Open Call From the Patent Office
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The government is about to start opening up the process of reviewing patents to the modern font of wisdom: the Internet.
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Is a man-made microorganism patentable? The J. Craig Venter Institute is about to find out, even as ETC Group challenges the patent bid.
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Any organization willing to donate a patent for environmentally friendly technology can join the group.
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Experts tell lawmakers the broken patent system chills innovation and feeds lawyers and trolls. Will something finally be done? Luke O'Brien reports from Washington.
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Alternate Energy Corporation (OTCBB: ARGY) announced that it has filed provisional patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect the development of two new proprietary processes for the production of a third and fourth commodity chemical by-product.
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(InfoWorld) - Just when it seemed certain Microsoft had lost its now 8-year-old patent dispute with Eolas Technologies, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has reopened the case, giving Microsoft a chance to prove that Eolas' patent for browser plug-ins should not be valid. Microsoft confirmed Friday that the USPTO will consider the company's argument that it was the first to invent the technology the Eolas patent covers, declaring "interference" in the case and scheduling a rehearing. There now will be a separate proceeding in the USPTO on the question of who owns the patent claims, said Jack Evans, a Microsoft spokesman. Andy Culbert, Microsoft associate general counsel, said the company is pleased to have another opportunity to establish that it is the original inventor of the disputed technology. The news is the latest twist in a case that began in 1999, when Eolas first filed suit against Microsoft for infringing on its patent for embedding interactive content in a Web site. Eolas said Microsoft violated its patent in its implementation of ActiveX in Internet Explorer. Eolas, a spin-off of the University of California, was awarded a $520.6 million judgment in August 2003. However, an appeals court threw out that ruling in March 2005 and ordered a new trial to determine the patent's validity. In September 2005, the USPTO upheld Eolas' patent. Disputes over U.S. patents appear to be coming to a crucial crossroads, with patent litigation running rampant and increasing polarization between those who seek strong software patents and those who think that software should not be patentable. Microsoft recently heated up the debate when company executives said in a magazine article that it would aggressively seek royalties for patents the company says it holds for technologies in open source software. Some think U.S. lawmakers should enact patent reform laws to minimize litigation or prevent patent cases from dragging on for years. The Supreme Court recently made it a little more difficult for companies to prove that their patents are valid in an instance where there could be many competitors trying to solve the same problem. In an April 30 ruling in the case KSR v. Teleflex, the Court weakened the position of a patent holder if it created a technology that another company may have invented previously or around the same time, but did not yet file for a patent.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Blog: The companies are about to face off in a federal appeals court over their ongoing patent dispute.
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The U.S. technology industry has faced dozens of lawsuits by &quot;patent speculators&quot; in recent years, and it&#39;s time for Congress to fix problems with the patent system, Intel&#39;s general counsel said Monday.In the last 21 months, U.S. technology vendors have contended with 193 patent infringement lawsuits, and 70 percent of them came from patent speculators -- &quot;people who buy up patents for the purpose of litigating them,&quot; said Bruce Sewell, Intel&#39;s executive vice president and general counsel, at a patent forum.By contrast, companies in the pharmaceutical industry have been defendants in 28 patent infringement lawsuits during the same stretch, and 24 of those lawsuits have been between competitors, he said.Patent lawsuit reform is needed to fix the problem with patent speculators -- called patent trolls by some people -- Sewell said, speaking at a&#160;patent reform&#160;forum in Washington, D.C. Patent reform legislation pending in the U.S. Senate doesn&#39;t target legitimate inventors, he said.&quot;We&#39;re not talking about individual inventors who sue for patent infringement,&quot; Sewell said. &quot;We&#39;re talking about patent speculators who warehouse patents and use those patents to go after successful companies.&quot;But Hans Sauer, associated general counsel at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), called the Patent Reform Act, a version of which&#160;passed the House of Representatives&#160;in September, a &quot;very patent-hostile bill.&quot; In the Senate, the bill has&#160;stalled over objections&#160;from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, as well as inventors and some labor unions.The House version of Patent Reform Act, supported by several large tech vendors including Microsoft and IBM, would allow courts to change the way they assess damages in patent infringement cases. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent; the bill would allow courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece.&quot;Not all patents are identical,&quot; Sewell said. &quot;Some patents are more important in a product, and some patents are less important.&quot;The bill would also allow a new way to challenge patents within one year after they&#39;ve been granted.Changes in the way patents are enforced could hurt innovation, Sauer said. The bill could diminish incentives for the health industry to innovate in the coming years, he said.&quot;Will I, 30 years from now, pay $10 less for an iPod and have a 10 percent less chance that Alzheimer&#39;s medicine will be available?&quot; he said.It is difficult to predict the effects of the patent reform legislation, added Anat Hakim, a patent lawyer with Foley &amp; Lardner, the law firm that sponsored the patent forum.Sewell complained that there&#39;s a small &quot;cottage industry&quot; of patent speculators that have sprung up. &quot;The concern is that we don&#39;t end up encouraging another cottage industry,&quot; Hakim said.The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent questions in recent years, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is instituting new rules later this year, Sauer noted. Adding a patent overhaul bill on top of those changes is &quot;a lot to happen at once,&quot; he said.But Sewell said the changes are needed for the IT industry, if not biotech. &quot;You have a group of companies that are happy with the status quo, and are saying, &#39;Don&#39;t change it; it&#39;s not broken,&#39;&quot; he said. &quot;That&#39;s fine, but it&#39;s broken for a lot of other people.&quot;
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Considers Gowers Review recommendations The UK Intellectual Property Office has launched a public consultation (pdf) on proposals to introduce a fast-track system for patent and trade mark applications. The plan builds on a suggestion made in the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.â¦
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Tech politics watcher Brian Kahin says the patent system should suit different needs, granting one sort of patent for software, for instance, and another for drugs.
