On July 6, the Computer and Communications Industry Association submitted comments on America Invents Act (AIA) trial procedures in response to the PTO’s ongoing request for such feedback, most recently at the PTAB Judicial Conference in June. Our comments, briefly summarized, are that: The inter partes review (IPR) procedure has been successful in providing an…
Tag Archive for patent quality
Bad Patents, Bad Results
by Josh Landau • • 4 Comments
Tomorrow morning, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet is holding a hearing on “The Impact of Bad Patents on American Businesses.” The impact of bad patents is a topic worth taking some time to examine, because it isn’t just about the direct impact from abusive troll litigation—bad patents…
The “Doubtful Validity” Type Of Case
by Josh Landau • • 1 Comment
“Death squads.” “Hanging judge[s].” A “reign of terror.” “Patent killing fields.” Even if we set aside the questionable taste shown in analogizing the review of patents to genocide, there’s some extremely overwrought rhetoric out there being used to describe the inter partes review (IPR) process. The rhetoric is based on a perception that the Patent…
IPR Statistics – Success Is Sector Specific
by Josh Landau • • 4 Comments
Yesterday, I published an extensive analysis of Senator Coons’ STRONGER Patents Act. As I said then, the bill would neuter the IPR process, removing any real reason to ever pursue one (assuming you could even file one after the changes to the estoppel, real party in interest, and standing provisions.) One of the reasons I’ve…
ContentGuard: Validity and Privilege
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Monday I summarized the history of the ContentGuard cases, and yesterday I described the process of claim interpretation. Today, we’ll turn to an issue that we’ve focused on recently, patent validity. ContentGuard convinced the jury that the ContentGuard patents were valid—can they convince the Federal Circuit? Abstract Ideas We’ve written a lot about patents on…
GAO Report on Patent Quality Summarized (Cartoon)
by Matt Levy • • 1 Comment
The GAO recently did a study on patent quality. It found that part of the reason so many patents are low quality is the pressures patent examiners are under to allow more patents.
GAO Identifies Ways for PTO to Improve Patents
by Matt Levy • • 2 Comments
The Government Accountability Office recently released two reports making recommendations on how to improve patent quality.
Proposed PTO Case Studies Show Common Concerns
by Matt Levy • • 4 Comments
The USPTO recently requested proposals for case studies that the Office might do in order to improve patent prosecution. There were over 100 proposals submitted from associations, companies, law firms, and individuals. There are definitely some proposals that the USPTO should use. I’m hoping that at the USPTO’s Patent Quality Community Symposium on Wednesday, some…
Watch John Oliver Take on Patent Trolls: Annotated Edition
by Ali Sternburg • • 2 Comments
John Oliver has covered an impressive amount of tech policy issues on his weekly HBO show Last Week Tonight, the National Journal points out, and he continued this last night, discussing patents and patent reform. Oliver touched on many issues that are familiar to Patent Progress readers: abstract patents and patent quality, trolls suing end…
Examiners Need the Right Tools to Improve Patent Quality
by Matt Levy • • 1 Comment
“Patent quality” is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot. Everyone, it seems, agrees that the could do a better job on patent quality. Why is it that poor quality patents issue in the first place? This is a simple question with a complicated answer. In this post, I’ll look at one…