Patent Baristas

A fellow patent attorney (who wishes to remain anonymous) called my attention to a recent decision issued by Judge Sue L. Robinson of the Delaware District Court.  Cancer Research Technology et al. v Barr Laboratories et al., D-Del, Civ. No. 07-457-SLR, January 26, 2010.  Download CRT v Barr. I’m not a district court decision junkie: […]

As a direct consequence of overruling the affirmative duty of due care to avoid infringement upon learning of a patent, the Federal Circuit expressly instructed in Seagate that “there is no affirmative obligation to obtain [an] opinion of counsel.”  In re Seagate Technology, 497 F.3d 1360, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (en banc), cert. denied, 128 […]

Those of you who regularly prosecute patents in Australia will be aware that Australia has a unique approach to inventive step/non-obviousness. Specifically, Australian law differs from international norms in two fairly notable ways: Firstly, not all prior art references are citable. Rather, in order to be citable, a prior art reference must firstly be shown […]

How many times have we woken up to the smell of piping hot coffee? Flowers from the garden? The smell of mud after first rains? The smell of nature? The smell of home-cooked meals. It is small wonder then that perfumes are coveted by us. The smell of citrus, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, exotic fruits and […]

The ability of an intrepid inventor to strike it rich from a great idea seems to be embedded in the DNA of many Americans.  Perhaps this view emanates from the presence of patents in the US Constitution, which could create a feeling that US citizens have an “inalienable right” to use patent protection to their […]

A featured document in the Docket Report recently highlighted an Amended Opinion by Judge Cavanaugh of New Jersey: “The court granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment of indirect infringement based on defendants’ use of a label containing “instructions on how to use the product in a manner that encourages acts of infringement” even though “doctors […]

On January 13, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Chairman Jon Leibowitz held a press conference with Congressional members Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bobby Rush (D-IL), and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) arguing that health care reform legislation should include a prohibition to the patent settlements referred to as “reverse payment settlements” or “pay-for-delay settlements”. Reverse payment […]

Commentators like me frequently rail against what we view as the often unnecessarily high cost of obtaining patent protection. In truth, many patents are overpriced and provide questionable business value to their clients. Over-priced patents do not form the basis of this article, however. Instead, this is about the opposite phenomenon, i.e., under-priced patents. Specifically, […]