Posts in Government

The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that in November the US economy lost over 500,000 jobs, the largest single month job loss since 1974.  So why would any branch of our government seek to assault one of the largest industries we have?  Lets face it, the banks and financial institutions are in horrendous shape, the US auto makers have…

I am sitting in a Starbucks just outside the District of Columbia, across the river in Virginia.  I attended the oral arguments this morning at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding the matter of the United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Tafas, the appeal of the claims and continuations rules promulgated by the USPTO…

Tomorrow, December 5, 2008 at 10:00am the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hold oral arguments regarding the appeal by the United States Patent & Trademark Office of the ruling issued by Judge Cacheris of the Eastern District of Virginia, which permanently enjoined the claims and continuations rules from going into effect.  You will probably recall…

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hold oral arguments in the case between the United States Patent & Trademark Office and Dr. Tafas and GlaxoSmithKline on Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10am.  I have followed this case since the very beginning and will be in attendance in the gallery to hear the arguments.  I plan…

Carry-out food container US Patent No. 7,451,889 Issued November 18, 2008 Did you know that on Tuesday, November 18, 2008, a carry out food container was patented? I discussed this patent in a post last week titled Unequal Treatment at the US Patent Office, where I discussed the unfair and inequal treatment that seems to be plaguing the Patent Office.  After…

Something is seriously wrong at the United States Patent & Trademark Office, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe anything other than that there is ongoing unequal treatment of inventors who file patent applications. In the United States everyone is supposed to enjoy the same rights and privileges, and this concept manifests itself in the ideal that everyone is…

The United States Patent & Trademark Office has just released the 2008 Performance and Accountability Report, which is the annual report explaining the activities of the Office during fiscal year 2008.  While so much of the report is a self congratulating look back at what the Dudas Administration believes it effectively achieved over the past year, the report should be anything…

This means that for inter partes reexamination 74% of requests result in all claims being canceled and 14% of the time certificates issue with at least some claims being changed. This is staggering because if you can eliminate all claims then the patent is worthless, but even if you can only change claims you have effectively prevented retrospective infringement of changed claims because the claim that is changed can only be enforced moving forward from the point of change. Thus, quality reexamination representation is far better than paying a bounty for the collection of prior art references.

Packaging diaper with deceptive size United States Patent 7,243,477 Issued July 17, 2007 So you think you have an idea regarding what this patent is by looking at the picture? I can guarantee that this picture provides absolutely no clues whatsoever. This patent covers a method of disguisedly packaging a diaper! See, I told you that you could not possibly…

Disposable Boxer Shorts US Patent No. 6,539,554 [ PDF ] [ HTML ] Issued April 1, 2003 Believe it or not, this patent on disposable boxer shorts was issued on April Fools Day 2003! The fact that this patent issued on April Fools Day is rather appropriate and does certainly demonstrate that someone in the Patent Office has a sense…

Free-standing lasagna product US Patent No. 5,939,113 [ PDF ] [ HTML ] Issued August 17, 1999 This obscure patent is a recipe for lasagna. Yes, lasagna was patented on August 17, 1999. Truthfully, that over exaggerates the situation somewhat, but really only slightly. It is more accurate to say that this particular lasagna recipe was patented less than four…

Bi-digital O-ring test for imaging and diagnosis of internal organs US Patent No. 5,188,107 [ PDF ] [ HTML ]  Issued February 23, 1993 This is an oldie, but a goodie!  When I first profiled this patent back in 2003 I wrote this: “I am almost at a complete loss as to how to describe this patent. This one absolutely must fall…

Clothes Protection System [ HTML ] [ PDF ] US Patent No. 7,350,239 Issued April 1, 2008 The United States Patent Office issues some real interesting patents on a regular basis, but over the years it has become apparent that there are those within the Patent Office with a real sense of humor.  April Fools day is a national day…

On August 14, 2008, the United States Patent & Trademark Office decided to profoundly changed the rules that govern patent attorneys and patent agents may do when working with independent inventors who are seeking advice but not full representation.  In a nutshell, the Patent Office has decided that patent attorneys and agents can no longer provide limited consulting to inventors, but rather if an…

Effective October 2, 2008, the United States Patent Office fees will once again be changed, which is a yearly or bi-yearly event. The filing fee to the Patent Office for an individual inventor or a small company that qualifies for small entity status (i.e., companies with fewer than 500 employees) is now $165.00. For those who are familiar with the…