About two weeks ago I received an anonymous letter from “A concerned observer” regarding the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI).  I realize that anonymous tips can be dubious, but the more I write about the Patent Office the more anonymous tips I get, and the more anonymous comments are made to various posts.  Some of the comments and…

Last Thursday I wrote regarding the USPTO, GlaxoSmithKline and Dr. Tafas jointly requesting an extension of time within which to either request reconsideration or rehearing en banc of the Federal Circuit’s decision in the claims and continuations saga.  This morning I learned that the Federal Circuit has granted the requested extension of time, so the parties have until the end…

Earlier today I heard a rumor from an exceptionally reliable source regarding the United States Patent and Trademark Office efforts to reform patent quality review.  Quality review, or QR for short, has become an anchor around the neck of patent examiners, and more than any other single issue has lead to the astronomical backlog of patent applications now facing the…

Today, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Aventis v. Amphastar (Docket No. 08-937). Inequitable conduct was the sole issue presented in the cert petition, which Aventis filed on January 23, 2009. According to the procedural summary in Aventis’ cert petition, the Federal Circuit held the patent on Aventis’ $2 billion-per-year drug to be unenforceable due to inequitable conduct because of…

Bathing Poncho US Patent No. 7,509,689 Issued: March 31, 2009 I am almost speechless, which does not happen often.  I came across this patent over the weekend.  It was NFL Draft weekend, which means that I was parked in front of the TV all weekend.  Between picks, and while waiting for a pick from the Dallas Cowboys that never came…

The PLI Patent Litigation treatise edited by Laurence Pretty has just been updated and includes updates of five chapters, providing you with the information and strategies you need to litigate patent cases successfully. Contributors for this release are John M. Skenyon (chapter 2), Andrei Iancu, Lisa Partain, and Kenneth Weatherwax (chapter 3), Brian E. Ferguson (chapter 4), Patricia Martone (chapter…

Yesterday I wrote about how the growing backlog of applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office has caused the average time a patent application remains pending to rise to ridiculous levels. Some have contacted me to suggest that I am dead wrong to imply that the problem is getting worse given that the number of patent application is…

I just received word that the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Dr. Triantafyllos Taffas and SmithKline Beecham Corporation (i.e., GlaxoSmithKline) filed a joint request for an extension of time to request either reconsideration or rehearing en banc at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  The motion seems to be primarily provoked by the government who…

The average pendency of U.S. patent applications is out of control.  Everyone involved in the industry knows this to be true, but it might be easy to forget just how bad it is at times.  Like so many patent attorneys and agents, I did not practice during the Reagan years.  While I have over 10 years of experience as a…

In February I tried to compile a list of the top 25 patent blogs, but the list was admittedly insufficient.  With that in mind, I am giving it another go and looking for nominations.

Yeseterday I wrote an article titled Obama to Fund Entrepreneurs in Latin America.  In this article I discussed President Obama’s remarks while at the Summitt of the Americas, particularly picking up on his pledge to send $448 million dollars to foreign countries impacted by the economic crisis, and a plan to create a fund to restart the lending to businesses and entrepreneurs…

Sometimes I wonder if I am dreaming.  Virtually all of us have been affected by the economic crisis that has gripped the world, so no one can really claim to be uniquely impacted above and beyond others, although to each their own circumstance no doubt feels unique.  There are tried and true solutions that historically have lead to economic growth…

Yesterday as I was watching news coverage of the thousands of tea parties that occurred all across America one particular sign caught my attention.  It was a poster of Ronald Reagan in a style reminiscent of the now famous Barack Obama poster created by Shepard Fairey.  You may recall that Fairey created a popular print made famous through the 2008…

I have been writing for some time about the problems with the United States patent system and my proposed solutions.  As I have continued to write about various issues and work through them with assistance from readers who both send me private e-mails and post comments, I have been getting more and more comments and messages from people on the…

I can honestly say that I never thought I would have any reason to write about Nadya Suleman, the so-called Octomom, but it appears as this omnipresent, attention-seeking mother of 14 children is aggressively seeking to cash in on giving birth to 8 children just a few months ago.  In order to take full advantage of this situation Suleman has…