Leading up to the swearing in, PTAB Vice-Chief Judge James Moore explained the need for the new Judges, as well as pointing out that the USPTO has already had 13 covered business method patent reviews and 42 inter partes reviews initiated just since they became available on September 16, 2012 in the second wave of implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA). “We have doubled our hearing review capacity,” Moore explained. He also said that the approximately 27,000 cases pending at the Board this year “was a high water mark and we will recceed from there thanks to the help of those sitting behind me,” referring to the soon to be sworn in APJs.

In October, Life Science litigators Mary Bourke, Mark Pino, Kristen Cramer, Dana Severance and Daniel Attaway joined the firm from Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP, an intellectual property law firm located in Delaware, which not lists 52 attorneys on their firm website. These laterals include three partners and two associates. Veteran IP litigators Barry Herman and Behrooz Shariati also joined the firm in June and July, respectively. According to the firm’s website Womble Carlyle now has 547 attorneys and 89 attorneys operating within a broadly defined Intellectual Property practice group.

Many may initially wonder what IP has to do with civil rights. After all, IP rights (IPR) have always been understood in terms of individual economic incentives for creating society-wide public good in the form of cultural works, like art and music, and scientific knowledge such as medicines. The interrelationship initially seems odd because, regardless of political leanings, many are turned off by any mention or use of identity politics. Yet, as one leading scholar observed, “we cannot understand intellectual property today without recognizing the identity struggles embedded within it. Intellectual property’s convergence with identity politics reveals links between cultural representation and development, which traditional economic analyses of intellectual property overlook.” Thus, I ask should IPR be the new focal point of the civil rights movement in America?

According to the company, Apple’s method utilizes a solid-state air mover using “corona discharge—an electrical discharge near a charged conductor caused by the ionization of the surrounding air.” This is made of one corona electrode, one collector electrode, and a high voltage power supply. An electric field is created when voltage is applied to electrodes; the electric field causes surrounding particles to become ionized (charged). The electric field “spreads” a charge toward the collector electrode, and the charge continues to spread and create air movement en masse.

On November 8, 2012, Mylan Inc. (Nasdaq: MYL) announced that it, along with Famy Care Ltd., has entered into a settlement agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. that will resolve patent litigation related to Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo® Tablets, which are indicated for the prevention of pregnancy in women who elect to use oral contraceptives as a method of contraception. Also on November 8, Research Affiliates, LLC and WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ: WETF) announced that Research Affiliates will withdraw its patent infringement lawsuit brought against WisdomTree and pay WisdomTree $700,000. On October 31, 2012, Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTG) announced that its subsidiaries settled patent litigation with Medtronic and Comcast Cable in unrelated cases.

In the end, Voter Verified reached the correct result that the Benson article was a “printed publication” bar. But the “publicly accessible” doctrine relied upon by Judge Lourie’s opinion was not the best (and most direct) pathway to get to that result. Even more distressing, the important Cronyn requirement of “meaningful indexing” of the electronically posted document was again discounted by Voter Verified. Put differently, if you can’t readily find the electronically posted document by doing a reasonable search (with appropriate search terms) via the Internet, how can you say that the document is “publicly accessible” to be a “printed publication” bar?

A company that provides management services to more than 300 payday loan and check cashing stores, and an affiliated company that owns and operates several stores, will pay $101,500 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated federal law by allowing sensitive consumer information to be tossed into trash dumpsters.

In addition to the USPTO remaining in the capable hands of Director Kappos for the foreseeable future, with the reelection of President Obama that means that there could be a real possibility that AIPLA Executive Director, Q. Todd Dickinson, will be on any short list for future appointments to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While no one knows for sure, given the age of Judges on the Federal Circuit it would seem likely that President Obama will have an opportunity to appoint at several Judges to the Court, and given the Court’s workload they could and should be granted more Judgeships anyway.

In this final installment of my interview with Dickinson we discuss the Federal Circuit, including the rumors that I have heard about him possibly being on a short list for a future appointment to the Federal Circuit. As you will see, Dickinson deflected those rumors, although acknowledging they are flattering. We then move on to talk about judicial appointments in general, as well as the next big issue that will face the Federal Circuit in the coming years.

Both patents cover methods and associated systems that enable peer-to-peer advertising. In the innovation described in the patent a subsidy program is set up based on a profile of an advertiser. A qualified subscriber is identified for the advertiser based on a profile of a subscriber. One or more advertisers and subsidy programs for the qualified subscriber are then selected. When a communication transmission is received one or more advertisements associated is transmitted from a central communication device to the subscribers communication device.

Generally, the Patent Exam remains as predictable as ever in terms of what the USPTO wants you to know. The USPTO concentrates on those issues that lead to loss of rights and prejudice to your client’s situation. They want to be sure you know how to get a filing date, assert priority, respond to Office Actions, start and advance an appeal, etc. As to the post-grant procedures added by AIA Phase 2, the focus is on how they are started, timing, and thresholds of proof.

One just thinks of the fact that five years ago Blackberry was the industry standard, dominant forever, and now it is basically exposed to ridicule because virtually it’s dropped to third or fourth on the distribution list. You look at the rate of technological progress between then and now, it just doesn’t seem in any way, shape or form to have been slowed down so it seems to me that in face of rapid technological advance to say that the current system is a disaster is a mistake.

As a part of this all-access look behind the scenes I interviewed Q. Todd Dickinson, the AIPLA Executive Director who is also a former Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This interview took place at the conclusion of our day together. In this segment of my two-part interview with Todd Dickinson we start by discussing how the AIPLA manages the daunting task of taking positions in virtually every IP issues that arises.  We then transition into discussing first-to-file and the American Invents Act.

Today there is a different solution for those who need to find that particularly illusive non-patent literature that typically makes up the best, most damaging prior art.  Rather than conduct the search around ever corner and under every stone you can leverage the knowledge of a global network of highly educated and highly trained researchers. Essentially, you can tap into their specific knowledge and stores of information by engaging the power of crowdsourced patent searching.

HyperSolar, Inc. has developed a technology that they claim will produce hydrogen that is renewable and utilizes natural power sources: sunlight and water. Who knows whether the HyperSolar/UC technology will ultimately lead to the dawn of a hydrogen energy economy. What we do know is that without the forward-thinking legislation that gives Universities incentive to partner with the private sector there would be no such potential. As alluring as alternative, cheap, clean energy is, efforts to get from where we are to where we ultimately need to go will be extremely expensive and the research highly speculative. Such high cost and extremely speculative research is realistically only carried out by Universities.