EU Patent Staff Go On Strike: related news

EU Patent Staff Go On Strike

h4rm0ny writes "Last Friday, staff at the European Patent Office went on strike. They protested outside for several hours and issued a statement claiming that 'the organisation is decentralising and focusing on granting as many patents as possible to gain financially from fees generated.' They also declared this as being disastrous for innovation and that their campaign was not for better wages, but for better quality patents. Meanwhile, n article on it discusses the US's own approach to dealing with the increasing flood of patent applications: a community patent project to help identify prior art. It might sound like a grass-roots scheme, and maybe it is, but those roots include such patent behemoths as IBM. So it looks like on both sides of the Atlantic, some signs of sanity might be emerging in the patent world from those people right

Halliburton Tries To Patent Form Of Patent Trolling

We see all sorts of ridiculous patent applications and patents, but my favorites tend to be the patents that have to do with patents themselves (such as the patent app on a method for filing a patent). However, the folks over at Patently-O have highlighted a fascinating patent application from an attorney at Halliburton, which appears to be an attempt to patent the process of patent trolling. The application covers, quite explicitly, having a company (we'll say Company A) that does not invent something, find a company (Company B) that did invent something, but chose to use trade secret protection, rather than patents. Then, the Company A files a patent covering Company B's technology, and then use the issued patent to get money out of Company B.

Halliburton Applies For Patent-Trolling Patent

An anonymous reader writes "Halliburton, the company many folks know as Dick Cheney's previous employer, has apparently taken an interest in methods of patent trolling. In fact, according to Techdirt, the company has applied for a patent on patent trolling. Specifically, it's applied for a patent on the process of finding a company that protected an invention via trade secret, figuring out what that secret is, patenting it ... and then suing the original company. Hopefully, the patent office rejects this patent, because I somehow doubt that Halliburton is trying to get the patent as a way to block others from patent trolling."

Patent Lawsuit Silly Season: TechCrunch Sued For Patent Infringement After Critical Blog Post

There are different levels of ridiculousness when it comes to patent lawsuits, with the lowest of the low being patent lawsuits based more on spite than on any legitimate claim. For a while, it seemed like Ray Niro's use of the infamous JPG patent, to sue a bunch companies he just didn't like, was perhaps alone in that category. But, it appears that we now have a new entrant. Apparently, some company (who we won't even name, since there's a good chance it's doing this just to get press attention) sued a more well-known competitor for patent infringement, over a location-based services patent. Looking over the patent itself it's difficult to see how it was approved. People were talking about location-based profile matching a decade ago, let alone five years ago when this patent was filed.

Microsoft Employee Admits That Patent Disclosure Is A Myth

Defenders of the patent system quite frequently point out that one of the main benefits (some claim the only benefit) of the patent system is "disclosure." That is, because the patent system requires you to disclose your patent, the patent system is quite helpful in spreading ideas. This is a myth that's easily debunked on a few points. First, it only really makes sense to get patent protection if you know the idea will get disclosed or figured out anyway. In those cases, the disclosure via the patent system is meaningless, since the info would have gotten out anyway. Second, these days, thanks to "willful infringement" tripling the damages you pay, many corporations tell employees not to look at relevant patents, as it only opens up more liability.

EU patent board to decide whether to allow software patents (ars technica)

Although EU patent law expressly excludes patenting software as such, it does allow patents to be granted for computer-implemented inventions. There are, however, many unanswered questions about the distinction between software methods and computer-implemented inventions. In practice, the EPO has historically granted patent applications in some cases for software methods that are viewed as legitimate technical innovations rather than business innovations. The EPO illustrates the difference by saying that a patent on a software method for improving signal strength between mobile phones is likely to be valid, but a patent on Internet auction systems is probably not.

DataViz Announces Documents To Go Premium Edition and PDF To Go for BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Pearl Flip and BlackBerry Storm Smartphones

MILFORD, Conn. (Business Wire) -- DataViz(R), Inc., a leading provider of mobile office compatibility solutions, today announced the availability of Documents To Go(R) Premium Edition and PDF To Go(R) for BlackBerry(R) smartphones. The award winning mobile Office suite Documents To Go enables a full set of features for viewing, editing and creating native Microsoft(R) Word, Excel(R) and PowerPoint(R) files and attachments(1) including support for Office 2007, on BlackBerry smartphones. DataViz is also introducing PDF To Go, which allows users to view native PDF files on their BlackBerry smartphones. Documents To Go Premium Edition offers advanced functionality over the Standard Edition, which was selected by Research In Motion (RIM) to be included on BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry(R) Device Software 4.

Patent licensing after the Quanta decision

Patent owners have turned their attention to the terms and conditions of patent licenses now that the Supreme Court has recently expanded the scope of patent exhaustion through its Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics decision. "Patent exhaustion" is a term of art that generally means a patent owner can profit from the sale of a product covered by the patent only until the first sale of the product.

European Patent Office staff on strike

European Patent Office staff demanding for improvement in patent quality demonstrated outside the European Commission office on Thursday.

EPO staff strike over patent quality

The European Patent Office (EPO) was hit last week by a strike by staff who were demanding not better pay and conditions but the freedom to help create better quality patents.

Arkados Awarded Patent on Universal Network Adapter Technology

announced today that it has been awarded a United States patent entitled "Integrated Universal Network Adapter." The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office awarded patent 7,440,443 to Arkados on August 2, 2008. The patent describes the concept of making physical network connections transparent to the user, by incorporating MAC/PHY technology that can adapt to different physical media into a single chip. In turn, this chip can be used to create products that can bridge between different physical media connections. The patent also describes a technique to dynamically choose the best medium to use based on data about the medium and the QoS requirements. The patent describes a common Medium Access Controller (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) communications interface that has an adapter allowing simultaneous communication over multiple media, such as pow

Benitec gets 'Control of Gene Expression' patent in New Zealand

Benitec Limited announced that a key patent 'Control of Gene Expression' part of the Graham patent family of RNA interference (RNAi) patents was granted in New Zealand. The "Control of Gene Expression patent" is a patent in the foundational Graham RNAi patent family and is related to the '099 patent currently under re-examination at the USPTO.

