At 6 p.m. CST on November 10, 2009, Foundation Surgical Hospital will present a live webcast of a partial knee replacement featuring the iUni® G2 Personalized Knee Resurfacing System. The live procedure will be performed by Dr. Terry Clyburn and Dr. Brian Parsley from Foundation Surgical Hospital in Houston, Texas. During the webcast, the viewing audience can email questions to…

Determining what compounds are obvious under the doctrine of “structural similarity” can be a daunting challenge, even for those of us with a chemistry or pharmaceutical background.  Add the doctrine of “inequitable conduct” to the “structural similarity” brew, and the plot truly thickens.  But there’s enough schizophrenia about the structural differences between one prior art compound called Schmutz X and…

The United States District Court for the District of Delaware handed Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) a victory last week in its patent infringement lawsuit brought against Exela PharmSci, Inc., Exela PharmSci Pvt., Ltd., Apotex, Inc. and Apotex Corp. The defendants had been seeking permission to market generic versions of Allergan’s drugs ALPHAGAN® P, which is indicated for the lowering of intraocular…

The recent case of In re Lister is a painful reminder of the potential for “self-inflicted wounds” under the “printed publication” bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) .  Fortunately, the patent applicant in Lister was able to skirt around this “hazard” of his own making. The patent applicant, Dr. Richard Lister, was a Ph.D. clinical psychologist and an avid sportsman.  Dr. Lister had grown…

Earlier this month Technorati underwent an extreme makeover of sorts, not only with respect to the site design, but also with respect to how blogs are ranked.  Technorati is now the fifth largest social media property, still well behind Facebook.com and MySpace.com, but somewhat surprisingly ahead of Twitter.com and Digg.com.  The new Technorati not only focuses on trying to provide…

Just 12 days ago I publicly resigned from the Board of Directors of the United Inventors Association over concerns I had with respect to the UIA.  Since that time I have received many e-mails and telephone calls regarding my resignation.  Some have been extremely supportive, and some have questioned my decision saying that I should not have run out on…

The United States Patent and Trademark Office a few days ago announced the designation of the Ryan-Matura Library of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, as a Patent and Trademark Depository Library (PTDL). The patent and trademark depository library program began in 1871 when federal law first provided for the distribution of printed patents to libraries for use by the…

The Redmond Giant, Microsoft Corporation, had US Patent Application 20090265604 publish, which seeks to protect a method for displaying a graphical representation of the vitality of a social network. This patent application was filed on April 21, 2008, and is one of many related to social networking that Microsoft has pending presently.

One of the most frustrating things I encounter when blogging is finding a really great story courtesy of a press release and then realizing that the press release provides so little useful information that it is impossible to write anything other than a puff piece, which I simply will not do.  From time to time I have even written to…

Earlier today a pending non-provisional utility patent application assigned to Apple Computer published. This application, US Patent Application 20090265214, is titled Advertisement in Operating System, and covers exactly what the title implies; namely an operating system that is capable of displaying a variety of advertisements to users. You are likely to have heard of the first listed inventor, Steven Jobs, the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc.

When it comes to talking with their kids, parents say the topics of math and science are harder to discuss than drug abuse, according to a survey of 561 adults who have children ages 5 to 18. The survey was conducted online between Sept. 23 and 28, 2009 by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates on behalf of Intel Corporation, and…

I just gained another new follower on Twitter (IP_Privacy), and when I went to my Twitter account to follow in return I noticed they had tweeted an article from the Washington Post regarding the FTC setting endorsement rules for bloggers.  It seems that the Federal Trade Commission has decided to update the guidelines relating to the use of endorsements and…

Sure, a computer programmer with time on their hands can write code and freely give it away, but that is not a business model or innovation strategy that will lead to widespread acceptance or use. In order for open source companies to grow they need to rely on investors who fund development, and investors are only going to be interested in funding development if there is a proprietary strategy in place. It is as simple as that.

Late this evening attorneys representing Dr. Triantafyllos Tafas filed a Reply to Motion for Dismissal of Appeal and Request for Remand. In this filing Tafas points out that the decision made by USPTO Director David Kappos to withdraw the claims and continuations rules does moot the appeal, there is a difference between mooting an appeal and vacating an underlying district…

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross…