The United States Supreme Court granted cert. in Bilski v. Doll. This means that the last chapter on business methods and software has not yet been written, which could be good news or bad news depending upon your particular take. I have wondered out loud about allowing software patents as patentable subject matter, which I think is the right thing to do myself.

Admittedly, the selection of an Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, a post that also carries the title of Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is not as important in the greater scheme of things as many of the other posts President Obama has had to fill.  Having said that, given the unique and real challenges facing…

It has come to my attention that there is no real good way to check on the voting for Top Patent Blogs. I primarily use Mozilla Firefox and that seems to behave differently than Internet Explorer, at least with respect to this survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. I have heard that some folks have been voting multiple times to see the…

Mike Drummond is the Editor of Inventors Digest, perhaps the most popular and widely read magazine in the innovation space.  While I like to consider myself a commentator who can type, Mike is a bona fide journalist with credentials that most only dream about.  He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a war correspondent in Iraq and the acclaimed author of…

As promised, we are moving forward to attempt to determine the Top Patent Blogs.  With the objective component making up Phase 1 of the Top Patent Blog selection process complete, it is now time to move forward into Phase 2, which is the voting phase.  Below are 50 patent blogs for you to choose from.  Question 1 asks which patent…

Subterranean termite detection US Patent No. 6,526,692 Issued March 4, 2003 Here is an interesting obscure patent from IPWatchdog past, but one too good to miss.  This originally caught my eye while reading the New York Times. The article in the Times is titled: Using Termite Flatulence Against Them. This all seemed like a joke, but it must be true,…

As promised I am moving forward with the Top Patent Blogs.  Originally the plan was for there to be 25, but I decided to make the list more inclusive so you will see that there are more than 25 blogs mentioned on each list.  I was also going to base Phase 1 on Technorati, but Technorati has refused to cooperate. …

There are a lot of crazies coming out of the woodwork with respect to the ACLU’s efforts to have the patent laws of the United States declared unconstitutional.  Perhaps you have heard, the ALCU is standing up for breast cancer patients because Myriad Genetics has patented genes.  How awful really.  Not that Myriad has patented genes, because that is factually…

I just spoke with Mark Malek, a patent attorney at the firm I am with – Zies Widerman & Malek.  Mark had an interesting conversation earlier today with a patent examiner who shall remain nameless.  The purpose of the call was to inquire about the status of a particular application that had been filed over 4 years ago and which…

Recently I saw one of Intel’s new TV commercials, oddly enough as I was standing in line at Dunkin Donuts waiting for a coffee. It was playing on the TV positioned perfectly for everyone in line to see, no doubt taking your mind off the wait. I thought this commercial was so awesome I grabbed my cell phone and called…

Ever since this decision was rendered there has been rampant speculation as to what Bilski means and how it will be interpreted. As one who works in this area and one with my own patent application pending in class 705, I was greatly interested both professionally and personally. Thankfully, I can report that it does not seem as if Bilski is turning out to be the impediment to patentability that many feared. In fact, based on what is going on at the USPTO one could make a convincing argument that it is actually getting easier to obtain patents that related to software and computer related processes.

In a decision that is simply painful to read, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday decided in Autogenomics v. Oxford Gene Technology that a foreign patent owner cannot be made a defendant to a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment of invalidity, unenforceability and noninfringement.  According to the majority opinion, Oxford is a British biotechnology company…

PRESS RELEASE: May 19, 2009 – American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), a non-profit association of inventors, patent owners, small businesses, universities, and intellectual property professionals, is calling the controversial comments that Intel founder and former CEO Andrew Grove delivered recently about the U.S. patent system at a Silicon Valley awards ceremony “absurd and irresponsible.” “Likening patents to financial derivatives…

Even before President Obama announces his selection for Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, a post known by those in the industry as the Director of the Patent Office, senior level management Officials inside the Patent Office are beginning to take real and concrete steps to address the enormous backlog of cases that was allowed to build under the stewardship…

As a fan of the Dallas Cowboys it is hard to write about a Redskins victory, but the victory scored by Pro-Football, Inc. on behalf of the Redskins means that the Redskin trademarks will remain intact.  The ruling providing this victory for the Redskins came down on Friday May, 15, 2009, and should once and for all put this matter…