Archive for January, 2005
Adobe Acrobat and the trusty old rubber stamp
One of the things I like best about Acrobat is the ability to apply electronic stamps to documents. These allow you to mark a document in much the same manner as you would with a rubber stamp — “sign here,” “draft,” “confidential,” etc. The new version of Acrobat Professional makes it even easier to add and [...]
CapitolIP - The 109th kicks off
While intellectual property didn’t top either of the Republican or Democratic agendas for the 109th Congress, the first month of the new session did, indeed, produce a few interesting bills. The first section of this CapitolIP post summarizes a few of the more interesting bills that have been introduced, and the second section gives [...]
CapitolIP - a series of regular updates on intellectual property legislation
Today I am launching a new series of posts — CapitolIP — intended to provide a summary of current and expected legislation surrounding intellectual property law. I will regularly update the series but have not settled on a final schedule. As of now, updates will be posted on an as-needed basis.
And now, for the first summary…
Acrobat Professional 7.0
I’ve been using the full version of Adobe Acrobat for several years and am a firm believer that it is a true power tool in the practice of law. I always upgrade when a new version of Professional is released, and have realized new benefits in my practice with each new version.
Adobe recently released Acrobat [...]
One year anniversary: A note about why
January 21, 2005, was the one-year anniversary of Promote the Progress.
In December and January, as the anniversary date approached, I asked myself a very tough question about the blog: Why? I actually struggled with the question for several weeks. Eventually, though, an answer that now seems so very obvious came to me.
Passion.
This blog allows me [...]
CRS Report on CREATE Act
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently issued its report on the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) Act.
The report does not provide any new information on the Act or its implementation, but does provide a detailed look at the background and purpose of the Act.
Click on the .pdf icon below to download the report.
Indian patent law amendments to be introduced in parliament in March; Opportunity for “fine-tuning” still available
India recently satisfied its TRIPs obligations in the 11th hour by issuing an ordinance amending the patent law to expand the scope of patentable subject matter to include pharmaceuticals and other products. The ordinance was used, as opposed to a legislative effort, because political differences in the Indian Parliament prevented introduction of an appropriate bill [...]
Patent law primer for corporate counsel
Steve Nipper, the proprietor behind The Invent Blog and fellow law.com columnist, has published his first article on the law.com IP Law Practice Center. In Five Things Corporate Counsel Need to Know About Patents, Nipper gives five bullet points all corporate counsel should know about patents — a great primer for the “jack of all trades” attorney not [...]
Senator Norm Coleman to introduce COMPETE Act: The Return of Anti-Fee Diversion
Yesterday, Senator Norm Coleman (MN) held a series of summits in his home state to introduce the Collaborative Opportunities to Mobilize and Promote Education, Technology, and Enterprise (COMPETE) Act.
According to this summary from the Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association (MPMA), the bill contains the anti-fee diversion provisions of The Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act (HR 1561) [...]
Senate confirms new Commerce Secretary
Today, the Senate confirmed Carlos Gutierrez as the new Commerce Secretary. Nothing too interesting in the confirmation from an intellectual property standpoint.
