I wrote a new ‘About’ page for the site last night. I took it as an opportunity to share a little bit of history…in hopes of giving insight as to where the site is headed.

Enantiomers and antibodies are entirely different types of chemical compounds: enantiomers are pairs of spatial isomers that share the same chemical formula but have different three-dimensional spatial orientations; antibodies are immunoglobulin molecules with a defined antigen specificity. Nevertheless, from a practical standpoint, these chemicals are similar in the sense that a pure sample of a single compund can be separated from broader chemical mixtures. Interesting, then, that patent law answers the following question for these chemicals in an entirely opposite manner: Does a disclosure of a broader chemical mixture containing the specific chemical (one particular enantiomer, or an antibody with a defined antigen specificity) anticipate the specific chemical?

This week, in two separate cases, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pointed to the Abstract section of a patent as supportive of a narrow claim construction. These two cases should serve as a reminder that the potential for such use of the Abstract is alive and well. Prosecutors should take the opportunity to remind themselves to draft their Abstracts with three things in mind…

Most outgoing Presidential administrations push through a few regulations in the final weeks of their tenure in a last ditch effort to exert their influence on federal law. We had reason to believe the Bush administration was different, though – way back in May, Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten issued instructions that final versions of such last ditch regulations should be issued no later than November 1, 2008.The Bolten memo is apparently set to be ignored, though.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on two new RSS feeds for Promote the Progress that will allow patent practitioners to efficiently review the latest caselaw developments. Each of the feeds provides an easy-to-digest overview of every new patent opinion from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (and the Supreme Court) alongside a series of links to pages on the Promote the Progress site that contain additional information about the opinion. Both of these great new feeds are now available for subscription by email or by feed reader. Read on to learn more.