Patent Law Practice Center

Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

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) Patent Docs: Tomato Genome Determined – The recent news that the “entire genomic DNA sequence of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) has been deciphered” inspired this post. It takes an in depth look at the “interesting relationships between tomatoes and closely-related species.” No discussion of whether there will be a push to patent the tomato genetic sequence.

2) IP Watchdog: Mobile App Developers Gain Ally to Fight Patent Infringement – This post highlights the attempt to promote innovation within the mobile app industry. The world’s largest patent research community announced the formation of a partnership with a global trade organization for mobile software developers, which this post argues could in fact impact the mobile app industry in a positive way by benefiting the small businesses and individual entrepreneurs behind the technology. (more…)

Patent Docs: USPTO News Briefs

We are pleased to share the latest from our friends at PatentDocs.org, the Biotech and Pharma Patent Law and News Blog. The authors, Donald Zuhn and Kevin Noonan, are partners at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, LLP, and contribute to Patent Docs on a daily basis.

Today’s post is entitled, “USPTO News Briefs,” and it reports on the Office’s announcement of  several AIA implementation dates. It also share the comments that have been posted in regards to the AIA’s implementation. The announcement was published on the USPTO’s website and provides a guideline of what can be expected in the upcoming months.

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Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

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) Patents Post-Grant: Update from the Central Reexamination Unit – This post reports on the Central Reexamination Unit’s update on the USPTO’s efforts to refine the patent reexamination process, and that the stream line proposals of 2011 are still being reviewed.

2) Patent Docs: USPTO Seeks Comments on New Sequence Listing Standard – This post summarizes the notice published by the USPTO in the Federal Register regarding  an international effort to revise the standard for Sequence Listing submissions. The post also shares how comments regarding the proposed standard can be submitted for review.

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PatentDocs: Kappos v. Hyatt (2012)

We are pleased to share the latest from our friends at PatentDocs.org, the Biotech and Pharma Patent Law and News Blog. The authors, Donald Zuhn and Kevin Noonan, are partners at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, LLP, and contribute to Patent Docs on a daily basis. Today’s post is entitled, “Kappos v. Hyatt (2012),” and it discusses a 9-0 opinion written by Justice Thomas in which the United States Supreme Court firmly sided with applicant Hyatt regarding both the extent of new evidence that a dissatisfied applicant can produce during a §145 proceeding and the standard of review to be applied by the district court to such evidence.

The Supreme Court held that, “there are no evidentiary restrictions beyond those already imposed by the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” echoing the Federal Circuit majority.  In regards to the issue of the standard of review, the Supreme Court held that “the district court must make a de novo finding when new evidence is presented on a disputed question of fact.”

Here is an excerpt: (more…)

IP Intensive Industries Support 40 Million Jobs, According to US Dept. of Commerce

Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce released the report entitled, “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus,” which highlighted the connection between Intellectual Property intensive-industries along with job creation and its relation to the U.S. economy. The report by the Economics and Statistics Administration and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) identified 75 industries (from among 313, total) as IP-intensive.

The findings support a message President Obama and USPTO director David Kappos have been reiterating for some time: innovation is the key to economic growth within the United States. According to the USPTO, “The report not only estimates the contributions of these industries to the U.S. economy, but also gauges the ripple, or domino, effects they have on employment throughout the economy.”  The report specifically found that: (more…)