Posts Tagged: "IP News"

NY v. Aleynikov: NY Penal Code, Federal Criminal Law Unprepared to Deal with Source Code Theft

Employers often assume that they have the same weapons in their arsenal to prevent theft of virtual trade secrets as they have against other types of loss. As the prosecution of Sergey Aleynikov in Federal and New York courts showed, however, that simply isn’t true. Even though juries in both courts found him guilty of downloading confidential computer code from his employer, judges ultimately found that the laws under which he was prosecuted did not cover the acts he committed. A careful employer should therefore make sure it puts precautions in place that prevent theft of computer code, rather than relying on the threat of criminal prosecution.

Aleynikov was a computer programmer employed by Goldman Sachs to write high-frequency trading code. In 2009, he accepted a job offer to join a potential competitor, where he would create a new high-frequency trading platform from the ground up. Before he left Goldman, however, he sent portions of Goldman’s high frequency trading code to a German server for his own future use. After Goldman found out, it went to the FBI; Aleynikov was then arrested on a flight home from a visit to Chicago. With that arrest began his circuitous journey through the U.S. legal system, governed by two different sovereigns and under two different legal regimes.

What makes a patent valuable; A patent broker’s perspective

In a recent article Toxic Asset, we explained in detail how much recent court decisions and new rules at the USPTO had negatively impacted the value of US patents. This is not to say that all patents are worthless, far from it. Actually, based on the fact that we have recently received strong offers on several of the portfolio we…

IP News & Notes: CLS Bank, Inventor Expo, PAIR & More

Starting January 15, 2014, some EFS-Web and Private PAIR users experienced issues when authenticating to the system… The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank on March 31, 2014.  This case is being briefed on the merits right now, and Trading Technologies is looking for parties interested in sighing onto their brief in support of software patents… South Florida Inventor Expo – This annual event will include programming that will help inventors learn how others promote their products… Ray Millien joins GE Healthcare as Senior IP Counsel.

News & Notes – October 21, 2013

Soverain Software Files Certiorari Petition with Supreme Court— Acacia Research Re-Branding Launch—
Survey Shows Majority Not Familiar with New gTLDs— University Launches Revenue Incentive Patent Cost Sharing Program— Mark Cuban Cleared of Insider Trading— European Patent Convention Celebrates 40 Years— John Marshall Law School Hosts IP Symposium— ALS Goes Into Remission with Steroid Treatments?— Trade Secret Hacking Case Results in 5 Year Prison Term

News & Notes for September 2013

Clouding IP Faces Inter Partes Review at the USPTO. ***** Goodlatte’s Second “Discussion Draft” of Patent Reform Legislation. ***** IPO White Paper Calls for Update to Patent Examination System. ***** The After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0), which had been scheduled to expire on September 30, 2013, has been extended through December 14, 2013. ***** Patent Litigator Becomes Managing Partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. ***** The requirement for consonance applies to both the patent challenged for double patenting (i.e., the challenged patent) and the patent being used as a reference against the challenged patent (i.e., the reference patent).

Article One Partners Announces New Veterans Program

In December of 2012 Article One Partners announced that they would be launching an educational contest series geared towards military veterans with an interest in research, science and technology. The program, known as the Article One Partners Veterans Program or AOP-Vets for short will consist of three main pillars; an educational curriculum on patent research, a series of career guidance sessions from intellectual property executives, and an “exciting Grand Challenge” with the opportunity to win rewards for success on the research platform. In fact, at the end of the program, which is set to begin on April 8, 2013 and will run through May 17, of 2013, the best-performing participant of the program will receive a $5,000 reward.

The Making of a Good Patent Related Press Release

One of the most frustrating things I encounter when blogging is finding a really great story courtesy of a press release and then realizing that the press release provides so little useful information that it is impossible to write anything other than a puff piece, which I simply will not do.  From time to time I have even written to…