Posts in IP News

Earlier today, at 2:32 pm Pacific Time, a jury in the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of California handed down the largest copyright damages verdict in United States history, ordering SAP AG to pay Oracle USA, Inc. the sum of $1.3 billion. After polling, the jury was excused at 2:33 pm and the Court adjourned at 2:35 pm, but this case is certainly long from over. There will likely be innumerable post trial motions and the inevitable bluster about an appeal, which is all but guaranteed. But for today, renowned trial attorney David Bois and his capable team can savor an enormous victory in this monumental case.

For goodness sake stop thinking that you will get rich by selling your idea to industry and sit back and collect royalty checks for doing nothing. If inventing were that easy everyone would be a filthy rich inventor! Many people will have great ideas, but what separates those who can turn their ideas into money from those who cannot is a strategy to define the idea enough so that it can become an asset that can be protected.

Last week, on November 18, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay to HemCon, Inc., which will prevent implementation of the injunction issued against it and in favor of Marine Polymer Technologies, Inc. The stay will remain in effect during the pendency of HemCon’s appeal to the Federal Circuit. The stay issued by the Federal Circuit will allow the adjudicated infringing bandages sold by HemCon to continue to be supplied to the United States Military.

The program will continue on a temporary basis. The USPTO may further extend this plan (on either a temporary or permanent basis), or may discontinue the plan altogether after December 31, 2011, even if 10,000 petitions have not been granted. Program participants are limited to 15 applications, but given the number of petitions received so far that does not seem to be a meaningful limitation. As of November 15, 2010, a total of 139 petitions have been filed, with 98 having been granted.

Over the last several months Apple has been busy filing and receiving patents on a variety of innovations that employ carbon fibers, which will reduce the weight of its popular line of mobile devices, including the MacBook, iPad, iPhone and iPod. There are some wondering whether the iPad 2 might incorporate the carbon fiber reinforced plastic discussed in some Apple patents and pending patent applications. Such a change would take the iPad away from the aluminum frame currently used, which adds unwanted weight to the device.

Amazon.com has figured out a way to prevent the sending and receiving of unwanted gifts, converting them into a gift that you really do want or a gift certificate. The invention even allows a gift recipient to place a standing conversion order. For example, let’s say you have a particular family member that always sends lame gifts. The patent refers to this person as “Aunt Mildred.” You could have a standing conversion order to change out any gift sent to you by Aunt Mildred, thereby allowing her to send you something, you to receive something you like and want, and the retailer not to have to process an exchange. Now if they could only do with with holiday fruitcakes, but I suppose something things are beyond the capabilities of modern technology.

Building on more than a quarter century of cooperation, the Trilateral Offices continued to focus on addressing global patent workload challenges, in particular, decreasing pendency and examination backlogs, improving patent quality, and leveraging IT solutions to simplify and speed up processing of patent applications.

At one point during his remarks last night President Obama said: “Nobody rushes on the field and dumps Gatorade on them (laughter) when you win a science award. Maybe they should!” Indeed we should celebrate science and math victories every much, if not more, than we celebrate sports victories, but that is not our culture unfortunately. We need to change our culture to raise the profile of those who are succeeding on every level in the scientific fields. President Obama can play a major role in bringing about that change, and his raising the profile of those who are science fair winners is certainly encouraging.

Earlier this evening President Barack Obama awarded National Medals to 16 distinguished scientists and engineers in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Without further ado, here is my photo diary of the 2009 National Medal of Science and 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation awards ceremony.

Later today President Barack Obama will honor the 2010 recipients of both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. I have been granted press credentials by the White House to cover this event, so check back tomorrow for my first hand account of the awards ceremony and a birds eye view of the event from inside the White House.

On October 12, 2010, I had the honor of interviewing retired United States Senator Birch Bayh, who was the primary architect of the landmark Bayh-Dole Act. In this second and final installment of my interview with Senator Bayh we will discuss the aforementioned loft praise for Bayh-Dole, which came from The Economist. We will also discuss statements of Vice President Biden (when he was a United States Senator) regarding the tremendous success of Bayh-Dole, how the United States can stay on the cutting edge of technology, and how to successfully lobby for changes in the patent system.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes changes to the rules governing ex parte patent appeals before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The notice requests public comment on the proposed changes, which include rescinding the highly unpopular 2008 Final Rule, implementation of which has been stayed.

Godici told me that those who are not familiar with Three Track will soon need to familiarize themselves because this is going to happen. “This time next year we will be operating in some kind of a Three Track system,” Godici predicted. He went on to say: “These rules are pretty significant from a practitioner standpoint,” because there will be “layers of questions” and opportunities to strategize with respect to the application process.

Unfortunately for those who support a single European patent, negotiations broke down on Wednesday evening and the status quo will remain. According to the Financial Times the sticking point was with respect to languages that patents would be translated into, with Span and to a lesser extent Italy being unhappy with the prominence of English, French and German.

On Tuesday, November 9, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in TiVo, Inc. v. EchoStar Corp. The case pits TiVo versus Dish, and any ruling from the Federal Circuit will necessarily define the extent to which a district court judge can rely on contempt proceedings to enforce an injunction rather than simply order a full blown new trial. In process the en banc oral argument in this case at the Federal Circuit did not substantially differ from the oral argument held at the Supreme Court the day earlier in the Costco copyright case, where the Supreme Court was struggling with the meaning of the phrase “lawfully made under this Title.” There are two phrases that will be at the center of resolving the TiVo case. The first is “fair ground of doubt,” and the second is “merely colorably different.”