Foreigners may face tighter Chinese patent laws: related news

Foreigners may face tighter Chinese patent laws

Foreign companies that make discoveries in China would have to file for a patent in China before anywhere else or risk losing protection of their intellectual property, according to proposed changes to the country's patent law. Another proposal calls for the introduction of an "absolute novelty" standard, which would make it more difficult to obtain a patent in China for inventions already in use overseas. Experts said the changes, which could come into effect this year, would make it easier to challenge rogue Chinese patents, the Financial Times reported. However, the experts also warned that conditions are likely to become more challenging for foreign firms conducting research in China. At present, most of these firms choose to file for patent protection in their home countries, where patent legislation is more mature and robust than in

DP6946 Patent Thickets and the Market for Innovation: Evidence from Settlement of Patent Disputes

We study how fragmentation of patent rights (‘patent thickets’) and the formation of the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affected the duration of patent disputes, and thus the speed of technology diffusion through licensing. We develop a model of patent litigation which predicts faster settlement agreements when patent rights are fragmented and when there is less uncertainty about court outcomes, as was associated with the ‘pro-patent shift’ of CAFC. The model also predicts that the impact of fragmentation on settlement duration should be smaller under CAFC. We confirm these predictions empirically using a dataset that covers nearly all patent suits in U.S. federal district courts during the period 1975-2000. Finally, we analyze how fragmentation affects total settlement delay, taking into account both reduction in duration

Remember All Those 'Influence' Ad Companies? They May Have A Patent Problem

It was just a couple weeks ago that we (skeptically) noted that there were a bunch of companies trying to create systems to use things like a "FriendRank" to use "influence" to help advertise. However, it looks like those companies may have to deal with a bit of a patent block. Slashdot points out that Google has applied for a patent on just such a process to establish a sort of "FriendRank." Of course, the fact that there are a bunch of companies all trying to do this (prior to this patent application being published) certainly suggests that this is hardly the sort of breakthrough that requires a patent (though, it seems likely that those other companies are also applying for patents, meaning we may soon have yet another patent thicket).

Supreme Court strengthens patent exhaustion doctrine

The United States Supreme Court has unanimously held in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. that the patent law cannot be used to control the subsequent use or disposition of a product "that substantially embodies a patent" once the product has been sold with authority of the patent owner. "The authorized sale of an article that substantially embodies a patent exhausts the patent holder's rights and prevents the patent holder from invoking the patent law to control post-sale use of the article." Patent exhaustion applies whether the patents are directed to products or methods. "Our precedents do not differentiate transactions involving embodiments of patented methods or processes from those involving patented apparatuses or materials.

Drugs industry protecting 'morally unacceptable' patent system

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Tech Companies Team Up To Buy Up Patents To Keep Them Away From Others

Google, Verizon, HP, Cisco and some others are apparently teaming up to put money towards buying patents to keep them out of the hands of patent hoarders who would turn around and sue them. This isn't a new concept, and has been tried before -- and it didn't help much. The problem is that many of the worst patent suits aren't from "known" patents, but someone claiming a patent on some minor feature that everyone thought was obvious. Also, this type of action only encourages more bad patent activities by adding another buyer to the market. Now, questionable patent holders will recognize that they can also just sell to this patent pool, rather than selling to some patent hoarding firm. This is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper, but will have little to no effect on slowing down or stopping bad patent lawsuits, and may actually enc

Admitted Patent Troll Finds The Phrase 'Shell Entity' Offensive

You may recall last year that we wrote about a patent lawsuit where the judge banned the use of the word "patent troll." That seemed reasonable enough, since it's clearly a negatively loaded phrase. However, it looks like some patent attorneys are trying to go even further with that concept. Ray Niro, in defending Scott Harris (who, you may recall, licensed his own patents to be used in lawsuits against his own firms' clients), is demanding that the phrase "shell entities" not be used either, claiming that they, too, are used negatively. That's because, like so many patent holders these days, Harris used shell companies to hold the patents and to sue companies. Of course, "shell entities" is a descriptive term, not one that is clearly designed as an insult like "patent troll.

JPEG Patent's Single Claim Rejected (And Smacked Down For Good Measure)

We've been covering the ongoing saga of an old patent we've referred to as the "JPEG Patent." This actually isn't the first patent we've called the JPEG Patent, because multiple people claimed to hold patents over the technology that goes into a JPEG image. But, this one was rather special. The patent had been used, repeatedly, by lawyer Ray Niro, against a wide range of opponents, including a patent system critic. The end result was a drawn out review process where all of the original claims were rejected, but a single new claim was added to the patent, which Niro insisted covered JPEGs on a website.

