Patent Correction: Navigating the Confusing Terrain of Broadening Reissue
July 29, 2010
There are times when a patent owner may discover that an issued patent does not claim everything that the patent should have covered. When such defects are discovered, one strategy a patent owner may wish to consider is filing a request with the USPTO for a broadened reissue of a U.S. patent to enlarge the scope of the claims of the original patent.
Korean War Memorial Copyright Infringed By U.S. Postal Service
July 29, 2010
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held the U.S. Postal Service liable for copyright infringement for its use on a postage stamp of an image of a number of sculptures created by Frank Gaylord for the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
A Madness to the Method? The Impact of Bilski on Method Patents
July 29, 2010
For more than a year, the software/information technology, financial, and even biotech industries, along with the patent bar, waited for the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue of business methods and patent-eligible subject matter under ' 101 of the Patent Act. In its recent decision in <i>Bilski v. Kappos</i>, the Supreme Court provided an answer for the business method claimed by Bilski, but not a lot of detailed guidance for future cases.
'Would You Like Fries with That?'
July 27, 2010
Recent court decisions addressing the classification of "goods" versus "services" have shed some light on the proper definition of "goods" in the context of whether a particular claim is for "goods" under ' 503(b)(9). However, these decisions have left open some key questions.
IP News
June 28, 2010
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Pay-for-Delay May Require a New Prescription
June 28, 2010
Part One of this series discussed common IP settlement terms that may give rise to antitrust liability and how the analysis of whether a settlement agreement violates the antitrust laws depends upon many factors that are specific to the underlying facts. This second installment addresses recent challenges by the government and private plaintiffs to settlements between brand name and generic drug manufacturers, and how these challenges have further refined the antitrust framework for analyzing patent litigation settlement agreements in the pharmaceutical industry.
The 'Hot News' Doctrine in the Digital Age
June 28, 2010
Last year, the Southern District of New York reignited the 90-year-old hot news doctrine and applied it in the Internet context. Since that decision, a number of entities have attempted to use the hot news doctrine to prevent the unauthorized use of time-sensitive content, including most recently, financial firms and media outlets attempting to prevent news-oriented Web sites from publishing their well-researched content.
A Roll of the Dice for International Trademark Owners
June 28, 2010
As international businesses seek to expand across borders, including by availing themselves of legal tools (such as the Madrid Protocol) to register in the United States trademarks developed abroad, there is surprisingly little guidance as to what enforceable rights under U.S. law actually result from this process. However, as shown by the recent decision, In re Casino de Monaco Trademark Litigation, even well-established foreign companies can encounter difficulties enforcing rights not grounded in traditional U.S. trademark law principles of use in commerce.
