Keep your eye on the news

November 30, 2004 on 4:55 pm | In Legislation/Regulation | Comments Off

Via this USPTO pdf:

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005 (H.R. 4818) is currently pending before Congress. Upon enactment, H.R. 4818 will result in certain changes, including:

Revised patent fees; 

A separate fee for filing a patent, searching a patent, and examining a patent (all of which are due on filing); and 

An additional fee for any patent application whose specification and drawings exceed 100 sheets of paper (”application size” fee).

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, will take effect on the date it is signed by the President. The USPTO anticipates the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, to be enacted sometime in the near future.

Since the USPTO does not know when the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 will become law, we suggest that you monitor this site on a regular basis. We will post additional information on this site as soon as possible after enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005. For additional information, please contact the USPTO Contact Center at (703) 308-4357 or (800) 786-9199.

Keep your eye on the news???  Why?  Because the day the President signs the bill, fees change.  You don’t want to pay the wrong fees, do you?  You might remind your staff that this is going to happen too… 

Patently Obvious and Promote the Progress blogs have more on this topic. 

I am sure that each of us patent bloggers will fire out a reminder post the day the bill is signed.  As such, you may want to check your favorite patent blog(s) at the end of the day for then next few weeks (or until the bill is signed).

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Advice to science major law students

November 29, 2004 on 2:19 pm | In The-Practice-of-Law | 3 Comments

Matt Homman (the [non]billable hour blog) had a recent series of posts (by guest bloggers) called “Law Student Edition — Five by Five.”  Five very interesting posts which are worthy of a read.  Of the Five’s blogs, I really enjoy Poon’s blog (he blogs those tasteless things none of us would admit to thinking…).  I digress.

My advice to science majors going to law school with the hope of practicing patent law (and current 1L nerds (science majors) reading this blog):  “Forget the details, learn the big picture.”  My first semester of law school I killed myself studying, only to be a handful of students above the center of the curve.  After being amazed that I didn’t do better, it dawned on me that I was studying wrong. 

As a science major you prepare for exams by memorizing EVERYTHING.  Every last tidbit of knowledge must be memorized for the semester’s multiple choice tests.  The result is that the students who can memorize and recall the most get the best grades.  Preparing for my first semester finals, I spent all of my time memorizing my outline without learning what it all meant (in a big picture sense). 

Law school exams aren’t multiple choice (as you know).  The tests are over the concepts, not the details.  To study for your first law school tests, you need to ditch memorization and pick out the 4–5 big concepts for the semester that show up on EVERY EXAM (you’ve got old exams…find those big concepts) and be prepared to thoroughly discuss them, supplementing them with whatever tidbits you can remember.

Do that and (from my experience) you’ll consume much less antacid (or alcohol) when grades are released.

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If you can’t beat them…buy them out

November 29, 2004 on 12:30 pm | In Lawsuits | 1 Comment

Interesting article in the S.F. Chronicle today about 39 patents owned by Commerce One, a bankrupt software company, that are going up for auction next Monday.  Rather than have a professional patent plaintiff (someone who speculatively buys patents just to sue big businesses hoping for settlements or billion dollar jury verdicts) buy the patents and risk suit, major industry players (such as Google, Oracle and Sun Microsystems) are discussing pooling financial resources to jointly buy and retire the patents.  The company attempting to bring the pool together is called CommerceNet and has until Thursday to submit an initial offer for the patents. 

S.F. Chronicle article:  “Tech giants edgy over pending Web services patent sale / Buyers could try to sue firms for infringement”

Taipei Times article:  Patent sale raises lawsuit concerns

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Killing QuickTime’s Annoying “Upgrade” Reminder

November 23, 2004 on 10:19 am | In Web/Tech | Comments Off

I hate the fact that everytime I load QuickTime it gives me a pop-up box asking me whether I want to upgrade to QuickTime Pro.  Argh.  No means NO! 

I recently found that there is a way to make it stop asking!!!  [via this Cult of Mac Blog post]

UPDATE:  Don’t forget to first shut down anything on your computer that might freak out if the date jumps ahead 10 years for 5 minutes (Outlook, etc.)…you should have seen the box of "meeting reminders" that Outlook kicked up.  LOL.

