Posts Tagged: "FTC"

FTC Endorsement Guides Impact Bloggers and Twitterers

I just gained another new follower on Twitter (IP_Privacy), and when I went to my Twitter account to follow in return I noticed they had tweeted an article from the Washington Post regarding the FTC setting endorsement rules for bloggers.  It seems that the Federal Trade Commission has decided to update the guidelines relating to the use of endorsements and…

Comparative Advertising: BK vs. McDonalds and Wendy’s

Today I was searching the Internet for some interesting news to write about and I stumbled upon a press release from Burger King regarding its a ¼ pound Double Cheeseburger now being available for only $1. In some markets the ¼ pound Double Cheeseburger has been available for $1 for the past 18 months, but now it is being added…

Anti-Innovation Chorus Continues Over Biologics

A press release issued earlier today by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) explained that a new article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) urges Congress and the White House to revisit pending biogenerics legislation that would grant biotech companies an a 12-year exclusivity period for biologics. The press release explains that the experts, who are Harvard…

Dishonest Roll Call Editorial on Follow on Biologics

Earlier today James Love and James Glassman published what can only be described as an intellectually dishonest op-ed piece on RollCall.com.  The two James either simply do not understand patent law, the biologics legislation they detest or have an agenda that requires lying and obscuring the truth using scare tactics and falsehoods.  I don’t really know whether they are as…

FTC Bars Deceptive and Misleading Biodegradable Claims

This week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had preliminarily reached a settlement with Dyna-E International and its owner George Wheeler, which would bar the retailer of rayon towels from making false and misleading claims that dupe consumers into believing its paper towels are biodegradable. under a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. This preliminary settlement is now…

Obama Administration Wants Short Biologic Exclusivity

Until recently the Obama Administration had not taken any particularly strong or controversial stances with respect to intellectual property protection.  Sure, President Obama appointed a former RIAA attorney to a top spot in the Department of Justice, asked for study of open source initiatives for the federal government and has complained about counterfeiting and copyright infringement abroad.  On patent matters…

FTC to Hold Final Hearing on Patent Law

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.”

Patent Ambush: The Future of Standard Setting

On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, at 1pm ET, the Practising Law Institute will host a 1 hour telephone briefing discussing the future of standard setting bodies in the wake of the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Qualcomm v. Broadcom.  This discussion of standard setting is particularly topical at the moment given…

FTC Sues Regarding AndroGel Patent Settlement

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint in federal district court challenging agreements in which Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. paid generic drug makers Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. to delay generic competition to Solvay’s branded testosterone-replacement drug AndroGel, a prescription pharmaceutical with annual sales of more than $400 million. “At a time of escalating health care costs,…

FTC Petitions Supreme Court Over Rambus

On Monday, November 24, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court (see also Appendix Vol 1 and Appendix Vol 2) seeking review of the April 22, 2008 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Rambus Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, which turned out to…