Patent Baristas

Lighting up the law web pages these days is the lawsuit by the law firm Jones Day against BlockShopper LLC and two individuals associated with the website, for allegedly using Jones Day’s service marks and linking to its website in at least two articles discussing Chicago real estate transactions of Jones Day associates.  Jones Day […]

Blawg Review #17 is up on Securing Innovation, the business blog of IP.com Inc. SInce September 29th is Día del Inventor in Argentina, this week’s Review is in commemoration of Hungarian inventor Laszlo Biro. Biro brought us the ballpoint pen 70 years ago this summer (designed in his garage in Buenos Aires). After obtaining the […]

It’s not often that a fiction thriller comes along featuring a patent attorney as the lead character so I was anxious to see such a combination in Paul Goldstein’s novel “A Patent Lie.”  Labeled as “Owning the truth is a matter of life and death,” the book melds technology, ethics and law. Paul Goldstein is […]

The Starbucks Coffee Company has apparently decided not to protest the logo of the Rat City Rollergirls, a Seattle-based roller derby league.  According to Starbucks, the company had concerns about a “very similar look and feel of the logo.” Under trademark law, Starbucks had asked for an extension to file an official objection to the […]

R.I.P. Heller The San Francisco law firm Heller Ehrman will formally vote today to dissolve, chloroforming a law firm that survived earthquakes, a depression, wars and social upheavals but was unable to compete in a new global economy. An overview of “What have we learned from this collapse of a century old, over $500-million in […]

We don’t usually plug movies around here but not too many movies have patent infringement as the major plot line.  Universal Pictures’ upcoming film titled Flash of Genius, starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney and Alan Alda, tells the story of the landmark patent case of inventor Robert Kearns. Billed as educational while also […]

It appears that no matter who wins the presidential election this November, both Barack Obama and John McCain back expanded use of generic drugs as a way to lower drug costs,  According to their advisers, both campaigns have pledged their support to help create a market for generic biotech drugs or biosimilars. As a part […]

Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office has (proudly?) highlighted the fact that the allowance rate for patents is currently 42%.  This is in contrast to allowance rates in excess of 70% just eight years ago.  So, did patent applications really get that […]