variety of variations and alternatives is to have many professional patent …
Patent Drawings and Invention Illustrations, What do you Need?
If you are going to file a patent application you must have drawings to include in the application, but patent drawings are not the only type of "…
Good, Bad & Ugly: Truth About Provisional Patent Applications
Whether that provisional patent application can ever be useful moving forward is unknown and unknowable at the time it is filed, which allows for those who knowingly …
The Law of Recipes: Are Recipes Patentable?
In most cases the typical recipe for a "killer Margarita" or "the best barbeque sauce ever" will not be patentable, but the only way to know for …
Patent Drawings 101: The Way to Better Patent Applications
To properly accomplish the goal of having the best disclosure possible you should also not think in terms of a single patent drawing or illustration, but rather …
When is an Invention Obvious?
That being said, the possibility that a utility patent could be obtained cannot be definitively ruled out even if an invention seems quite likely to be obvious, …
Utility Patent Applications – Content and Substance
In order to obtain a utility patent one must file what is referred to as a non-provisional application or a non-provisional utility application. It is called “non-provisional” …
The Benefits of a Provisional Patent Application
Like any other patent application, a provisional patent application is effective to stop the clock relative to so-called statutory bars and immediately upon filing a provisional patent …
