Archive for June, 2006
Friday food for thought: Trend spotting on Google
Google is really a wonderful tool. The depth that lies below that simplistic interface is truly amazing. This bit of Friday Food is a great example.
Did you know that you can analyze search trends on Google? Take a look at this trend history for the search term ‘patent.’ It’s interesting to [...]
Here we go again - US Supreme Court to consider reforming standard for obviousness
Yesterday, the Supreme Court delivered its long-awaited decision on the writ of certiorari in the KSR v. Teleflex case. There was little drama in the answer, as the Solicitor General had recently recommended that the Court hear the case and, usually, those recommendations are followed. There’s plenty of drama ahead, though. Expect [...]
Friday food for thought: Questions from the Corner
We held the “Bloggers’ Corner” event earlier this week at the Spring meeting of the Intellectual Property Section of the American Bar Association. The Corner was a tremendous success by any measure, and a lot of fun to boot. As a follow-up post for people who weren’t at the meeting or just didn’t [...]
House Appropriations Committee approves Patent and Trademark Office funding level pegged at estimated fee collections
Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee held a markup hearing on the Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) appropriations bill for fiscal year 2007. The Committee approved an appropriation for the Patent and Trademark Office of $1.77 billion. This is slightly more than the funding level for fiscal year 2006 and slightly less than the amount requested by [...]
eBay v. MercExchange - from an infringer’s perspective
We’ve been having a bit of fun with the eBay v. MercExchange case over at IP Memes, the Technolawyer newsletter that I write with Steve and Doug. A few weeks ago, we posted a tongue-in-cheek look at the case from a patent troll’s perspective. In this week’s edition of Memes, we present the [...]
PTO funding debate set to begin - fee diversion to reappear?
House appropriators saved the best funding bill for last. Late last week, a House subcommittee set the final FY 2007 spending bill in motion by sending the Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) funding bill to the full Appropriations committee, which is set to consider and markup the bill on Tuesday, June 20th. The President’s proposed CJS budget requests over $1.8 billion for the [...]
Patent reform on a Friday afternoon - Antitrust Modernization Commission discusses reform today
The Antitrust Modernization Commission, charged by statute to analyze and report on the question of whether a need exists for the modernization of the antitrust laws, is holding a public meeting today to discuss merger enforcement and patent reform issues. You can view and/or download .pdf version of the Discussion Outline and the Discussion [...]
House troll hearing - Forget the trolls, let’s talk reform
Yesterday, the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held a patent oversight hearing, dubbed “Patent Trolls: Fact or Fiction.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the Subcommittee essentially ignored the “fact or fiction” question and focused its efforts on patent reform in the broader sense, including considerable attention to the recent Supreme Court [...]
First eBay progeny arrives - money is enough
Dennis Crouch has a detailed analysis of what appears to be the first denial of injunctive relief under the guidance of eBay v. MercExchange. Approximately one month after the Supreme Court issued it’s decision, Judge Leonard Davis of the Eastern District of Texas issued an order denying a permanent injunction following a finding of [...]
House Subcommittee conducting hearing on patent trolls today
The House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property continues its record pace of oversight hearings on the patent system today with “Patent Trolls: Fact or Fiction?” The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9AM Eastern. You can view a live webcast of the hearing here.
Dean Kamen, the professional inventor behind [...]
