Yesterday, we submitted a letter for the record to the House Small Business Committee. This letter, written in response to testimony submitted for the Committee’s hearing entitled “Innovation Nation: How Small Businesses in the Digital Technology Industry Use Intellectual Property,” corrects significant errors and omissions in the testimony of the USIJ witness. Our letter to…
Blog Posts
IP Witness Gives Incorrect Testimony To House Small Business Committee
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing on how small businesses use intellectual property. And, as has happened before, promoting patents—but not necessarily promoting progress—offers data that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Chris Israel is an IP lobbyist for American Continental Group, with clients including Comcast, the Copyright Alliance, and Time Warner. He’s…
CCIA Submits Comments On Proposed Change To IPR Claim Construction Standard
by Josh Landau •
Today, the Computer & Communications Industry Association submitted its comments opposing the Patent Office’s proposal to change the claim construction standard applied in AIA trials from the current broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) to the Phillips standard district courts apply. In brief, there are three main concerns: A change from BRI to Phillips is unjustified by…
If A Free Patent Portfolio License Sounds Too Good To Be True—It Is
by Josh Landau •
Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are generally companies with only one asset—their patents. So why would an NPE give away licenses to the only things it can generate value from? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it might be. Act Now For A Free Patent License! iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is a…
More Evidence Is In—Alice Has Been Good For R&D
by Josh Landau •
Tuesday marked one milestone—utility patent number 10,000,000. But it also marked a far more important milestone—the 4-year anniversary of the Alice decision. Looking back on those 4 years, Alice has been a clear success in eliminating patents that never should have issued. It’s had a very limited impact on patent prosecution, with most applications entirely…
To Promote The Progress
by Josh Landau •
Today, the ten millionth utility patent issued.1 The patent relates to one way of providing coherent LADAR detection. As we look back at 180 years of Patent Office history and look forward to the next ten million patents, it’s worth remembering that what makes the U.S. patent system unique is the explicit dedication of the…
Using A Trade Court To Avoid Antitrust And FRAND: Qualcomm At The ITC
by Josh Landau •
The first Apple/Qualcomm International Trade Commission (ITC) case is about to kick into high gear, with the prehearing conference scheduled for Friday and the hearing (essentially the equivalent of a trial in the ITC) opening next week. Qualcomm has already dropped several patents from this case and in a companion European case admitted that some…
‘Gold Into Lead’ Article Focuses On Pyrite Patents
by Josh Landau •
I’m out at IPBC Global this week, and one of the hot topics of conversation here is patent eligibility under § 101. In fact, Director Iancu’s remarks focused heavily on § 101, and the panel I spoke on debated the relative importance of patent quality and patent eligibility. (I argued that patent quality is more…
CAFC Determines No Requirement To Reopen Non-Instituted Claims Post-SAS
by Josh Landau •
While the Supreme Court continues to consider WesternGeco, that’s not the only oil services patent case to read up on.1 A little over a month ago, the Supreme Court’s SAS opinion determined that the PTAB can’t pick and choose which claims to consider in an inter partes review (IPR). Today, the Federal Circuit released its…
Comments from Samsung Jurors Drive Home The Flaws In Design Patents
by Josh Landau •
A few weeks back, I outlined some of the problems created when design patent law is interpreted in negative ways. One particular issue? The negative incentives created if the article of manufacture to which icon patents are applied is the entire device. When I wrote that post, these were still hypotheticals. A sole juror is…