Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) posted a draft of its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. While many of the goals set out in the plan are important—for example, improving the ability of examiners to obtain the best prior art during examination and enhancing the information technology the USPTO makes available both internally and…
Blog Posts
NPE Resurrects Canceled Patent To Go After Restaurants
by Josh Landau •
A few years ago, a company called MacroSolve stopped creating products and started creating patent litigation. Its tool was a patent that claimed to cover mobile questionnaires. But after several of their targets decided to fight back, filing an ex parte reexamination request that wound up cancelling all of the claims of its patent, MacroSolve…
ITC Remedies Don’t Have To Be All-Or-Nothing
by Josh Landau •
The International Trade Commission’s (ITC) basic function is to protect American industry against unfair foreign competition by prohibiting the importation of unfairly produced trade goods. That includes preventing the importation of goods that infringe a valid U.S. patent through what are called “exclusion orders.” But that function is limited by the second part of its…
Qualcomm’s Settlement With Taiwanese FTC Ignores Broken Promises
by Josh Landau •
Last week Qualcomm reached an agreement with the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission (TFTC), overturning the $778 million penalty the TFTC levied in October. Qualcomm promised to invest $700 million in Taiwan and commit to certain process safeguards over their licensing arrangements with handset makers. In exchange, the original TFTC ruling is wiped away. Qualcomm will…
RALIA Would Take Us Back To The Patent Law Stone Age
by Josh Landau •
At the end of June, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced the “Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act of 2018,” H.R. 6264 (RALIA). RALIA, rather than restoring American innovation, aims to overturn the advances in American patent law that help protect innovation. Last week, I addressed Rep. Rohrabacher’s ‘Inventor Protection Act’ (IPA) [1][2], and I’ve previously…
The Inventor Protection Act Would Actually Harm U.S. Innovation
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday, I went through the serious defects in the findings Rep. Rohrabacher based his Inventor Protection Act on. Today, I’ll discuss the problems with the legal changes the bill seeks to make.
Finding A Few Problems In New “Inventor Protection Act”
by Josh Landau •
There’s a bit of a glut of anti-innovation bills in Congress right now, ranging from the STRONGER Patents Act to Rep. Massie’s RALIA bill (which I hope to write about at a later date) and now, Rep. Rohrabacher’s H.R. 6557, the “Inventor Protection Act.”1 The bill begins with legislative findings. Unfortunately, the “findings” that…
‘Freedom To Operate’ Isn’t Even Close To Free
by Josh Landau •
There’s been an increasing usage of the term “efficient infringement” in the debate over patent reform. The basic idea is that large companies make an active choice to ignore patents and just pay for them when they lose a lawsuit. The basic idea isn’t correct. Large companies aren’t making an active choice to ignore patents—in…
SUCCESS Act Is A Good Start—But Could Be Improved
by Josh Landau •
Last week, Rep. Comstock (R-VA), along with 7 other cosponsors, introduced H.R. 6390, the “Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018” (SUCCESS) Act. The Act recognizes the gap in innovation activity faced by women and under-represented minorities, and requires the Small Business Administration and the PTO to study the reasons…
Federal Circuit Holds Tribal Sovereign Immunity Does Not Apply In IPR
by Josh Landau •
Today, in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, the Federal Circuit held that tribal sovereign immunity does not provide a right of immunity in inter partes reviews (IPR). In an opinion by Judge Moore, writing for herself and Judges Dyk and Reyna, the Federal Circuit focused on the PTO Director’s ability to decide whether…