Patent & IP news for April 12, 2016

With New Lawsuits Against VW Greenwashing Focus Shifts to Consumers from www.greenpatentblog.com

Previous posts (here and here) discussed the Volkswagen emissions scandal in which the German automaker intentionally programmed a number of its diesel vehicles to activate emissions controls only during testing. The vehicles’ software allowed the ...

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In Memoriam of Kay Chapman: sustainable development and IP from ipkitten.blogspot.com


The IPKat is very much a community that shares both common joys and sorrows. The IPKat was saddened to learn belatedly from Francesca Re Manning, IP and Legal Manager of ICARDA, that Kay Chapman died ...

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Battles between the PTO and Courts from patentlyo.com

The dispute between the University of Alabama, Paul Bryant Jr., and Houndstooth Mafia stems from the latter’s unlicensed use of a houndstooth pattern and other ‘marks’ that relate to the University and former legendary ...

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Do Non-Compete Agreements Really Impede Innovation? from writtendescription.blogspot.com

I spent my entire practice career in California, representing clients who were, by and large, free to move from company to company due California's ban on covenants not to compete. At the time, the ...

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PTAB’s Finding of Unpatentability Supports Post-Trial JMOL of No Willful Infringement from docketreport.blogspot.com

The court granted defendant's motion for relief from the jury's finding of willful infringement because defendant presented a substantial question of invalidity. "At trial, [defendant] presented evidence of invalidity due to obviousness as ...

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The Heavy Burden: Overcoming the Presumption Against Improper Inventorship from patentlyo.com

An important change made in the America Invents Act of 2011 was to allow patent owners to file for patent protection as patent applicants rather than relying upon sometimes uncooperative inventors to do so.[1 ...

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Emojis on baseball bats to send messages from ipbiz.blogspot.com



There is a certain issue arising with the bats of Bryce Harper, who has placed an emoji on the end:


For those of you who aren't hip with Millennials, it carries two meanings in ...

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More on on All Prior Art database of Alexander Reben; the USPTO responds (sort of) from ipbiz.blogspot.com



Further to an earlier IPBiz post Supreme patent silliness reported by Jamie Condliffe at Gizmodo: a (randomized) prior art generator , Laura Sydell at NPR has a post on All Prior Art of Alexander Reben.

Within ...

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U.S District Judge R. Gary Klausner rejects "falsification of history" claim but the case against Led Zeppelin will proceed from ipbiz.blogspot.com

An NPR post titled 'Stairway To Heaven' Plagiarism Suit Heads To Trial includes the text:


Among the claims in the lawsuit against Led Zeppelin: that the band perpetrated a "falsification of Rock n' Roll History ...

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