Many readers will recall that on March 16, 2009, I posted an article titled Perspective of an Anonymous Patent Examiner.  That post was and has been one of the most popular posts ever on the IPWatchdog.com Blog.  Therefore, I was quite pleased to receive another e-mail from the same anonymous patent examiner over the weekend.  Not only is this type…

The fact that the FTC is uncomfortable with patent trolls, or non-practicing entities as is now the accepted term, does not mean that the government should launch an investigation to help those tech-giants who can’t figure out how to combat trolling. First, we need to keep in mind that whatever rule is created to apply to the so-called non-practicing entities, will also apply to universities, federal laboratories and research & development companies. So we can use the politically correct term — non-practicing entities — or we can use the term “patent trolls.”

On April 24, 2009, the United Inventors Association (UIA) will release a ground-breaking educational series covering every stage of the inventing process.  This 10 part series, made up of episodes that are approximately 30 minutes in length, was hosted by Steve Greenberg, the author of Gadget Nation: A Journey Through the Eccentric World of Invention.  Steve is a multiple Emmy Award…

Trademark owners who attempt to file and prosecute their own trademark applications are really being pennywise and pound foolish. I appreciate the reasons for filing your own trademark applications, particularly in this economy. Many times, trademark owners are small companies in their infancy, or individuals that are trying to minimize legal fees while attempting to obtain valuable trademark protection. Nevertheless,…

On June 10 – 11, 2009, retailers, manufacturers, media, analysts and investors will gather in Midtown Manhattan for the Consumer Electronics Association Line Shows. New York’s consumer electronics conference and showcase will focus attention on what’s new, what’s next and what’s happening in consumer technology innovations.  To show its support for invention and entrepreneurship, this year’s CEA Line Shows will…

Dr. Chris Mammen focuses his practice on patent and related intellectual property litigation and appeals. Twenty years ago, in the 1988 Burlington case, the Federal Circuit expressed its displeasure with the frequent assertion of the inequitable conduct defense in patent litigation, famously calling it a “plague.” Later that year, in the en banc portion of the Kingsdown case, the Federal…

I recently received an e-mail from Ron Katznelson, who is the Founder and President of Bi-Level Technologies in Encinitas, CA.  Dr. Katznelson is a named inventor in more than 25 U.S. patents and his research and development interests include optimal signal design, digital RF signal processing, digital television, signal representation & sampling theory, intellectual property management and patent law.  Over…

I am pleased to report that March 2009 was the best month in terms of traffic since IPWatchdog.com went live in October 1999.  It is hard to believe we are closing in on our 10th birthday, but all is well, good and growing, which is nice indeed.  In any event, here are the numbers:

The program this morning ran a bit long, and we are behind, but there is such great information being covered here at the Improving Patent Adjudication Through ADR and Federal Court Reform symposium being sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.  One particular presentation that was exceptional (and there have been many) is the presentation by Judge James F.…

I am writing from San Diego, California this morning.  I am sitting in an auditorium at Qualcomm, where the Thomas Jefferson School of Law is holding a symposium titled Improving Patent Adjudication Through ADR and Federal Court Reform.  This is a special event for me personally because not only am I a speaker, but I also inspired the research project…

As I sit here listening to the Executive Meeting of the Judiciary Committee on patent reform, things are getting extremely contentious.  Senator Specter (R-PA) has said that he would rather wait and not vote this bill out of Committee until Senator Kyl (R-AZ) has an opportunity to submit his amendments relative to the post-grant review process.  Apparently Senator Kyl has…

The trouble with freeware is that there is no margin on free, and while open source solutions are not free, the race to asymptotically approach free is on, hence why I say the race to zero is in full swing. As companies continue to look for the low cost solution, quality is sacrificed.

In the Arrhythmia case the invention in question was directed to the analysis of electrocardiographic signals in order to determine certain characteristics of heart function. In essence, the invention was a monitoring device. It had been discovered that 15% to 25% of heart attack victims are at high risk for ventricular tachycardia, which can be treated by the administration of drugs. Unfortunately, the drugs used have undesirable and dangerous side effects, which led the inventor to come up with a monitoring device capable of determining which heart attack victims were at the highest risk for ventricular tachycardia.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Meeting on the Patent Reform bill presently working its way through the Senate just ended, at approximately 10:30 am.  Last week, on Thursday, March 26, 2009, Senator Arlen Specter announced that compromise was close, and that changes to the patent bill would be “very significant.”  It would appear as if Senator Specter was not just blowing…

 Over the last several years the patent allowance rate has fallen from about 70% of applications becoming patents to a low of 42% of patent applications becoming issued patents.  During this same time the Patent Office has continued to proclaim that quality has risen, which everyone in the industry knows to be false.  The real tragedy is that the Supreme…