Patent Baristas

In a sign of “piling on”, more than 200 organizations and businesses have signed on to a letter to Chairman Leahy, Chairman Conyers, Chairman Berman, Senator Specter, Representative Smith, and Representative Coble of the Committee on the Judiciary regarding patent reform bill. The group voiced serious concerns with certain provisions of The Patent Reform Act […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that claims with a means plus function limitation – here a “control means” — where there is no corresponding structure described in the specification, are invalid. See, Biomedino, LLC v. Waters Technologies Corporation (2006-1350). Biomedino, LLC had appealed from a lower court decision that claims […]

Jim Harlan, Patent Counsel at Siemens Automation and Drives, UGS PLM Software (and former Blawger Bowl III competitor), has gone wild and started a new patent blog, Patents Gone Wild. The site features Jim’s thoughts/musings on the business impact patents play as an intangible asset. One recent post asks about the ramifications of the Indian […]

After refusing to die easy on its bid to put out a generic version of Plavix, Apotex was handed its hat by the district court. Sanofi-Synthelabo v. Apotex Inc., 02cv2255, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Granting a permanent injunction, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein held that Apotex failed to prove by clear […]

Chief Justice Paul Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit wrote to Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary regarding patent reform. He notes the differences between the Section 10 (b) Interlocutory Appeals of the bill and the appeals already authorized under section 1292(b) of title 28. The […]

Chief Justice Paul Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit wrote late last week to Shanna Winter, Howard Berman’s staff in charge of patent reform. Michel expressed concerns regarding determining damages in patent infringement cases under the reasonable royalty language of the Patent Act. Michel references an article by patent litigator […]

As the Patent Reform Bill of 2007 (S. 1145) makes it’s way through Congress, Senators Coburn, Grassley, Kyl, Sessions and Brownback letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. Note that a majority of the a majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans co-signed the letter. Basically, the group beleives that […]

In another stirring chapter of the on-going Plavix debacle, the Bristol-Myers Squibb pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of two violations of the federal False Statements Act and will pay a $1 million fine (the maximum penalty) for lying to the federal government about a patent deal involving the anticoagulant drug Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate). The […]