Silence Therapeutics Announces Successful Opposition of Glover Patent

a leading European RNA interference (RNAi) focused biotechnology company, announced today the successful opposition of a fundamental Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. European patent resulting in the patent being revoked in its entirety. The Opposition Division of the European Patent Office, following a three day hearing, announced its decision to revoke European Patent EP 1 230 375, exclusively licensed to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals from Cancer Research Technology, Ltd (UK). The Patent, commonly referred to as the "Glover" patent, broadly relates to medicaments comprising an RNA interference mediating RNA molecule. Opposition briefs to the Glover patent had been filed by Silence Therapeutics AG, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Quark Biotech, Inc.

PATENT REFORM IS NOT NECESSARY

Virtually all of the problems of the U.S. Patent system, including the high cost of obtaining a patent can be attributed to examiners issuing improper "bogus" rejections. While I know this is tue from my experience as a patent examiner, I performed a survey {using the PTO's Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system} of the 50 most recently issued patents classified in Class 435, Chemistry: Molecular Biology and Microbiology. In 76% of these patents, the examiner indicated in the first Office action that there was no allowable subject matter, i.e. none of the claims are patentable. Are the abilities of patent attorneys so low that over 75% of patent applications as filed do not contain at least one allowable claim? Or are the examiners writing "bogus" rejections? The answer is the latter.

Software Patent Sanity on the Way?

Ars Technica is reporting that the traditionally silent US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may be starting to turn things around. It seems that in recent action the USPTO has started to make it much easier to invalidate software patents with some saying that the abolition of such patents may be in the distant future. "Duffy cites four recent cases that illustrate the Patent Office's growing hostility to the patenting of software and other abstract concepts. While the USPTO hasn't formally called for the abolition of software patents, the positions it took in these cases do suggest a growing skepticism. In the first two cases, decided last fall, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which has jurisdiction over patent appeals) upheld patent rejections by the USPTO.

Non-Disruptive Backups and Migrations Enhances European Patent Protection and Management

The European Patent Office grants European patents. The EPO carries out searches and substantive examinations on a steadily rising number of European patent applications and international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The European Patent Office (EPO) needed to support up to 60 million patents documents and 800,000 patents within a high availability and ultra resilient DB2 environment. The European Patent Office deployed BMC DB2 solutions to more effectively support its customers and the management of its patent applications.

German Court Rules Qualcomm GSM Patent Claim Against Nokia Invalid

The German Federal Patent Court ruled today that Qualcomm’s GSM patent case against Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is invalid, Reuters reports. This is the third court to conclude that the American chipmaker’s patent claims against Nokia are “without merit,” said the Finnish handset maker. The United Kingdom High Court, and the U.S. International Trade Commission have also ruled that Qualcomm’s GSM patent claims against Nokia to be invalid. The two will meet again in German court in October, when a second Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) patent case will be heard. The news comes on the same day that Qualcomm and Nokia are to meet in a Deleware Court over its ongoing patent dispute.

MedMira Awarded China Patent

MedMira Inc. announced that it received a Notice on Grant of Patent Right For Invention (equivalent to the Notice of Allowance in the United States) from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People's Republic of China for its rapid diagnostic device and assay (Chinese Patent Application No. 02819646.5). The novel invention is the rapid flow-through technology (RFT) platform, the core product engine upon which the company has built its successful line of rapid tests for diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis. This patent rounds out MedMira's IP "triple crown" along with similar patents awarded in the United States (Patent Application No. 10/163,675) and the European Union (European Patent No. EP1417489).

Indevus Pharmaceuticals Announces Issuance of U.S. Patent for SANCTURA XR(TM)

announced today the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,410,978 (the "'978 patent"), entitled "Once Daily Dosage Forms of Trospium," which is licensed exclusively to the Company by the patent's assignee, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The '978 patent covers the Company's approved product, SANCTURA XR(TM), a once-a-day formulation of trospium chloride which is indicated for the treatment of symptoms of an overactive bladder. Based on calculations made by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the term of the '978 patent is twenty years plus 89 days from its filing date of November 4, 2004, or February 1, 2025. In September 2007, the Company entered into an agreement with Allergan, Inc. by which the Company granted Allergan an exclusive sublicense to market SANCTURA XR in the United States.

