Jun
13
Red Hat settles JBoss Hibernate patent suit
Posted by Dirk Avery at 3:52 pm under Litigation, Patent.
Forget your worries about using JBoss Hibernate. Users worldwide now have a royalty-free, irrevocable license to use the technology. Apparently, some portions of the technology were covered by U.S. Patent No. 6,101,502. From InternetNews:
Legal eagles on staff with Red Hat are a busy group these days. The Linux distribution leader just announced […]
Jun
11
Quanta v. LG
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:44 am under Patent, Supreme Court.
Patent exhaustion is alive and well, even for method patents. The key from the Supreme Court’s slip opinion:
Nothing in this Court’s approach to patent exhaustion supports LGE’s argument that method claims, as a category, are never exhaustible. A patented method may not be sold in the same way as an article or device, but […]
Apr
8
Free Stem Cell Patent Database
Posted by Keeley Vega at 6:38 am under Innovation, Internet, Patent, Wikinomics.
Stemcellpatents.com announced the launch of its updated stem cell patent database. The site includes summaries and analysis of over 1275 expert-selected patents identified as relevant to stem cell commercialization.
According to the website, this database is an effort to exploit the infinite potential of stem cell therapeutics. “Unfortunately, due to the nature of current day science, […]
Apr
4
Reid commited to get patent reform to floor
Posted by Dirk Avery at 7:55 am under Legislation, Patent.
Rick Merritt, from EE Times, writes,
A spokeswoman for Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the majority leader is committed to bring the Patent Reform Act (S-1145) to the Senate floor in the current working session which ends in late May. “It could come up as early as next week,” she said.
The Senate bill echoes many of […]
Apr
2
The new Acacia business model
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:09 am under Litigation, Patent.
Back in 1993, Acacia began business as a venture capital firm. After the dot-com bust, it changed business models and began managing intellectual property for small entities without the resources to effectively capitalize IP assets. According to Forbes’s Maurna Desmond most of Acacia’s deals with patent owners involve a 50/50 revenue split.
Recently shares […]
Apr
2
Practitioners respond to rejection of new rules
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:36 am under Litigation, Patent.
Yesterday Judge Cacheris rejected the PTO’s attempt to make substantive changes to its rules, as Keeley noted. The Reporter’s Zusha Elinson writes today about the decision and responses from several patent practitioners.
“There’s a lot of good cheer going around,” said Hans Troesch, a veteran patent prosecutor with Fish & Richardson in Redwood City, […]
Apr
1
Finally: Tafas/GSK v. Dudas Decision
Posted by Keeley Vega at 12:22 pm under Litigation, Patent.
Judge Cacheris has come to a decision: SJ granted for GSK/Tafas; SJ denied for PTO.
Opinion available here.
As I thought earlier, the court only addressed whether the rules were substantive or procedural and, finding them substantive, leaves the numerous other issues for another day.
“The Court believes that one who judges least judges best.” With respect to […]
Mar
31
Dudas on the state of patent system
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:51 am under Legislation, Patent.
Patent Commissioner Jon Dudas spoke with CNET about the patent system over the weekend at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood, California. Here are some interesting excerpts from Anne Broache’s report:
“Software, biotechnology, business methods–In the United States, the Supreme Court has consistently held that those are areas where there should be patents, and those […]
Mar
28
MBA Students to Solve the PTO’s Backlog Problem?
Posted by Keeley Vega at 1:58 pm under Events, Litigation, Patent.
Earlier this week, the USPTO announced that it would be partnering with the George Washington University School of Business in a competition to find solutions to “the pressing issues of patent pendency and backlog at the USPTO.”
According to the press release, Margaret Peterlin, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of […]
Mar
27
The messy Rambus affair
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:55 am under Litigation, Patent, Technology.
While the Gibson/Guitar Hero/Rock Band war rages on, chip designer Rambus has won a major battle in its war against chip makers.
Rambus, which designs memory chips and chips for Sony’s Playstation, won a jury verdict in the Northern District of California in a suit brought by Hynix, the world’s second largest chip maker, Micron and […]