Patent Baristas

France is considering a biotech tax cut believing that tax reform will boost innovation, but I’m not so sure that companies decide on starting or relocating to one country over another based on some tax cuts. The proposal is for special tax status for “young listed companies” (“jeunes entreprises cotees”) that would help companies after […]

J. Craig Williams, on his blog May It Please the Court, after noting that "blogging as a phenomenon is reaching epic proportions, asks the question: Are blogs advertising?  Williams believes yes.  He thinks that "it would be difficult to identify a purely altruistic blog" and thinks that, in the broadest sense of the word, all […]

According to a new survey, US universities increased the number of licenses and options executed by over 20% between fiscal years (FY) 2001 and 2003. However, the number of startups created from such licenses dropped 17%. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), released its latest annual licensing survey, which covers FY2003. AUTM sent questionnaires […]

Jon Gowshall of Forrester Ketley & Co. sent us a note on changes to UK patent law starting on 1 January 2005.  The changes are to bring UK law into line with the WIPO Patent Law Treaty (PLT) signed in Geneva in June 2000, and into line with the European Patent Convention as prospectively amended […]

The partners of Boston firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP voted to wind up the business of the Firm and dissolve it.  In early December, 10 partners decided to leave the Firm and the remaining partners decided to dissolve the partnership.  The Firm had one of the largest patent and intellectual property practices in New […]

Reuters announced that the American Heart Association journal Circulation published an article showing Pfizer Inc.?s Bextra, a COX-2 inhibitor, can triple the risk of heart attack and stroke in certain patients. In the study, the researchers studied mice genetically prone to hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis and found that a compound called thromboxane or […]

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I went with my daughter’s school class on a trip to see the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.  It was quite moving, even for second-graders, to see a slave pen, a two-story structure rescued and preserved inside the Center.  The movie on slave escapes across the […]

Harold Wegner, a partner at Foley & Lardner has an interesting article pondering the upcoming possible changes to Japanese Patent Law.  The Japanese "Article 35" has become in the news for the astonomical awards of money to employed inventors possible independent of any employment contract. Legislation has been approved by the Cabinet that is now […]