MIT sues Affymetrix for patent infringement

Affymetrix, the Santa Clara maker of tools used to study DNA and diagnose diseases, was sued for patent infringement by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over the company's GeneChip system used to analyze genes. Affymetrix has knowingly infringed the patent, MIT and a company started by an MIT professor said in a federal court complaint filed Tuesday in Boston. Affymetrix filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in September 2004, six months after a similar patent was approved for MIT, the university said in its complaint. The patent regulators ruled in May 2007 that the MIT group was the first inventor, according to the complaint. The GeneChip technology is used to develop new therapeutic drugs and to investigate the cause of cancer, AIDS and other diseases, Affymetrix has said.

Advanced Biological Laboratories Patent Licensing Technologies SARL Enters U.S. Patent License Agreement With Viralliance Inc.

ABL Patent Licensing Technologies, SARL, a subsidiary of Advanced Biological Laboratories SA (ABL) entered into a patent licensing agreement with Viralliance Inc. (VI). As per the scope of the patent license agreement, ABL has granted a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license to VI to use the ABL patent portfolio for guiding and ranking the selection of a therapeutic regimen for a given patient. The other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Maybe Patent Trolls Wouldn't Be So Hated If We Called Them Patent Elves

I'm not a huge fan of the term "patent troll" which I agree can be unfairly negative, and without a clear definition often leads to problems. Recently, it seems that the term is most often applied to "non-practicing entities" making some people think that the patent system is mainly abused by those operations. That's a bit of misdirection. There's just as much, if not more, abuse of the patent system done by large companies. If there were actual proof (still waiting!) that the patent system actually did lead to more innovation, then I can easily understand why a non-practicing entity that just licensed its works could make sense. Unfortunately, most of the evidence suggests that patents don't actually lead to more innovation. In those cases, the only thing that non-practicing entities end up doing is hindering innovation.

Advanced Biological Laboratories Patent Licensing Technologies SARL Enters U.S. Patent License Agreement With Viralliance Inc.

LUXEMBOURG & KALAMAZOO, Mich., BUSINESS WIRE -- ABL Patent Licensing Technologies, SARL, a subsidiary of Advanced Biological Laboratories SA (ABL) entered into a patent licensing agreement with Viralliance Inc. (VI). As per the scope of the patent license agreement, ABL has granted a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license to VI to use the ABL patent portfolio for guiding and ranking the selection of a therapeutic regimen for a given patient. The other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Advanced Biological Laboratories Patent Licensing Technologies SARL Enters U.S. Patent License Agreement With Viralliance Inc.

LUXEMBOURG & KALAMAZOO, Mich., BUSINESS WIRE -- ABL Patent Licensing Technologies, SARL, a subsidiary of Advanced Biological Laboratories SA (ABL) entered into a patent licensing agreement with Viralliance Inc. (VI). As per the scope of the patent license agreement, ABL has granted a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license to VI to use the ABL patent portfolio for guiding and ranking the selection of a therapeutic regimen for a given patient. The other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Advanced Biological Laboratories Patent Licensing Technologies SARL Enters U.S. Patent License Agreement With Viralliance Inc.

LUXEMBOURG & KALAMAZOO, Mich., BUSINESS WIRE -- ABL Patent Licensing Technologies, SARL, a subsidiary of Advanced Biological Laboratories SA (ABL) entered into a patent licensing agreement with Viralliance Inc. (VI). As per the scope of the patent license agreement, ABL has granted a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license to VI to use the ABL patent portfolio for guiding and ranking the selection of a therapeutic regimen for a given patient. The other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Advanced Biological Laboratories Patent Licensing Technologies SARL Enters U.S. Patent License Agreement With Viralliance Inc.

LUXEMBOURG & KALAMAZOO, Mich., BUSINESS WIRE -- ABL Patent Licensing Technologies, SARL, a subsidiary of Advanced Biological Laboratories SA (ABL) entered into a patent licensing agreement with Viralliance Inc. (VI). As per the scope of the patent license agreement, ABL has granted a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license to VI to use the ABL patent portfolio for guiding and ranking the selection of a therapeutic regimen for a given patient. The other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Day4 Energy Gains Chinese Patent Approval for Proprietary Solar Technology

BURNABY, BC, Aug. 21 /CNW/ - Day4 Energy Inc. (TSX: DFE - News), a leading manufacturer of high performance, cost-effective solar electric modules, today announced that the China Patent & Trademark office has issued a decision to award the company a patent for its core Day4 Electrode(TM) solar technology. The Chinese patent approval adds to existing intellectual property protection the company holds in key global markets including the European Union, United States, India and Mexico.

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