Ameranth Receives Major Patent for Its 'Casino Poker and Dealer Management System'

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameranth, Inc. announced today that it has received an official patent grant (#7,431,650) from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a major patent, which will have a term extending to December 2025, on its revolutionary, automated poker and dealer system invention. The patent is the result of work dating from 2001. The award of this key strategic patent confirms Ameranth's leading and pioneering role in automating the modern poker room and clearly establishes Ameranth as a technology leader in virtually all automated aspects of poker rooms as part of Ameranth's overall 21st Century Casino(TM) vision. This new patent, combined with Ameranth's portfolio of wireless/web data synchronization patents (applicable to wireless gaming and many other casino applications) and Ameranth's recent and plan

Court Stays Patent Infringement Suit Brought against Candela byPalomar

Candela Corporation (NASDAQ: CLZR) announced today that the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts agreed to stay the patent litigation that Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc. (”Palomar”) brought against the Company in August 2006. In that suit, Palomar asserts that the Company infringed upon U.S. Patent No.� 5,735,844 (the ‘ “844 Patent”) and U.S. Patent No.� 5,595,568, which is related to the ‘844 Patent (the ‘ “568 Patent”).

Court Stays Patent Infringement Suit Brought against Candela by Palomar

Candela Corporation (NASDAQ: CLZR) announced today that the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts agreed to stay the patent litigation that Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc. (”Palomar”) brought against the Company in August 2006. In that suit, Palomar asserts that the Company infringed upon U.S. Patent No.� 5,735,844 (the ‘ “844 Patent”) and U.S. Patent No.� 5,595,568, which is related to the ‘844 Patent (the ‘ “568 Patent”).

Benitec Limited (ASX:BLT) Graham Gene Silencing Patent Granted in New Zealand

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct 17, 2008 - Benitec Limited (ASX:BLT)(PINK:BNIKF) today announced that a key patent "Control of Gene Expression" part of the Graham patent family of RNA interference (RNAi) patents was granted in New Zealand. The "Control of Gene Expression patent" is a patent in the foundational Graham RNAi patent family and is related to the '099 patent currently under reexamination at the USPTO.

Key Fondaparinux Patent Allowed by U.S. Patent Office

Australian drug developer Alchemia Limited (ASX:ACL) today announced it had received a 'notice of allowance' for the United States patent application titled Synthetic Heparin Pentasaccharides (number 10/488,677). A notice of allowance is a notification to the patent applicant that they are entitled to a patent under the law and is issued for applications that have been filed based on "intent to use." The patent number will be assigned on payment of the grant fees.

Key Fondaparinux Patent Allowed by U.S. Patent Office

2008 NOV 7 - (NewsRx.com) -- Australian drug developer Alchemia Limited (ASX:ACL) announced it had received a 'notice of allowance' for the United States patent application titled Synthetic Heparin Pentasaccharides (number 10/488,677). A notice of allowance is a notification to the patent applicant that they are entitled to a patent under the law and is issued for applications that have been filed based on "intent to use." The patent number will be assigned on payment of the grant fees (see also Alchemia Limited).

Key Fondaparinux Patent Allowed by U.S. Patent Office

BRISBANE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 21, 2008 - Australian drug developer Alchemia Limited (ASX:ACL) today announced it had received a 'notice of allowance' for the United States patent application titled Synthetic Heparin Pentasaccharides (number 10/488,677). A notice of allowance is a notification to the patent applicant that they are entitled to a patent under the law and is issued for applications that have been filed based on "intent to use." The patent number will be assigned on payment of the grant fees.

DP7029 On the price elasticity of demand for patents

This paper investigates whether patent fee policies are a potential factor underlying the boom in patent applications observed in major patent offices. We provide the first panel-based evidence suggesting that fees affect the demand for patents in three major patent offices (EPO, USPTO and JPO), with a price elasticity of about -0.4 (similar to that of the residential demand for oil or water). The laxity of fee policies adopted by patent offices over the past 25 years therefore contributed, to a significant extent, to the rising propensity to patent observed since the mid-nineties. This is especially true at the European Patent Office, which has dramatically decreased its fees since the mid-1990s.

Ex parte Reexamination and Nanotechnology.

We should not take for granted that just because a patent has issued it is valid. Patent validity may be resolved in a reexamination process and anyone can request it. When a patent owner becomes aware of a problematic reference that may have an impact on the validity of a patent, he or she can bring that prior art and propose amendments to get around the prior art to the attention of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to get a second review of the patent and hopefully a second stamp of approval. It is more difficult to break a patent in court if the PTO has already examined the prior art. The major advantage in choosing to seek a reexamination over litigation is that the reexamination costs in terms of time and money are much lower.

Patent challenge is finally resolved after 28 years

In 1980 Fritz Amstrup filed a Danish patent application with a patent claim directed to a method of degreasing beef intestines by using a centrifuge. Amstrup fitted a timer to the centrifuge to allow control of the treatment time. According to Amstrup, keeping to a very precise treatment time provided a careful degreasing of the outside of the intestines, while preserving the internal mucous membrane. This was important for the saleability of the product in Japan where beef intestines are considered a delicacy. Amstrup’s patent attorney did not conduct a novelty search prior to the filing and the application contained no concrete substantiation of the alleged effect on the intestines. The Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) novelty search revealed an earlier German patent for an identical centrifuge, which described the cleaning

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