I received the following from a law student:
Do you know of any patent files to which you could refer me where restriction requirements have been successfully overcome by petition? If so, could you please provide me with the serial numbers? I am researching a reliable rumor that petitions to overcome restriction requirements have been much [...]
I, believe it or not, blog at about a dozen different blogs. It recently dawned on me that I should do a better job of cross posting links to posts which my readers might find of interest. To wit:
Rethink(IP) Blog
Memorial Day Edition of Blawg Review Available
How Long Before Law Firms do this With Associates?
USPTO explains [...]
Kevin Heller hosts this week’s Blawg Review (#58)…and it is COOL. I don’t typically read Blawg Review….honestly, the splog format you typically see from week to week is a bit boring (we (Rethink(IP)) complained about it in Blawg Review #48).
Kevin created a Blawg Review format that I would read. Short, simple, sweet, to [...]
Scott Adams on patent litigators in today’s Dilbert:
http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2006052442720.gif
I stumbled onto a USPTO page earlier that warns applicants that if they file a trademark, it “may” be rejected:
The USPTO may refuse to register your mark on numerous grounds. The most common are:
Likelihood of Confusion
The USPTO conducts a search for conflicting marks as part of the official examination of an application only after a [...]
Injunctive relief as a matter of right gets tossed out window (Supreme Court just released opinion in eBay v. MercExchange). Scratch that off your list of big patent reform issues. According to Yahoo/Reuters:
The justices unanimously set aside the decision by a U.S. appeals court in finding that a permanent injunction barring use of a technology must [...]
The National Association of Patent Practitioners has posted their oppostion to the USPTO’s proposed rules “concerning (1) limiting the number of continuations and divisions, and (2) selecting few claims or issuing patentability reports.” Copies [PDF] of their reasons for opposing the proposed rule changes can be found here:
Regarding continuation restrictions
Regarding claim restrictions
See also [...]
Independent inventors:“get the short end of the stick when dealing with large corporations.”
Engadget reporting that James Fergason, the inventor of the LCD, was recently awarded the $500K MIT-Lemelson prize and plans on donating his prize money to independent inventors who (as Engadget puts it) “…get the short end of the stick when dealing with large [...]
I swear someone recently told me that you couldn’t use a s-signature with USPTO correspondence. So much for that theory. According to Joy Bryant at the NAPP, 37 CFR 1.4(d) was amended to allow for s-signature use [PDF]. See: 37 CFR 1.4(d) which says that:
(i) The S-signature must consist only of letters, or Arabic numerals, or both, with [...]
Patent attorneys (being the self centered snobs we are) like to say “patents are the broadest protection you can have, then trademarks…and copyrights are really narrow.”
How does that crude logic stack up when you look at what they are worth–dollar value?
James E. Hawes has analyzed that question…and has some interesting results: IPThoughts–Values of IP
