Patent Baristas

Where once we were isolated legal students, practitioners, and academics who could share our thoughts only with those in proximity, blogging and social media have turned us all into a kind of “other memory” for one another. ~Colin Samuels, Blawg Review Sherpa Emeritus

Blawg Review #276 is out at the Securing Innovation business blog, published by IP.com.  This is from a blog site that encourages and participates in discussions and topics regarding anything IP.  Securing Innovation provides some wonderful guest posts including “Patent an Idea?” by Vincent LoTempio.

In this week’s version, the focus of Blawg Review is not Intellectual Property but Indigenous Peoples in honor of International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

“The theme of this year’s Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is indigenous filmmakers, who give us windows into their communities, cultures and history. Their work connects us to belief systems and philosophies; it captures both the daily life and the spirit of indigenous communities. As we celebrate these contributions, I call on Governments and civil society to fulfill their commitment to advancing the status of indigenous peoples everywhere.”  ~Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

The stated objectives of the United Nations with respect to Indigenous Peoples include developing strong monitoring mechanisms and enhancing accountability at the international, regional and particularly the national level, regarding the implementation of legal, policy and operational frameworks for the protection of indigenous peoples and the improvement of their lives.

Obviously, the top item is the Wall Street Journal Law Blog report this week, “The battle between oil giant Chevron and Ecuador’s government continues to rage. The parties were back in court on Thursday to discuss the latest item in their long-running dispute over environmental damages in the country’s Amazon region.”

For background and references to the movie “Crude” about this case, see this YouTube video of a Voice of America news report. In a blog post on Opinio Juris, Roger Alford reports that the “ongoing saga regarding Chevron’s legal travails in Ecuador took an interesting twist this week. As I reported earlier, Chevron has secured key outtakes of the movie Crude that appeared to show alarming collusion between the plaintiff lawyers and the Court-appointed expert.”

In another post on Opinio Juris, Roger Alford says one of the key arguments that the Ecuador plaintiffs are making in response to Chevron’s Motion is that the damaging quotes are being taken out of context. Without question, writes Alford, one of the most damning excerpts is when lead plaintiffs’ lawyer Steve Donziger is quoted as saying that “Because at the end of the day, this is all for the Court just a bunch of smoke and mirrors and bullshit. It really is.”

Additional must-see items in this week’s Blawg Review includes a report by Kevin Noonan at Patent Docs that describes how intent generally is not required for patent infringement, a strict liability tort.  Now, pharma and software companies have filed a joint Amicus Brief in the Therasense case arguing that it is only in “extraordinary situations” that intent becomes an issue for infringers when the allegation is for inducing infringement, and for patentees when the allegation is inequitable conduct. The brief argues that specific intent, defined as “[t]he intent to accomplish the precise act with which one has been charged” (reflecting the origins of the concept in criminal law) is the standard that a court should apply when establishing inequitable conduct.

Also, don’t miss Gene Quinn at IP Watchdog where he has posted an Interview Exclusive with USPTO Director David Kappos.