-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Senators, Inventors Criticize Patent Bill Favored By Tech Cos
,----[ Quote ]
| Twelve Republican U.S. senators on Thursday sent
| a letter to Senate leaders criticizing pending
| patent legislation, saying the bill "threatens to
| diminish the value and enforceability of U.S.
| patent rights."
|
| The Oct. 15 letter backs criticism against the
| legislation being levied by independent inventors
| and academics who argue the bills favor major
| technology companies. If approved the legislation
| would be the most sweeping rewrite of federal
| patent law in 50 years.
|
| Critics say two similar bills now in Congress
| would broadly make it harder for individuals,
| universities and start-ups to defend their
| inventions against companies with deeper pockets.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091015-718144.html
USPTO Removes Rule Changes
,----[ Quote ]
| The United States Patent and Trademark Office
| (Office) published a final rule in the Federal
| Register in August of 2007 to revise the rules of
| practice for patent cases pertaining to
| continuing applications and requests for
| continued examination practices, and for the
| examination of claims in patent applications
| (Claims and Continuations Final Rule). The Office
| is revising the rules of practice in this final
| rule to remove the changes in the Claims and
| Continuations Final Rule from the Code of Federal
| Regulations.
`----
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/10/uspto-removes-rule-changes.html
Bits and Bytes
,----[ Quote ]
| * I am teaching obviousness this week in my
| introductory patent law course here at the
| University of Missouri School of Law. The
| Justice Douglas concurrence in the 1950 A&P
| case always gives me pause:
| o "The Constitution never sanctioned
| the patenting of gadgets. Patents serve
| a higher end-- the advancement of
| science."
`----
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/10/bits-and-bytes.html
Are Technology Patents Lost on Jurors?
,----[ Quote ]
| Attorney Tucker Griffith brainstormed for months
| about how to best illustrate the inner-workings
| of his client's patented technology.
|
| [...]
|
| "I've seen judges ask questions that show they're
| confused," said Menard, who works in areas of
| electromechanical technology such as hydraulics
| and pneumatics. "You have 48 minutes of hearings
| and the judge asks a question that shows they
| have no clue. Then the lawyers just look at each
| other and say, 'That was a waste of time.'"
`----
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202434524817
Silicon Valley IP Lawyer Swings at Eastern District of Texas Judge
,----[ Quote ]
| The story, of course, is also bigger than Powers
| and Davis. There's the fact that Microsoft is
| signing off on both the trial strategy and the
| briefs being filed. That suggests that the big
| old software company is taking a more aggressive
| tack in the Eastern District these days, not just
| backing up its lawyer. After losing a couple of
| big cases there, it seems like the company is
| eager to show up a judge who it believes did it
| wrong. Sort of like in baseball when there's a
| questionable call and the manager runs out on the
| field to jaw with the umpire: The purpose is not
| only to get the call reversed, but to make him
| think twice the next time.
`----
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202434640605&Silicon_Valley_IP_Lawyer__Swings_at_Eastern_District_of_Texas_Judge
Patent Litigation Weekly: Foley Tries Turning Tables on Spangenberg
,----[ Quote ]
| * In October 2006, in the lawsuit's early
| stages, FireStar told Red Hat it wanted $100
| million to settle its patent claimsâand Red
| Hat said "there was nothing left to discuss."
|
| [...]
|
| After the case was underway, FireStar apparently
| tired of the patent litigation game. The company
| was reluctant to make engineers available for
| deposition because, Foley's brief states, they
| "were focused on product development rather than
| the Red Hat case and as a result were not
| sufficiently responsive." By December 2007, the
| bankers at Amphion had agreed to take the suit
| off FireStar's hands by creating DataTern, a
| shell company solely focused on patent
| enforcement that acquired the patent in early
| 2008. (Amphion also agreed to compensate FireStar
| for employee time spent on the litigation.) At
| about the same time, DataTern stopped paying
| Foley's bills, and turned to IP Nav and its
| lawyers to press the suit.
|
| Those lawyersâTexas solo Dan Perez and Michigan-
| based Patrick Anderson, both of whom frequently
| work for Spangenberg and his patent companiesâ
| quickly hammered out the $4.2 million settlement.
| The figure, Foley notes, was lower the total
| litigation budget it had agreed to with FireStar.
| If the plaintiffs were willing to settle for so
| little, Foley lawyers Michael Lockerby and Greg
| Neppl write, a deal could have been struck
| "without the expenditure of much in the way of
| legal fees."
`----
http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/2009/10/patent-litigation-weekly-foley-tries-turning-tables-on-spangenberg.html
EFF Challenges VOIP Systems Patent
,----[ Quote ]
| As part of its Patent Busting Project, the
| Electronic Frontier Foundation claims it has
| discovered a prior patent and published reference
| material that should invalidate a patent granted
| to Acceris for implementing VOIP using analog
| telephones as endpoints.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/VOIP-and-Telephony/EFF-Challenges-VOIP-Systems-Patent-171977/
Recent:
Software & The Supreme Court
,----[ Quote ]
| Open software developer Red Hat is mounting a Supreme Court
| battle in the nation's highest court, with Jim Whitehurst,
| Red Hat CEO and president and CNBC's Bob Pisani.
`----
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1286390389&play=1
Fake representatives of free software
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Fake_representatives_of_free_software
IBM says software patents drive OSS development
,----[ Quote ]
| In its Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court on the Bilski case, IBM is
| arguing that "patent protection has promoted the free sharing of source code
| [...] which has fueled the explosive growth of open source software
| development."
|
| [...]
|
| Read also page 42 of the IBM letter:
|
| In addition, disclosure of software inventions promotes collaboration
| among software developers (such as open source development)
|
| Insane.
`----
http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-179907/ibm-says-software-patents-drive-oss-development
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAkrbv2kACgkQU4xAY3RXLo7GjQCfVSnKsUq8bF/GSpTmzQc5WIo1
uhgAn30PA2QAXVKiYr2jDn1f324qBkkS
=jlUF
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
