Patent Baristas

EFF Wants You to Help Stop Broadcasting Treaty Flip-Flop The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants to mobilize businesses, public interest groups, and creative industry representatives to stand up against what it sees as over-broad protection of broadcast material. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been debating a treaty that could severly inhibit digital devices […]

The General Counsel for the Department of Commerce (DOC), as overlord of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), sent its own views on the provisions of H.R. 1908, the “Patent Reform Act of 2007,” to Howard L. Herman Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, Committee on the Judiciary. This […]

A letter went out today to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader, and Mitch McConnell from 111 companies across 27 states expressing concern over certain provisions of patent reform legislation (H.R. 1908/S. 1145 – The Patent Reform Act of 2007) currently under […]

The U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal from Amgen, which tried to have the Supreme Court review the Federal Circuit’s practice of drawing its own conclusions about patent claims rather than relying solely on findings made by the trial court. See Amgen Inc. v. Hoechst Marion Roussel Inc. and Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., 06-1291. Earlier, the […]

As you can imagine, security was quite tight at the convention center during the BIO2007 conference. This was especially evident on Tuesday during the visit of Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan. Special Operations officers lined the walkways — I would post a picture but they asked that I not photograph them. Because of an […]

On Tuesday late afternoon, a few lone protesters across the street from the BIO2007 International Convention at the Boston convention center caught my eye as they were holding up a large banner that read: “Life Is Not Patentable.” I really wanted to know why they were against patents. I made my way over to their […]

While attending BIO2007 in Boston on May 6-9 and will be participating as a blogger on-site at BioVoice, the BIO2007 Conference Exhibitor Hall has been jam-packed with events. With 1,900 exhibitors, 60 pavilions and 60 countries available to stop by and visit, it’s difficult to meet with all those you want and to spend enough […]

On the same day that the Supreme Court seemed to rely on common sense in its approach in the KSR decision, it handed down its holding in Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp, No. 05.1056, 550 US ___ (April 30, 2007) which defies common sense. The lesson learned from this decision is to either file for […]