An argument can be made that Benjamin Franklin may be the most famous American inventor, but without a doubt the most prolific and influential American inventor was Thomas Alva Edison. It is indeed difficult to imagine the modern world without scientific contributions and inventions of Edison. Nevertheless, Edison did have failures, including his failed support of DC power over AC…

Here is another listing of some interesting things I stumbled across over the last week, which I likely won’t have time to write a full article about, but which are worth knowing about and reading. 1. Judge Michel Speaks About “Junk Patents”, Damages, Trolls, and the PTO (271 Patent Blog) Peter Zura quotes remarks from Judge Michel.  In one part…

I am writing from New York City today.  I am here for the PLI Patent Bar Review Course, which kicks off our summer run of courses.  Over the next couple months John White and I will crisscross the country from New York, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, spreading patent teachings to aspiring patent attorneys and patent agents.  Right…

The ACLU should be sanctioned for its frivolous lawsuit challenging gene patents, which was filed Tuesday in the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.  This lawsuit is nothing more than grandstanding, it presents frivolous arguments and outright lies.  The ACLU would have you believe that the patents cover naturally occurring genes, which is simply…

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,…

Last week an IBM patent application covering an allegedly unique system and method for enhancing productivity.  I typically do not get interested in the bizarre, wacky, ridiculous patent applications that are published because all that is required to have a patent application published is the filing of something, no matter how ridiculous, and the payment of the filing fee.  My…

On May 7, 2009, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP lost a patent malpractice suit in the United States Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas, when the jury concluded deliberations and presented the court with its a Verdict Form, which awarded the plaintiff’s $72,611,397.83.  In a report in Law Blog of the Wall Street Journal on…

Gilles Bignan holds a PhD. in Chemistry, and soon will be a new patent agent.  I met Gilles in October 2008, when he attended the PLI patent bar review course in New York City.  When Gilles contacted me to let me know he had passed I asked him if he would be interested in doing an interview to discuss how…

Some reports had suggested that James Pooley of Morrison Foerster was on a short list to be named the next Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property (a.k.a. Director of the PTO), but I can now confirm that Pooley will not be the next Director of the PTO.  President Obama has nominated Pooley to become the next deputy director general for…

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…

Chickenfoot is a new rock band that will release its debut, self-titled album in Europe on June 5, 2009, and in North America on June 9, 2009.  The band is comprised of guitar legend Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and frontman Sammy Hagar, the original “Red Rocker” and a Rock…

I love to write about patents and intellectual property in general, and I love to read about all things intellectual property as well.  As any writer will undoubtedly tell you, researching and writing takes a lot of time.  It seems that I am increasingly finding interesting things to write about and expand upon, but there are only so many hours…

    An updated version of this article is available at: http://ipwatchdog.com/2014/05/17/patent-drafting-not-as-easy-as-you-think/id=49638/