Every Friday, the Patent Law Practice Center likes to provide our readers with highlights from the week’s best patent law blog posts and articles. As 2011 reaches its end, and as the new year causes people to look back on the year that was, we thought it was a great opportunity to present to you the Patent Law Practice Center’s top 5 posts of the year:
1) America Invents Act: How the New Law Impacts Your Clients and Your Patent Practice, Parts 1 & 2: Explanations provided by Robert A. Armitage of Eli Lilly and Company, and Janet Gongola, Patent Reform Coordinator at the USPTO, helped in breaking down the AIA for the masses.
2) A New Doctrine of Equivalents? CAFC Defines “Use” Under §271 – Written by Gene Quinn, of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor, this post discusses Centillion Data Systems, LLC v. Qwest Communications International, Inc., and questions whether it will “breathe new life into the doctrine of equivalents” given the Court’s determination of the meaning of “use” of a system as a matter of law under 35 U.S.C. 271 (a).
3) Patentee’s Arguments in Reexamination Create Intervening Rights Erasing $29.4 Million Verdict – Scott Daniels, Partner at Westerman, Hattori, Daniels & Adrian and Practice Center Contributor, discusses the history of the Marine Polymer Techs. v. HemCon case. In a decision that seems to encourage reexamination, the Court held that “intervening rights” apply to unamended claims based on statements made during reexamination. Daniels highlights the key points of the CAFC decision.
4) The Patentability Black Hole – Inventors in the unpredictable arts often have to face an unpredictable paradox when patenting an invention. There seems to be a disconnect between requirements for an inventor to disclose an invention versus the prior art to render an invention unpatentable. Fenwick & West refer to this as the “patentability black hole”. In this article, Fenwick & West discuss this dilemma and how to solve this patent law paradox.
5) The Truth About Hedy Lamarr – Written by Brandon Baum, of Baum Legal and Practice Center Contributor, this post shares the story of an early screen beauty turned co-inventor of a patent for an anti-jamming system for guiding torpedoes… sort of. By far the prettiest top on the Patent Law Practice Center, this post sheds some light a a popular patent fable.
Tags: AIA, Brandon Baum, doctrine of equivalents, Gene Quinn, Hedy Lamarr, Janet Gongola, patentability, Reexamination, Robert Armitage, Scott Daniels
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