Patent / Trademark Law News

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is asking state lawmakers for an exemption from the state's open-records law that would allow it to keep research data private until the information is published or patented.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports university officials say the exemption would create the ability to keep research data private until it's published or patented, citing a change in federal law that could potentially allow a rival to learn about research through an open-records request.

Get ready for a toothbrush designed to clean both your teeth and tongue that tantalizes taste buds with flavors like coffee.

Eight months ago, small- and medium-sized businesses around the country started getting threats from mysterious six-letter entities like AllLed, GosNel, and AdzPro.

The growing chorus of concern about funding levels at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been joined by several of the nation's prominent patent lawyers who worry about the impact of sequestration on the patent office.

Vermont sued a patent owner over claims it violated the state's Consumer Protection Act, saying it's the first state to file such a complaint against a company whose business is suing for patent infringement.

Don't let big companies deny the print disabled access to books. The American Library Association supports a copyright exception to a World Intellectual Property Organization international treaty to increase access to information for people with print disabilities - those who are blind, have low vision, are dyslexic, have a learning disability or ... (more)

The patent troll problem is not new. Trolls have been targeting companies large and small for some time, dragging productive businesses into court and extorting licensing fees that have become a nearly unavoidable tax on innovation.

As I blogged back in February , Ron Paul angered some of his fans by relying on a UN-sponsored dispute resolution mechanism, the World Intellectual Property Organization , to try to claim he should legally own the domain names RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org, not the people who currently did.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeking to limit the state's open records law - potentially through language slipped into the state budget - to keep from the public information about research until it is published or patented.

Thursdays the Patent Office publishes new pending patent applications . Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking .

A patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday reveals Apple is actively researching methods to ensure a video's multi-channel audio is always played back correctly, no matter how a user holds the device.

Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A. , the largest independent patent law firm in North Carolina, will be hosting a "Review of IP Caselaw for May 2013" on May 28 at 3 p.m. The discussion will be led by Peter Siddoway, an attorney in the firm's litigation group.

"[T]he same claim term can have different constructions depending upon the context of how the term is used within the claims and specification." On May 20, 2013, in Aventis Pharms., Inc.

Among its many changes, the America Invents Act provides several new post-grant procedures for a third party to challenge the validity of an issued U.S. patent.

The ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION is suing RURAL MEDIA GROUP and SIRIUS XM RADIO INC.

Solar Wind Energy Tower, Inc. , the inventor of a large Solar Wind Downdraft Tower structure capable of producing abundant, inexpensive electricity, announced the allowance of Patent Application Number 13/098,476, titled "Atmospheric Energy Extraction Devices and Methods", by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Without any surprise, even to those who wrote amici in support of the farmer in Bowman v. Monsanto , the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto last week.

Welcome to the wacky world of tech patents-a place where you'll find not just the crazy-sounding ideas that inhabit any category of patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office , but some ideas that seem so minute or so obvious that you wonder how they ever qualified as patentworthy.

It focuses on the research, discovery and development of therapeutic drugs for the treatment of chronic respiratory and inflammatory diseases.