On June 14 and 15, the USPTO will  conduct a seminar in the Detroit area on intellectual property issues relating to China.

The program includes an overview of Chinese intellectual property laws, including trademark, patent, copyright, trade secret, and unfair competition laws, and an overview of the appropriate government agencies.

Sessions on counterfeiting and infringement are also planned.  Breakout sessions to focus the issues on specific industries will be held on the second day.

John Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, will deliver the keynote address during lunch on the second day.

You can view/download a .pdf of the brochure for the seminar here.

There is NO CHARGE to attend the seminar, but seating is limited.  You must register by June 7, 2005 by using the form in the brochure.

Receptions will be hosted by Butzel Long at the end of each day.

I’ll be attending both sessions.

Ever wonder why Brazil is considered part of the IP axis of Evil?  Read this article from the Dallas Morning News (quick and free registration required) and you’ll wonder no more.

A Congressional investigation into the counterfeit problem was conducted last year, which led to raids and a very interesting cloak and dagger tale of politics, bribes and clandestine meetings.

Like I said before, keep an eye on Brazil.  It’s hard to predict where she is going on intellectual property issues.

There is a great “discussion” on the patent blogs about line-drawing on the reform issue.  Dennis Crouch sees three “major coalitions” forming (basically, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and small entities) and states that the last group has the goal of keeping the status quo.  Steve Nipper sharply disagrees with Crouch’s status quo assessment of the small entity group and details his projections regarding the position of this group on the various reform proposals.

My take — settle down guys, you’re both right.

Based on the record, it is clear that small entities, which includes individual inventors, adamantly oppose changing the injunctive relief provision of the patent law.  As I’ve said before, the injunctive relief provision stands to be the most controversial and hotly debated of all the proposals.

Dennis is right – on this specific reform proposal, small entities wish to preserve the status quo.

Steve mistakenly took the status quo comment to mean that small entities are opposed to all of the reform proposals and wish to preserve the status quo across the board.  This isn’t true, and I know it’s not the meaning Dennis intended.

Steve is right – small entities have expressed support for many of the reform proposals that are on the table.

The record makes it clear that small entities are passionate about the importance of improving our patent system and increasing the quality of the patents it produces.  The prepared statements of Nathan Myhrvold, William Parker, and Dean Kamen from the recent oversight hearings make this very clear. (you can download these statements from the “Patent Reform Resources” sidebar).

No one would argue otherwise, and I know Dennis didn’t intend for his comment to be taken that way.

Both Steve and Dennis have promised me that they’ll still sit at the same table at the next patent blogger dinner.

Last week, the New Democrat Coalition (NDC) issued a letter to Representatives Lamar Smith and Howard Berman expressing support for their patent reform efforts.  I referenced an article discussing the letter yesterday.  I have obtained a .pdf copy of the letter and made it available for viewing and/or downloading here.

In the letter, which is signed by 14 Representatives, the NDC conveys its “strong support for …[the] efforts to draft patent reform legislation in the 109th Congress.”

While the letter indicates that the NDC supports efforts to advance legislation that will improve patent quality and provide common sense litigation reform, the focus is clearly on litigation.  For example, the letter lists four specific reforms that the NDC urges Representatives Smith and Berman to include in their legislation. Three of the four reforms are litigation-oriented (injunctive relief, treble damages, and apportionment of damages).  The fourth is related to patent quality (third party submission of art).

The letter reserves its strongest language for the injunctive relief suggestion: “…we encourage the Committee to take aim at those who seek to abuse the patent system for profit.” (emphasis added)  The NDC is supported by the hardware and software industries, and its plea for including a change to the calculus for awarding injunctive relief appears to put it at odds with other backers of the reform movement, such as the pharmaceutical industry and small business and individual inventor lobbies.

It’s only becoming more clear that the injunctive relief provision is the single most controversial component of the reform movement.

Let the politicking begin.

The New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrist Democrats in the House, has indicated that it supports the patent reform effort.  According to this article, the offering of support may ease tensions between the “new Democrats” and the high tech sector.  Tension between the politicians and the sector are running high, apparently because the politicians recently said they would not support the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

Will the patent reform effort be played politically?  Nah….couldn’t be…

Visit the incredibly out-of-date website of the New Democrat Coalition here.

Drawing on inspiration from the most anticipated and celebrated launching of a new Tablet PC in history, I thought I’d share a recent improvement I made to my Tablet PC setup.

I’ve been using the Toshiba M205 Tablet PC for about a year.  Needless to say, I love the tablet platform and the Toshiba itself.  Am I YABHTU (yet another blissfully happy tablet user)?  Probably.  I’d buy another in a heartbeat.  I suppose that’s as good a test as any.

My happiness isn’t solely due to the gee-whiz factor.  That wore off long ago.  The real reason is this:

Over the last year, as I’ve become more proficient and comfortable with the tablet interface, I’ve actually started to realize efficiencies and improvements in my workflows that are directly attributable to the tablet form factor.

And a recent addition to my setup has dramatically increased the effect the tablet has on my work.

