Yesterday, we submitted a letter for the record to the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee On Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. This letter, written in response to testimony submitted for the Subcommittee’s hearing on Sovereign Immunity and IP, provides the details of our analysis of the patents which Josh Malone and Phil Johnson identified as…
Blog Posts
Misleading Stats Lead To Misleading Testimony In Front Of Congress
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet held a hearing on “Sovereign Immunity and the Intellectual Property System.” A fascinating topic, and one I’ve written on right here in the past. [1] [2] But I was struck by some testimony given by Philip Johnson, testimony he stood by…
CCIA Files Amicus In IPR Constitutionality Case At Supreme Court
by Josh Landau •
CCIA Files Amicus In IPR Constitutionality Case At Supreme Court Yesterday, we filed an amicus brief (along with the Internet Association, the National Association of Realtors, the Software and Information Industry Association, the Association of Global Automakers, and SAS Institute) in the Oil States v. Greene’s Energy case in the Supreme Court. This case is…
New Trial On Design Patent Damages, But A Flawed Test
by Josh Landau •
In the long-running Apple v. Samsung dispute, which has now gone from the trial court to the Federal Circuit to an en banc opinion to the Supreme Court and then back to the Federal Circuit and finally back to the trial court, Judge Koh has granted a new trial on the issue of damages for…
Tribal Immunity May Not Be Wonder Drug For Allergan
by Josh Landau •
This article was originally published on Law360 and is reprinted here. You’ve probably already heard the story. Allergan PLC owns patents related to relieving dry eyes. These patents allegedly read on their drug Restasis. They expired in 2014, leading to a group of generic manufacturers getting ready to enter the market with generic versions of the drug. In…
Big Tech vs. Big Pharma: An Article Filled With Big Errors
by Josh Landau •
On Monday, the Financial Times published an article by Rana Foroohar. While there are a lot of flaws in the article, one particularly pernicious myth shows up—the myth that patent trolls aren’t really a problem. Purporting to look at patent reform as a battle between the tech industry and pharmaceutical manufacturers, the FT article gives…
IPR Successes: The Next Five Years
by Josh Landau •
Over the past month, I’ve shown just how successful the inter partes review (IPR) program has been in its first five years. IPR has saved billions of dollars and helped everyone from city governments to realtors to the targets of patent trolls funded by foreign countries. Those stories are listed below: IPR Successes: Trolls and…
IPR Successes: A Bridge To Sovereign Patent Funds
by Josh Landau •
Patent trolls are a familiar concept at this point, but a “sovereign patent fund” (SPF) might not be. This isn’t the kind of sovereign I wrote about recently in regard to sovereign immunity. In essence, an SPF is simply a patent assertion entity (PAE) with backing from a national government. While government-funded companies that…
IPR Successes: Scan-To-Email Defeated By Scanner Makers
by Josh Landau •
In the pantheon of infamous patent trolls, MPHJ is near the top. MPHJ drew attention for their habit of mailing demand letters to anyone they thought might possibly have infringed their scan-to-email patent. This drew so much attention that, ultimately, they were sued by Vermont’s State Attorney General. MPHJ’s tactics were also one of the…
Guest Post: A Balanced Patent System to Protect Innovation
by Dan Lang •
Today I’m pleased to present a guest post from Dan Lang, VP Intellectual Property at Cisco. Now more than ever we need a strong patent system which strikes the right balance so that intellectual property rights encourage innovation rather than financial gamesmanship. The need to prevent a copyist competitor from reaping all the rewards of…