Patent Baristas

The White House announced plans for a set of executive actions President Barack Obama will take that are aimed at reining in certain patent-holding firms, known as “patent trolls.” [I]nnovators continue to face challenges from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), companies that, in the President’s words “don’t actually produce anything themselves,” and instead develop a business […]

Nobody ever goes home and says, honey, let me tell you about what I learned about patents today.” ~Charles Duhigg, New York Times reporter Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air program did a segment about patents today with an interview with Charles Duhigg, a New York Times reporter who recently wrote about the patent wars […]

The nomination process for the 2010 inductees into the IP Hall of Fame is now open.  The IP Hall of Fame honours those who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of IP law and practice. Devised and developed by leading IP publication Intellectual Asset Management magazine, it identifies individuals who have helped to […]

It’s a well-known fact that drug industries pursue patents with a zeal that few possess – after all, a patent in the hand is worth millions in the bank and a relative monopoly over the pharmaceutical market. They lobby for political support to push these patents through, even if they know that the drugs have […]

As a source of amusement, Modern Mechanix has a piece about how the Patent Office has become a national disgrace (in June 1930!). In the article, written for Popular Science Monthly, the author relates how, at the time it was written, there were nearly 118,000 applications for patents piled up in Washington in the greatest […]

On Friday, Merck & Co.’s Zocor (simvastatin) will lose U.S. patent protection, and health plans are aggressively trying to promote low-cost generic versions of the drug for patients who don’t require a major cut in their cholesterol levels. The makers of Lipitor, Crestor and Vytorin will be battling more fiercely. You may have already noticed […]

Matt Buchanan, at Promote the Progress, has written about an op-ed piece in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. You can view the article here (subscription required). The piece is labeled with the very unoriginal title “Patently Absurd” – just like a lot of other tired articles – and appears to be another in […]

Yes, its been somewhat of a slow week on the bio/pharma patent news front. So what to write about that is still patent related? Boeing Co. engineers have found a way to increase the size of those claustrophobia-inducing aircraft lavatories. Yes, a more spacious bathroom on airplanes. Mind you, I am a petite 5 feet […]