Last month, I bought the Toshiba docking station for the M205 (the Tablet Multi Dock II) (see first picture at left).  I considered this accessory when I bought the computer, but opted against it mostly because of the steep $300 price tag.  A friend and fellow M205 owner recently sold me on the docking station by telling me he’d gladly pay more than $300 for it, even if he had to spend his own money (he’s buying with house money, I’m buying with my own).

What can justify a $300 price tag for a docking station?  Simple.  It allows me to use the tablet features of the computer in situations in which I previously didn’t.

Combined with my wireless mouse and keyboard, the dock allows me to keep the computer in tablet mode all day.  Big deal, you say?  It is.  Before I had the dock, I used the computer in notebook mode while sitting at my desk.  Throughout the day, I hesitated to make the conversion from notebook to tablet because I didn’t want to go through the effort of rotating the screen and disconnecting cables to allow me to put the computer in a comfortable configuration for writing on the screen.  I know it sounds like pure laziness, but there was a mental hesitation there, for whatever reason.

This hesitation prevented me from using the tablet features for tasks that, arguably, would benefit the most from the pen.

With the Multi Dock, the computer is always in tablet mode.  The screen is positioned at a comfortable angle to serve as a monitor (I use it as a secondary monitor - see the first picture at right).  But here’s the best part — the computer is actually mounted on a rack that can be detached from the base of the docking station.  The rack is connected to the base with a single cable so that it can be easily detached from the base without loss of any computer function (network connection, speakers, USB-devices, etc.).  When I need to ink, I simply remove the tablet/rack combination from the base and set it on my desk (see the second picture at right).  The inclined surface of the rack (see second picture at left) automatically positions the tablet at a comfortable angle.  Presto, I’m inking in about 2 seconds flat.

This allows me to use the computer in tablet mode more frequently than I did before…and my work is the better for it.  For example, I now use the tablet to record notes of telephone conversations (using OneNote or TabletPlanner).  For me, the idea of computerizing my notes, even quick notes such as the details of a telephone conversation, was something that sold me on the tablet platform.  While I’ve put the tablet to good use over the last year, I didn’t fully exploit it for note-taking until I added the Multi Dock.

Here’s another example.  When a client calls to review a document, such as a draft patent application, I pull the tablet/rack combination out of the base and place it on my desk, open the electronic file, and ink notes right on the document.  After the call, I review my notes, make additional notes if necessary, and simultaneously e-mail the document to the client for reviewing my notes and to my secretary for incorporating them into the document (betting that the client will not have any additional comments).

This practice has eliminated a great deal of time from the editing workflow, which saves the client real money.

I do wish Toshiba had made the cable between the base and the rack a little longer.  The cable is just long enough to allow me to detach the rack and place it on my desk for writing on the tablet.  It would be nice, though, to hold the tablet/rack combination in my lap when I’m in a heels-on-the-desk mood.  The current cable is nowhere near long enough to do this.  I bet Toshiba could sell an extension cable that would do the trick.  This may be tough to do with a $300 price tag on the docking station itself, though.

I was very happy with the tablet before adding the Multi Dock. Now I’m ecstatic.

If you’ve read to the bottom of this post, you deserve a little gem.  Want to try a Tablet PC? Microsoft is giving them away. Register here to win a Toshiba M200.

Today, Cnet published an article by Dave Mock on patent reform.  Mock begins with a focus on the patent troll issue and ends with the opinion that patent quality patent office funding are the most pressing issues for Congress to address.

A quick read, and worth it.

Lawyers Weekly USA is featuring an article on patent reform as its Article of the Week.  The full story is available for free on LWU’s subscription-based web site.

Both Crouch and I were interviewed for the article.

At 104, C. Yardley Chittick is apparently the nation’s oldest patent attorney.

I relayed this story to our senior partner, Don Fraser, who, like his father before him, has practiced patent law for roughly 50 years.  He sees 104 as a reasonable retirement age.

The US is not the only country in the midst of a major reform movement.  India, of course, is undergoing radical change with the recent amendments to bring its patent laws into full TRIPs compliance.

Patent reform is also underway in the UK.  One very interesting change is a new procedure that allows the Patent Office to issue non-binding opinions on the issues of patent validity and infringement.  According to this information site, the Patent Office:

aims to provide a low-cost service which helps to resolve patent disputes, and thus encourages further innovation, by providing a quick, balanced and affordable way for parties to get an impartial assessment of key issues in a patent dispute. An opinion may focus parties’ minds on those key issues and help them test the strength of their case, thus better enabling them to negotiate a settlement.

Anyone can request an opinion on any UK or European patent and there is no requirement for disclosure of the real party in interest, although the requester must disclose any relevant UK or EPO proceedings of which he is aware.  Opinions will be issued to the requester, the patent owner, and the exclusive licensee, if one exists.  The patent holder can request a review of an issued opinion.

The fee for requesting an opinion?  A proposal has been made that the fee for filing a request be set at 200 British Pounds (about $365 at today’s exchange rate).

This new opinion process is part of the Patents Act 2004, which has been passed.  The administrative procedures for the new system are currently being incorporated into the regulatory rules of the Patent Office.