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Category Archives: Patent and Trademark

New on LLRX – 3D Printing: The Manufactory of Knowledge

Via LLRX.com – 3D Printing: The Manufactory of Knowledge – Ken Strutin’s article addresses the increasing use and impact, social and legal, of the emerging and high visibility technology known as 3D printing. The technology’s use in a wide range of sectors – including education, manufacturing, firearms, robotics and medical devices, as well as in the home – is… Continue Reading

Federal Innovation Policy: The Current Context and Some Possible Changes

“CBO Director Doug Elmendorf spoke on September 30, 2013 at a conference on “Federal Tax Policy and Entrepreneurship” sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation and hosted by the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution. [His] presentation explored a wide array of possible changes in federal policy that might bolster innovation, including increased spending on research and development, increased support for… Continue Reading

Predatory Patent Litigation

Predatory Patent Litigation. Erik N. Hovenkamp, Northwestern University Department of Economics. August 5, 2013. “Despite their extensive experience in patent litigation, the most litigious patent assertion entities (PAEs) fair relatively poorly in court. These firms commonly file dubious infringement claims on which they are ostensibly very likely to lose money if litigated to judgment. It… Continue Reading

Presentation – The Race to the Patent Office – the Impact of the America Invents Act

The Race to the Patent Office – the Impact of the America Invents Act – “The America Invents Act (Patent Reform Act) went into effect on 16 March 2013.  It switched the U.S. patent system from “first to invent” to “first to file” and is the most significant change to the system in nearly 60… Continue Reading

New on LLRX – On the Legal Importance of Viewing Genes as Code

Via LLRX.com – On the Legal Importance of Viewing Genes as Code – On June 13, 2013 the Supreme Court issued its opinion in the much–awaited Myriad case, which challenged the validity of patents on isolated human genes. The Court held that the isolated genetic sequences claimed in Myriad’s patents did not satisfy the inventive… Continue Reading

PLUS Registry – Find and contact artists, rights-holders, licensors, licensees and archives

“The PLUS Registry is an online resource developed and operated cooperatively by a global Coalition of all communities engaged in creating, using, distributing and preserving images. Search the Registry to find rights and descriptive information (“metadata”) for any image, and to find current contact information for related creators, rights holders and institutions. Register for a… Continue Reading

ACLU – Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics

“On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are unconstitutional and invalid. On November 30, 2012, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argument on the patentability of human genes [via SCOTUSblog]. The… Continue Reading

An Empirical Study of Use of Legal Scholarship in Supreme Court Trademark Jurisprudence

Simpson, Derek A. and Petherbridge, Lee, An Empirical Study of the Use of Legal Scholarship in Supreme Court Trademark Jurisprudence (March 23, 2013). Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 35. Available at SSRN “Although the usefulness of law review and law journal articles to the decisional lawmaking process is a topic that has captured the imagination of… Continue Reading

A look behind the scenes at the Google news retrieval algorithm

Frederic Filloux, guardian.co.uk: “Its official blog merely mentions “6 billion visits per month” sent to news sites and Google News claims to connect “1 billion unique users a week to news content” [see The press, Google, its algorithm, their scale]…But how exactly does Google News work? What kind of media does its algorithm favour most?… Continue Reading

EPO and USPTO launch Cooperative Patent Classification

On January 2, 2013 “the European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched the Cooperative Patent Classification scheme (CPC), a global classification system for patent documents. The system is the result of partnership between the EPO and the USPTO in their joint effort to develop a common, internationally compatible… Continue Reading

Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas

“Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas by Jonathan Rothwell, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky and Mark Muro is the first analysis of its kind to present patenting trends on a regional level from 1980 to 2012. The report ranks all of the nation’s roughly 360 metropolitan areas on… Continue Reading