UPDATE #2:  Norton AntiVirus gave me a "you need to upgrade" warning.  I think the date change triggered NAV to set a reminder pop-up box re:  expired subscription.  Howver, NAV still says my subscription is valid until 2005 and the update was fine.  Thus, it did not mess up NAV, but did trigger a false warning.  You might want to run this little trick in Safe Mode (XP) or at least close EVERY program on your computer first.  Use at your own risk.  LOL.

UPDATE #3:  A week later, QT still fixed and my computer appears to be fine (nothing broken by the tinkering).

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Examiners citing provisional patent applications as prior art

November 23, 2004 on 8:59 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

One additional benefit/drawback of the Image File Wrapper system (which allows the public access to the file wrappers of pending patent applications) is §102(e) rejections based on published provisional patent applications.  Of course, for there to be a "published provisional patent application" a non-provisional patent application must have been filed claiming priority from the provisional…

Which brings me to today’s USPTO Notice:  Most Publicly Available Provisional Applications Can Now be Viewed Over the Internet

Any applicant wishing to view and/or print a copy of a provisional application relied upon by an examiner to give prior art effect under 35 U.S.C. 102(e) to a reference applied in a rejection, may do so using the Public PAIR website at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair.

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Dudas is the Head

November 23, 2004 on 8:51 am | In USPTO | Comments Off

Senate Confirms Jon Dudas as Head of USPTO

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Pricing patents and searching for them

November 23, 2004 on 8:15 am | In Articles | Comments Off

Interesting articles in the November 2004 WIPO SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) NEWSLETTER:

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The crazy ways people find this blog…

November 22, 2004 on 1:18 pm | In Web/Tech | Comments Off

I know its off topic…but hey, its Monday!! 

Here’s a crazy idea I had the other day…track down (easier said than done) people that found a blog by searching for some weird combination of terms in Google and interview them about their story.  It could make a very interesting TV show. 

Example?  I’d love to hunt down the person who found by blog looking for “pulling your own teeth” and hear their story. 

Rather than a TV idea…one could create a fictional blog post series (like Schaeffer sort of does in his Advice posts) of conversations with said search people.

Just another crazy idea….

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Law.com “gets” blogging

November 22, 2004 on 11:44 am | In Weblogs | Comments Off

American Lawyer Media’s Law.com has started rounding up blawgers, in two different ways I have recently seen:

First, myself (and apparently Matt Buchanan at Promote the Progress Blog) have been asked to be columnists for Law.com, writing on hot topics in IP law.  I am sure that there are other blawgers who have likewise been asked…

Second, Law.com has picked up a handful of other blawgers to join the Law.com Blog Network, including IP blawger Bill Heinze of I/P Updates.  The other blawgers:  [non]billable hour [Matt Homann], The Volokh Conspiracy, May It Please The Court,  MyShingle.com, Jottings by an Employer’s Lawyer, and Crime and Federalism.  Homann has additional details HERE. 

Who is Law.com?

Law.com is a legal news and information network that connects legal professionals to more than 20 award-winning national and regional legal  publications online, including The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, New York Law Journal and Legal Times. In addition, through Law.com’s linked information sites, legal professionals can track developments in their practice specialties in the site’s Practice Centers.

You can view the IP Law Practice Center here:  http://www.law.com/jsp/pc/iplaw.jsp

You can view the Business Law Practice Center here:  http://www.law.com/jsp/pc/buslaw.jsp

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Best $8.25 I’ve recently spent

November 22, 2004 on 8:55 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

Quite easily the best $8.25 I’ve recently spent was a ticket to see a quirky movie called Napoleon Dynamite on Saturday.  We had originally wanted to see National Treasure, but the next few shows were already sold out…leaving us with “Plan B.”  A number of people I know had mentioned Napoleon Dynamite as a “must see,” so Dynamite it was.  One of the interesing things we (my wife and I) noted was how old we felt…everyone else in the theater was 15–25 years old.  The movie is set in a small town in southeastern Idaho (which may be why it is still playing here in Boise) and is one of the most interesting and funny independent films I have ever seen.  I can’t remember ever laughing that hard at a movie.  If it is still playing in your area (it is still in the theaters)…it is worth checking out .  The movie is apparently slated to be released on DVD on December 21.

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