Today we continue our weekly installment highlighting the best of the patent blogosphere from the past week. If there are any patent blogs you think should be highlighted by our Top 5, please comment on this post and we’ll check them out.
1) Patently-O: Supreme Court: No Move Yet on Denying Human Gene Patents – This post discusses the Myriad gene patent case. In particular, the post provides the procedural history and current status of the case asking issuing the question of whether or not human genes are patentable.
2) Foss Patents: After Apple, Microsoft Also Files an EU Antitrust Complaint Against Motorola Mobility Over FRAND Abuse – This post outlines potential impact of the two industry leaders’ complaints against MMI with the European Commission. The post also sheds light on the new and growing phenomenon of “FRAND abuse tourism”: companies like Samsung and Motorola start litigation in places like Germany only because they see better chances of winning injunctions based on standard-essential patents than, for example, in the United States.
3) IP Watchdog: Are Patent Wars Good for America? – A guest post written by Kenneth Lustig discusses the history of the role played by patent trading and litigation in U.S. economic growth, and in particular, what this history says about the future of smart phone patent litigation. The author writes, “Every major technological and industrial breakthrough in U.S. history — from the Industrial Revolution to the birth of the automobile and aircraft industries on up to today’s Internet and mobile communications revolutions — has been accompanied by exactly the same surge in patenting, patent trading, and patent litigation that we see today in the smartphone business.”
4) Patents Post Grant: Post Grant Fee Structure a Boon for Patent Trolls? – This post discusses that although the filing fee price levels established by the rule packages set forth by the AIA were largely expected by the public, the accompanying claim-count surcharge was not. The post claims that, “If implemented as proposed, the claim count surcharge will undermine the intent of Congress by providing a very clear road map for patent trolls to avoid these proceedings, at least with respect to their licensing assertions against small-to-medium sized companies.”
5) Patent Docs: USPTO Implements PPH 2.0 Upgrade – This post explains how the enhanced Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program builds off an enhanced PPH framework that went into effect in July, in which the requirements for participation were modified to make the programs easier to use and more widely available to a greater number of applicants. The post also provides the requirements for applicants to participate in the PPH 2.0 program in the USPTO.
Tags: antitrust complaint, human gene patents, Myriad case, patent prosecution highway pilot program, patent trolls, post grant fee
I just read that Pantely-O blog post on the Supreme Court’s pending decision on whether human genes can be patented. It was quite interesting and it seems like human gene patenting has been going on since 1906. I believe there’s a little over 8,000 human gene patents currently out there (you can see the data here: http://bit.ly/AmCkZ), but the question is what will happen if human genes can’t be patented. What will happen to the ones that are currently patented?