Guest Post
Are Copyright and Patent Overlapping or Mutually Exclusive in Protecting Software Innovations?
“Neither the Copyright Statute nor any other says that because a thing is patentable it may not be copyrighted. We should not so hold.” So said the Supreme Court in Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201, 2...
FTC Streamlines Patent Troll Study
Yesterday the FTC announced that it has updated its proposed study on patent trolls and is sending the proposed study to OMB for approval.
Not surprisingly the public overwhelmingly supported the stu...
In Defense of Software (Patentability)
Note from [link_user name="matt.levy"]Matt Levy[/link_user]: The Alice v. CLS Bank case, which is being argued at the U.S. Supreme Court later this month, has invigorated the debate over the patenta...
New Paper Proves the Danger of Bottom Feeder Trolls
Erik Hovenkamp has authored a very interesting working paper comparing bottom feeder trolls (as we’ve seen here and here) to the practice of predatory pricing. This paper will likely be very impor...
Trolls Aren’t Welcome in Lake Wobegon
We all know the virtues of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, a mythical town in rural Minnesota “where are the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average....
Stop Abusive Patent Litigation, For the Sake of our Economy
The patent troll debate has officially heated up and the nation’s businesses are paying close attention to the proceedings. The FTC got things started on December 10, 2012 at the Patent Assert...
Suggestions for an FTC 6(b) Study on Patent Assertion Entities
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly hosted a workshop to explore the issue of patent assertion entities (PAEs) on December 10, 2012. Since th...
Using the Full Powers of the FTC to Combat Patent Trolls
A century ago there was a lively debate in Congress over the enforcement of the antitrust laws. Much of the 1912 presidential campaign had focused on the lack of effective antitrust enforcement by t...
Actavis Case Shows Weak Patents Are System-Wide
Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments in FTC v. Actavis (transcript here). This case concerns a topic not normally covered on Patent Progress – pharmaceutical patents. Pharmaceutical patents a...