It’s become an article of faith among those complaining that patent reform has gone too far that the 2006 eBay case must be overturned—so much so that Sen. Coons has included it in both editions of his STRONGER Patents Act (one of a multitude of reasons that bill is bad policy.) But, as with so…
Tag Archive for statistics
Christmas (Tree Patents) In July
by Josh Landau •
It’s the week of the Fourth of July and that means that it’s time to talk about Christmas trees. Or at least about patents for creating an electric connection between different sections of artificial trees. In a pair of decisions yesterday [1][2], both dealing with a dispute between two companies over artificial Christmas trees, the…
CCIA Letter to Senate Judiciary IP Subcommittee Members On Questionable Studies
by Josh Landau •
At last week’s Senate Judiciary IP Subcommittee hearing, questioners referenced two studies. The first, on multiple IPR petitions, was conducted by Steve Carlson and Ryan Schultz of Robins Kaplan. The second, on venture capital and § 101, was conducted by Prof. David Taylor of SMU. But, as Twain said in a somewhat more colorful form,…
FTC Hearings #4: Patents, Intellectual Property, and Innovation
by Josh Landau •
This post has been cross-posted to DisCo. Last week, the FTC held the fourth in its set of hearings focusing on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” The first day focused on a review of the current landscape of intellectual property and competition. The second day featured a variety of panels focusing on…
IPR And Alice Appear Responsible For Reduced Patent Litigation Costs
by Josh Landau •
Patent litigation costs have dropped significantly over the past few years, after a steady series of increases over the previous decade. This drop has sometimes been attributed to the use of inter partes review and to the Alice decision. The chart below, created based on data from the AIPLA Report of the Economic Survey, shows…
Additional Studies Show IPR Is Not A Threat To Hatch-Waxman Process
by Josh Landau •
Over a year ago, I took a look at a study of the success rate for inter partes reviews (IPRs) of pharmaceutical patents. That study showed that drug and biologic patents are significantly more likely to be upheld at the PTAB than the average patent. Recently, there’s been a wave of additional studies looking at…
Finding A Few Problems In New “Inventor Protection Act”
by Josh Landau •
There’s a bit of a glut of anti-innovation bills in Congress right now, ranging from the STRONGER Patents Act to Rep. Massie’s RALIA bill (which I hope to write about at a later date) and now, Rep. Rohrabacher’s H.R. 6557, the “Inventor Protection Act.”1 The bill begins with legislative findings. Unfortunately, the “findings” that…
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…
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…
A Little More Than Forty Percent: Outcomes At The PTAB, District Court, and the EPO
by Josh Landau •
In the run-up to Oil States, a frequent criticism by opponents of patent reform was that the PTAB was “unfair” and that it invalidated patents at a rate far higher than the district courts would if they had the chance. Unfortunately this is contradicted by the actual facts, which is something we’ve seen before…