News, Notes & Announcements

In this edition of News, Notes & Announcements, the mother of all patent trolls, Acacia Research Corporation, scores two more licensing agreements, one with IBM the other with US Cellular.  Samsung Electronics and Stanford Law School are combining forced to co-sponsor a patent prize for excellent writing about patent law, with real money awarded to the winner and runners-up; $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.  AIPLA announced that David Kappos will give the keynote speech at the annual meeting on Thursday, October 21, and Judge Gajarsa will speak on Friday and Chief Judge Rader will participate in a panel on the amicus process. The Wall Street Journal is reporting about new challenges to cookies tracking our every move online, and BIO is the charter sponsor of a new weekly public affairs television program called BioCentury This Week, which premiered yesterday and is available on the web.

1. Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTG) announced on September 13, 2010, that its Software Restore Solutions, LLC subsidiary entered into a license agreement with International Business Machines Corporation regarding patents relating to automatic repair functionality for software applications. The license agreement resolves litigation that was pending in the Northern District of Illinois. Then on September 20, 2010, Acacia announced that its Celltrace LLC subsidiary entered into a license agreement with U.S. Cellular Corporation covering technology relating to the use of short messaging in cellular telephony. Two more licenses for the mother of all patent trolls.
2. Samsung Electronics and Stanford Law School are proud to co-sponsor the inaugural Samsung-Stanford Patent Prizes. We are seeking outstanding papers and paper proposals on the topic of patent remedies. We will award up to seven Prizes in the amount of $10,000 each to academics, lawyers, and other professionals in any field who submit the best papers or abstracts. In addition, we will award up to 12 Prizes in the amount of $5,000 each to full-time students in any field who submit the best papers or abstracts. The winners are expected to attend and participate in a conference on the subject of patent damages to be held at Stanford Law School on February 18, 2011. Travel expenses will not be separately reimbursed, but should be paid out of the prize money. Applicants should submit a precis of their draft or proposed paper (not to exceed five pages) by email to Brian Love at Stanford Law School ([email protected]) no later than October 31, 2010. Winners will be notified by approximately November 15, 2010. To be eligible for the Prize, winners must submit a draft of their paper in advance of the conference, by February 1, 2011. The purpose of this prize is to encourage new research; eligible papers must not have been published before December 31, 2010.
3. The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) is pleased to announce that David J. Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, will be the keynote speaker at the AIPLA Annual Meeting Thursday Luncheon on October 21, 2010. Other highlights of this year’s AIPLA Annual Meeting include: (1) Friday Luncheon Remarks from The Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa, Circuit Judge, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; and (2) A panel discussion on “De-mystifying the Amicus Process and its Practical Impact on a Case,” featuring The Honorable Randall R. Rader, Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
4. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today about growing legal challenges to “cookies,” which track a users activity online. According to the Journal: “Since July, at least six suits have been filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against websites and companies that create advertising technology, accusing them of installing online-tracking tools that are so surreptitious that they essentially hack into users’ machines without their knowledge. All of the suits seek class-action status and accuse companies of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other laws against deceptive practices.” The account goes on to explain that prior cases have found the practice to be legal, but the new challenges are built upon the reality that the technology has so advanced that the “cookies” used today are essentially hacking into a user’s machine and are far more intrusive than earlier technologies. See ‘Cookies’ Cause Bitter Backlash.
5. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is now a charter sponsor of BioCentury This Week, a new weekly public affairs television program.  BioCentury This Week will examine how the intersection of biotechnology with industry, public policy, regulation and finance is transforming healthcare, agriculture, energy and the environment.  The program will join W*USA 9’s “Sunday Power Block” lineup of distinguished and well-respected news and information programming, including CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, This Week In Defense News and McLaughlin Group.  Each episode will feature a combination of pre-produced news segments, panel discussions and one-on-one interviews with industry leaders, government officials, advocacy organization representatives and other key leaders across the full spectrum of biotechnology. BioCentury This Week premiered September 19, from 8:30-9:00 am EST, on WUSA Channel 9 in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and on FOX affiliate WFXT Channel 25 in the Boston, MA market. The program will be continuously streamed from the BioCentury This Week website starting at 9:00 a.m. EST every Sunday. It is important to note that this is not a program produced by BIO, and as such BIO does not have editorial control.