Apple v. Samsung is obviously about high tech smartphones. Other recent design patent cases have focused on high tech products as well—both the Nikola v. Tesla case Patent Progress covered recently and the Microsoft v. Corel case that Prof. Sarah Burstein described over on Patently-O deal with high tech products. But the basic issue with…
Tag Archive for patent reform
Did You Buy Your Car Just Because Of The Cup Holder?
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
Opening arguments in Apple v. Samsung started this morning. While round six of the long-running case deals with smartphone patents, the potential impacts range much further. As I noted in my post yesterday, a rule of design patent damages that allows patentees to receive the total profits on the entire product even though the design…
PTAB Will Continue To Double-Check Its Work—All Of It
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
Today, the Supreme Court issued two opinions in cases focused on the inter partes review (IPR) procedure. First, in Oil States v. Greene’s Energy Group, the Court upheld the constitutionality of IPR by a 7-2 vote. Second, in a more narrowly divided 5-4 decision in SAS v. Matal, the Court decided that the PTAB’s practice…
Like A Horror Movie Villain, The STRONGER Patents Act Returns
by Josh Landau •
Since the STRONGER Patents Act was introduced last year, it’s basically been a dead topic. Maybe that’s because the bill would gut the extremely successful inter partes review procedure and overturn more than a decade of Supreme Court precedent, crippling the ability of small and medium enterprises to develop products without fear. It would even make…
A New § 101 Trio Shows That We Don’t Need § 101 Legislation
by Josh Landau •
The Bilski, Alice, Mayo, and Myriad cases are sometimes referred to as a § 101 quartet because they set forth the Supreme Court’s test for patentable subject matter under § 101. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a new trio of § 101 cases emerge from Federal Circuit panels—Berkheimer, Aatrix, and Automated Tracking. The…
Innovation Is Alive And Well—Patenting Activity
by Josh Landau •
After examining the evidence for U.S. innovation as shown by startups and venture capital, and by R&D spending, I want to look at patenting activity—new patent applications and new patent grants. Particularly given accusations that the U.S. patent system has fallen behind other systems worldwide—accusations based on extremely questionable analysis—it’s worth looking at what patent…
Chamber of Commerce Patent System Ranking Is Built On A Shaky Foundation
by Josh Landau •
The Chamber of Commerce produces a yearly ranking of intellectual property systems around the world. This year, they dropped the U.S. patent system to 12th. If I thought their rankings had any merit, I might be concerned by this change. Unfortunately, their analysis is flawed and based on complete misrepresentations of reality. So, What Happened?…
Dear Director Iancu
by Josh Landau •
So, you’re Andrei Iancu, about to be the newly confirmed Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. What are the first things you put on your agenda? I have some suggestions. Eliminate Contingent Amendments As an initial matter, the PTAB’s practice of allowing contingent amendments needs to end. Essentially, this allows patent owners…
Patent Links and Articles To Read By The Fire
by Josh Landau •
With the weather as cold as it’s been in DC lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading by the fire. And what better way to use that time than to read about patents! For those of you, like me, for whom that sounds like fun—here’s a few things I’ve run across lately that…
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…