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The Bush administration wants to reform the nationâs patent system by requiring better information from inventors and allowing public scrutiny of applications.
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Texas Instruments files the first patent request for an integrated circuit. Electronics is about to be revolutionized.
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The Bush administration wants better information from inventors and to allow public scrutiny of applications.
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If reform is the right word Today, some of the biggest names in high-tech have their eyes on the nation's capital, where lawmakers are babbling about an overhaul of the U.S. patent system.â¦
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Technology industry executives are pushing the U.S. Congress to reform the way patents are issued in order to process them more quickly while also making sure they are legitimate.
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The companyâs lawyers had attempted to gain the upper hand in a patent case by highlighting safety concerns about the companyâs own product.
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Companies on both sides of a patent overhaul debate in the U.S. Congress are stepping up the pressure on lawmakers, as some observers expect a vote soon in the Senate.Two groups, one supporting patent legislation before the Senate and one against it, held dueling media briefings on patent reform on Capitol Hill Thursday. Members of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, including lawyers from Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, and SAP, said they see broad support for the Patent Reform Act in the Senate and hope senators will soon&#160;follow the House of Representatives&#39; lead and pass the bill.The coalition sent a letter to Senate leaders Wednesday, calling on them to pass the Patent Reform Act. The bill will &quot;benefit all American workers and American consumers,&quot; said the letter, signed by 128 companies and organizations, including Amazon, Dell, eBay, and Intel.But another group, the Innovation Alliance, sent a letter to Senate leaders Tuesday urging them to reject the legislation.&quot;No compelling case has been made for a bill written in this fashion,&quot; read the Innovation Alliance letter, signed by 430 companies and organizations. &quot;It is based on claims of a crisis in the current patent system that does not exist, supported by selective assertions which do not hold up under scrutiny.&quot;Among the companies and organizations signing the Innovation Alliance letter were the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, the NanoBusiness Alliance, Cargill, Coca-Cola, and Qualcomm.Both the House and Senate versions of the Patent Reform Act would overhaul the U.S. patent system, but two pieces of the legislation have generated the most controversy. The bills would create a new way to challenge patents after they&#39;ve been granted, and it would allow courts to change the way they assess damages in patent-infringement cases.Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent. The legislation would allow courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece.Those changes would create uncertainty about the validity of patents and drive venture capital money away from innovative companies, said Joe Kiani, CEO of Masimo, a medical equipment vendor in Irvine, Calif.Combined with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including one limiting the use of injunctions by plaintiffs in patent infringement lawsuits, the Patent Reform Act would significantly decrease the value of many patents, argued Kiani and other participants in an Innovation Alliance forum.The bill &quot;opens the way for other countries like China to bring technology here that will be a fraction of the cost and will be copies of our technology,&quot; Kiani said.Panelists at the Innovation Alliance forum said they&#39;d support patent reform that gives more money to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), allowing examiners to better research patent applications. &quot;We support prudent patent reform,&quot; said Sean Murdock, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance, a trade group representing nanotech companies. &quot;Simply stated, the current bill, in its current form, is not prudent.&quot;But members of the Coalition for Patent Reform, in a press briefing a couple of hours later, said Congress needs to fix problems with &quot;patent speculators&quot; suing established companies. The Supreme Court rulings and more money for the USPTO aren&#39;t enough, said Tim Crean, chief intellectual property officer for SAP.In the past two years, the Supreme Court has ruled on several patent issues, including a case involving eBay. In May 2006, the court overturned a long-term U.S. court practice of issuing injunctions against infringing products in nearly all patent cases.Despite the Supreme Court rulings, the number of patent lawsuits continues to grow, said Crean and Michael Holston, general counsel for HP. This year is shaping up to be a record year for patent lawsuits, Holston said.The coalition found about 625 patent lawsuits in 20 selected U.S. district courts in 1990. Through Sept. 30, the same 20 courts have seen about 1,550 patent lawsuits in 2007, the coalition said.HP will spend about $75 million defending against patent lawsuits this year, Holston said. More than half of those lawsuits come from patent &quot;speculators&quot; -- companies that buy patents for the purpose of filing lawsuits, he added.The patent system is &quot;being exploited through litigation games,&quot; added Mark Chandler, general counsel for Cisco.