Anyone who has been reading IPWatchdog.com over the last several days knows that anti-patent advocates have been lambasting me for taking the position that patents are not evil and that more than a 0 year patent term is appropriate.  This debate was progressing about as well as you could expect I suppose.  I was making arguments and the anti-patent advocates…

The reason giant companies hate patent trolls is because they are not capable of being counter-sued. There is no deterrent effect because patent trolls do not make, use or sell anything, they just sue. So giant companies are targets in the same way that smaller companies without patents are targets of big companies with patents. No one should aspire to be a target. A simple truth is that a small business without patents might as well dress themselves up as a buck during hunting season complete with a bulls-eye pre-drawn. So here is the case for every business to get patents, particularly software patents. Ignore it if you like, but you do so at your own peril.

This article was written for the United Inventors Association Newsletter and is reprinted here with permission.  Sign up to receive the free UIA weekly newsletter. ******************************** Over the years I have received quite a number of e-mail inquiries and telephone calls from inventors who are looking for information and advice, perhaps even representation. Typically, the initial communication starts off with…

David Kappos, the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, unveiled yesterday a series of proposals to bring significant change to the examiner “count system” – the methodology for determining the time a patent examiner has to complete a patent examination and how much credit is given for each stage of an examination. In the past I have…

I seem to have started a firestorm by writing a post openly questioning how a patent attorney (i.e., Stephan Kinsella) could be of the opinion that it is preferable to have weak patent rights.  I openly questioned how and why any individual or corporation would hire a patent attorney who does not believe in the patent system and seems to…

Last week I wrote an article titled Inauspicious Start to Greater USPTO Transparency, in which I wrote about how disappointed I was that some things never seem to change at the Patent Office.  I was referring to the fact that a Federal Register Notice had been published on September 17, 2009, and gave until September 28, 2009, to provide comments…

I stumbled across an interesting article today from The Post and Courier regarding how interest in US patents is picking up in Cuba.  First, it was interesting enough to learn that it is possible for companies and individuals in Cuba to obtain a US patent given how Cuba and the US have been on rather inhospitable terms for many decades. …

Last week I was in New York City teaching the PLI Patent Bar Review Course along with John White.  The week was a good one, although the city was crazy with heads of state at the UN, terror worries about NY City hotels and President Clinton at the Sheraton across the street from PLI headquarters at the Clinton Global Initiative…

At the beginning of August 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al., Case Nos. 2006-1491, 2007-1180 (Fed. Cir. 2009), a decision that changed the playing field with respect to charges of inequitable conduct in patent litigation. Essentially, the Federal Circuit decided that since inequitable…

I certainly hope this is much ado about nothing, but it is hard to ignore the fact that it seems as if we are off to an inauspicious start under David Kappos.  Yes, he is saying all the right things, seems to understand the mistakes of the past and there is real reason for hope and optimism.  Nevertheless, despite the…

Let me set the record straight from the start. I do not agree with President Obama on much, and I voted for and supported John McCain dating all the way back to his first run for President. Having said this, it is impossible to ignore the fact that so far President Obama and his Administration is saying all the right…

Last week USPTO Director David Kappos explained during his speech at IPO that intellectual property law “is widely recognized as the engine that drives our information age economy, maintains our competitiveness and is responsible for creating and sustaining tens of millions of U.S. jobs.” I have been beating this drum now for several years, and despite the obvious and indisputable…

Last week David Kappos addressed the IPO annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois.  Kappos’ remarks were varied and really set a new tone for the future of the USPTO under his watch.  Kappos continued the theme he has already established in differentiating how the USPTO will run under his regime, as compared to how it ran under the previous regime.  Specifically,…

Legend has it that Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock while having his regenerating liver eaten daily by a great eagle. After the case of Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services, we in the patent world may now be subjected to similar torture in determining when medical/drug dosage calibration methods qualify as statutory subject matter under…

The United States Department of Justice on Friday filed papers with the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging the settlement reached by Google and the plaintiffs in the copyright litigation challenging how Google is digitizing books and offering them for free. The DOJ told the court in a 32 page filing that the…