IPWatchdog

The year 2022 brought a lot for IPWatchdog to be grateful for. It was the first year that IPWatchdog held “LIVE” programs in its brand new headquarters office, which opened in October in Ashburn, Virginia! We also hosted numerous webinars to bring in top minds from around the world, who discussed the gamut of IP law and practice topics. However, after COVID shutdowns and restrictions, we were especially excited to be able to open our doors and welcome in person conversation and networking with top thought leaders in the industry. As we look forward to what 2023 brings, let’s reflect on some memories from our in-person programs in 2022. We look forward to seeing you in 2023. Cheers to the New Year!

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that certain intellectual property (IP)-related transactions are now authorized in Russia, following publication by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of General License No. 31. The authorized transactions include the filing and prosecution of any application to obtain a patent, trademark, or copyright, as well as renewal and maintenance fees.

Funeral services will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah,  on Friday, May 6, for Senator Orrin Hatch, who died on Saturday, April 23, 2022, at the age of 88. Hatch was Utah’s longest-serving senator, first sworn in by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller as a member of the 95th Congress in 1977, and co-author of one of the most significant IP bills ever passed, the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act.

The DOJ should refrain from taking any steps that would make it more difficult for Americans to innovate amid fierce competition abroad. Further challenges to American innovation will jeopardize national security by disadvantaging and ceding U.S. technological leadership to China and other foreign competitors actively looking to displace the United States as the world leader in critical technologies.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The Patent Trial and Appeal Board hears oral arguments in the famed CRISPR gene editing case; today marks the deadline for all comments on the 2021  version of the Joint DOJ-USPTO-NIST Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary FRAND Commitments; Judge Newman dissents from a Federal Circuit majority opinion finding clear error in a district court’s ruling on a patent settlement agreement; in a separate case, the Federal Circuit also dismissed an argument from Myco that injunctive relief against infringement upset the “status quo”; BlackBerry sells its legacy patent assets to a special purpose vehicle formed to purchase those assets for $600 million; and more.

This week in Washington IP news, the House of Representatives hosts several committee hearings to discuss the American Music Fairness Act, which would require terrestrial AM/FM radio stations to pay royalties to musical performers and not only songwriters, and to navigate the safety concerns raised by aviation executives over the expanded rollout of 5G networks operating on frequencies close to those utilized by airplane safety devices. In the Senate, the Antitrust Subcommittee will explore the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which is designed to provide antitrust safe harbor for collective action by news publishers to negotiate royalties for reuse of news content by online news aggregators. Elsewhere, the Hudson Institute hosts former USPTO Directors Andrei Iancu and David Kappos for an event that critiques the DOJ’s recent draft policy statement on remedies for standard-essential patent owners.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent a letter yesterday to the Administrative Conference of the United States requesting it perform a study on the benefits of creating a unified, independent Intellectual Property Office; the Federal Circuit reversed an indefiniteness ruling invalidating computer-implemented method claims over a dissent from Judge Dyk; news reports indicate that Associate Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the U.S. Supreme Court once the Court’s current term finishes; and more.

The last day of PTAB Masters™ 2022 featured sessions on dealing with parallel litigation at the International Trade Commission (ITC) and district courts in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings; life sciences and inter partes review (IPR); and the future of the PTAB. On the latter topic, speakers contemplated what lies in wait for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director nominee, Kathi Vidal, who is likely to be confirmed, as well as how certain the Restoring America Invents Act is to be passed, and what changes it may include.