This afternoon, Judge James B. Zagel, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), refused to overturn a $521 million verdict against Microsoft, ruling in favor of Eolas Technologies Inc. in their web patent infringment dispute. The patent at issue is number 5,838,906, and is titled “Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Patent and Trademark
Patent Office Lists Top 10 Private Sector Recipients
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a press release January 12 with the names of the ten corporations that received the most patents for 2003. Topping the list was IBM, for the 11th straight year, with Canon Kabushiki Kaisha a distant second, and Sony at number 10. Continue Reading
European Court Gives Microsoft Win Against Lindows
Lindows.com ordered to drop Lindows name Dump Lindows name or we’ll take all your money, says MS Continue Reading
A Commentary on Whether the Patent Process is Broken
From the Washington Post’s Jonathan Krim, this article Patenting Air or Protecting Property? reviews the growing criticism of the USPTO’s patent process, and details the marked increase in lawsuits involving Internet-related technologies from companies that include high-profile Amazon, Microsoft, Blackberry, and eBay. Continue Reading
New Microsoft Patent for Writing Windows Apps Using HTML
TechDirt posted on a patent awarded by the USPTO to Microsoft yesterday for a “Method and apparatus for writing a windows application in HTML.” See also Microsoft wins HTML application patent Continue Reading
USPTO Launches Trademark Assignments on the Web
Trademark Assignments on the Web System is Now Available on the United States Patent and Trademark Office Web Site: “The United States Patent and Trademark Office is pleased to announce the availability of the Trademark Assignments on the Web System, effective December 3, 2003. The system is accessible from a number of pages, including the… Continue Reading
Google Seeks Ruling on Trademarks and Keyword Searching
In anticipation of widely reported plans for a initial public offering (IPO) in early 2004, Google is seeking a ruling from District Court in San Jose, California to determine whether keyword searches associated with advertising sold by the site constitute trademark infringement. (Google, Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc. (Complaint) , ND Ca)… Continue Reading
OCLC and NYC Hotel Settle Trademark Dispute
As an update to my September 22 posting OCLC Sues NYC Hotel Over Classification System, see this press release from OCLC, dated November 24, stating OCLC and The Library Hotel settle trademark complaint: “Under the settlement terms, The Library Hotel will receive permission from OCLC to use the Dewey Decimal Classification® trademarks in its hotel… Continue Reading
Patent for E-Mail Filtering May Counter Spam
The USPTO granted patent 6,643,686 on November 4, 2003. It is “a system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam). InternetNews.com quotes the executive director of the SpamCon Foundation as seeing the technology as a “…potentially…effective tool against spam…” Continue Reading
Patent Office to Undertake New Review of Critical Web Patent
On August 12, 2003 I posted that Microsoft Will Appeal $521M Patent Infringement Verdict. Today, InternetNews.com reported that Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiners will undertake a new, thorough review of the patent on “a system allowing a user of a browser program on a computer connected to an open distributed hypermedia system to access… Continue Reading
USPTO Expands Electronic Filing Services for Trademark Disputes
“The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has expanded the options for electronically filing documents in trademark disputes. Using the Electronic System for Trademark Trials and Appeals (ESTTA) system, parties to a dispute now can file more documents electronically with the TTAB,… Continue Reading
Challenge to Browser Patent by Web Consortium
From the World Wide Web Consortium: “Acting on the advice of the W3C HTML Patent Advisory Group, W3C has presented the United States Patent and Trademark Office with prior art establishing that US Patent No. 5,838,906 (the ‘906 patent) is invalid. W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee has written an unprecedented request to US Under Secretary of… Continue Reading
