Posts in Technology & Innovation

As I was reading IP Kat this morning I learned that yesterday the UK Intellectual Property Office announced that green inventions will be fast tracked through the patent process.  David Lammy, Minister for Intellectual Property, announced the launch an initiative which will enable inventions with an environmental benefit to be given priority within the patent system.  About six weeks ago…

Just over two weeks ago I wrote an article explaining that quality review at the USPTO was changing for the better.  Shortly after this article published I received a telephone call from the Office of Public Affairs at the USPTO.  We chatted about this article and one thing lead to another and ultimately I spoke with Acting Commissioner for Patents,…

We all make mistakes, but it seems that whenever the popular media writes about a patent matter they get it completely wrong.  I wrote about how the Wall Street Journal gave bad patent advice the other day, and as it turns out the reporter didn’t even seek the advice of a patent attorney.  Instead, the advice came from an inventor…

Just about 10 days ago, on April 27, 2009, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the National Academy of Sciences.  In this speech the President pledged “3 percent of our GDP to research and development.”  With a GDP of $14,075.5 billion, that would equate to research spending of $422 billion.  As  you can imagine, this announcement was received with…

Earlier today I heard a rumor from an exceptionally reliable source regarding the United States Patent and Trademark Office efforts to reform patent quality review.  Quality review, or QR for short, has become an anchor around the neck of patent examiners, and more than any other single issue has lead to the astronomical backlog of patent applications now facing the…

On July 28, 1987, President Ronald Reagan set forth what became known as the “11-point superconductivity initiative” in a speech to the Federal Conference on Commercial Applications of Superconductivity.  As a part of President Reagan’s superconductivity initiative he proposed amendments to the antitrust laws to make it easier for companies to collaborate with respect to basic research, he requested changes to the Freedom…

I was reading the March 30, 2009, edition of Fortune magazine today and there is an article titled After the Panic, Innovation, written by Glenn Hutchins, a co-chief executive of the technology investment firm Silver Lake.  His brief article chronicles how we managed to get into this economic crisis and concludes that, as always, scientific advances and entrepreneurship will lead…

President Obama’s Task Force on Autos today received a copy of the Automaker Patent Assets Intelligence Report (2009 APA-Intel Report) prepared by PatentCafe.com.  The report compares the patent portfolio assets of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen, and concludes that GM, Ford and Chrysler may be sitting on patent assets that could be directly exploited for immediate revenue and…

Steve Greenberg proclaims himself to be “an invention groupie,” but that is only half the story. Prior to getting involved with the innovation industry Steve was a full-time news reporter and won 12 Emmy Awards for his news reporting. Steve has been seen on national television shows such as ABC’s World News This Morning and World News Now, Fox &…

When it comes to solving complex problems, Geoffrey von Maltzahn, MIT graduate student and biomedical engineer, looks to nature for solutions. Finding inspiration in systems that evolution has produced, von Maltzahn is currently helping to tackle one of society’s biggest challenges: improving tumor detection and therapeutic delivery in order to boost the survival rate of cancer patients. Today, the 28-year-old…

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, USPTO Director John Doll joined members of Congress and officials of the National Inventors Hall of Fame last week to announce the 2009 class of inductees. All those recognized are inventors of advances related to or enabled by integrated circuit technology. The 2009 inductees includes inventors such as Jean Hoerni,…

On January 1, 2009, a patent application published on a Yahoo! Inc. invention related to Search Engine Optimization.  Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is typically referred to, refers to actions by a web site to improve its presence and positioning for relevant search queries.  With the amount of information available online being so large engaging in SEO activities to make it more…

International patent filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) grew by 2.4% in 2008, to nearly 164,000 applications, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  While the rate of growth was not as high as it was during the previous three years, when the average growth rater of applications was 9.3%, the total number of PCT applications filed during 2008 represents the highest…

Since the United States Supreme Court first addressed the patentability of computer software in Gottschalk v. Benson the law surrounding the patentability of software has changed considerably, leaving many to wonder whether software is patentable at all. Originally in Benson, the Supreme Court decided that software was not patentable, but then later retracted the blanket prohibition against patenting software.

Open source advocates are going to love the fact that Obama wants to transition the US government away from proprietary solutions. I don’t have any dislike for open source advocates, and I wish them well. I do have a different view of the economics though, and of the patent system. I hear all the time that software patents prohibit innovation, but then when you talk to those who say they cannot create because of patents it is clear that they don’t understand patent law and are saying that not because it is true, but because that is what they belief.