Patent & IP news for April 28, 2016

Publishing and "the Machine": help or hindrance? from ipkitten.blogspot.com


Let’s call it “the Machine”. From at least the 17th century onwards, copyright has flourished because technology has enabled works to be produced in greater numbers and at a lower cost. Before “the Machine ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Industrial Design Draft Treaty Does Not Make It To Last Mile At WIPO from www.ip-watch.org

Designers wanting to protect their industrial designs at the international level will have to wait some more before the application procedures can be harmonised after hopes to breach differences on a draft treaty were dampened ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Patents for Digitally Labeling Websites Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101 from docketreport.blogspot.com

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment that the asserted claims of plaintiff’s patents for digitally labeling websites were invalid for lack of patentable subject matter and found that the claims were ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Further thoughts on the Taney statue matter in Baltimore from ipbiz.blogspot.com


There is a recommendation to "de-access" the statue of (former) Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney, who, among other things, authored the "Dred Scott" decision. One notes that seven justices concurred in that decision, with only ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

DTSA as a Shoe Horn for Contract and Employment Law Claims from patentlyo.com

I expect that an important result of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) will be the creation of supplemental federal jurisdiction over contract and employment disputes that are otherwise a matter of state law decided ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

BREAKING: DSM Communication on Platforms leaked! from ipkitten.blogspot.com

The role and responsibility of online platforms and intermediaries is a key issue in the Digital Single MarketStrategy, which the EU Commission launched last May [see Katposts here, here, here, here and here]. After a ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Plant Variety Protection To Meet Food Security Plant Treaty, But Where Are Farmers’ Rights? from www.ip-watch.org

A planned symposium to identify potential interrelations between the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and the United Nations International Plant Treaty is raising concerns from civil society about farmers ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Measure Allowing Federal Courts To Handle Trade Secrets Claims Clears US Congress from www.ip-watch.org

Legislation authorising federal courts to hear cases involving theft of trade secrets passed the US House of Representatives on 27 April and is now headed for an expected signature by President Barack Obama. Final enactment ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

The journal Science does "The growing problem of patent trolling" in April 29, 2016 issue from ipbiz.blogspot.com

Back in the year 2014, IPBiz discussed some work by Lauren Cohen on "patent trolls" [see
Lauren Cohen et al. go after "patent trolls" ].

Flash forward to 2016, and Cohen is talking about patent trolling ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Jonathan Masur on Improving Cost-Benefit Analysis at the PTO from writtendescription.blogspot.com

Federal agencies are required to use cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for all "economically significant" regulations—those with an impact of at least $100 million. Given the economic importance of patents, even small procedural changes at the ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

Patent Quality Symposium Report – USPTO Patent Quality Initiative Moving Forward from patentlyo.com

Guest Post by Professors Colleen Chien, Santa Clara University Law School and Arti Rai, Duke Law School On Wednesday, April 27, 2016, the USPTO hosted a day-long conference around the one-year anniversary of its Enhanced ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook

The Fantastical World of Justice Stephen Breyer from www.patentdocs.org

By Kevin E. Noonan -- In a recent book entitled Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, author Adam Cohen examines the case of Buck v. Bell, where Justice Oliver Wendell ...

Share via E–mail | Twitter | Facebook