A Patent that Self-Replicates
Does Patent Exhaustion apply to the sale of self-replicating seeds? On February 19, the Supreme Court heard the oral argument in Bowman v. Monsanto on the application of patent exhaustion to patented self-replicating seeds. Under the doctrine of patent exhaustion, “the initial authorized sale of a patented item terminates all of the patent owner’s rights [...]
Alternative Statutory Bases for Invalidating “Gene Patents”
The Supreme Court recently granted a writ of certiorari in the highly controversial case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad. In the coming months, the Court will determine whether the genetic material claimed by Myriad’s composition patents is patentable subject matter under Section 101 of the Patent Act. The high profile case has generated a [...]
Smartphone Wars: Part II
On August 24th, Apple won decisively in Apple v. Samsung. The jury awarded Apple $1.04 billion for infringing Apple’s intellectual property. This was less than the $2.5 billion that Apple requested, but the jury found that Apple wasn’t infringing any of Samsung’s patents. Of the many patents that were disputed, the judgment turned on three [...]
“More Than a Drafting Effort”: SCOTUS Strikes Down Prometheus Labs Patents
On March 20, the Supreme Court handed down their unanimous decision in the case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. The Court struck down Prometheus’s patents stating that, regardless of the language in the claims, they were effectively patents on a law of nature which is not allowed. The Court added that any [...]
Smartphone Wars
Apple sues Samsung for patent infringement. In response, Samsung files international countersuits on patents of its own. Courts around the world grant preliminary injunctions to each company on a number of their claims, while United States and European Union government agencies investigate allegations of antitrust violations. What’s going on here? Let’s start with the shiny [...]
America: Last in Line for First-to-File
Who has the right to a patent for an invention? Should it be the first inventor to file or the first inventor to invent? The first-to-file system grants the right to a patent to the first inventor to file a patent application, regardless of the date of invention. On the other hand, the first-to-invent system [...]
STLR Link Roundup – September 26, 2011
The FCC has filed its finalized net neutrality rules, set to take effect on November 20. The rules will almost certainly face legal challenges from Verizon and MetroPCS over the extent of the FCC’s jurisdiction. David Ignatius writes on legal uncertainty and difficult questions facing the future “rules of war” for drone strikes. The debate [...]
STLR Link Roundup – September 6, 2011
The latest links from STLR: Last week, the Justice Department filed suit in DC District court to block AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, arguing that the merger violates antitrust laws. Sprint has since filed its own lawsuit in DC District court to block the proposed deal. The Senate debates the America Invents Act on [...]
Must Office Actions Be Disclosed to the PTO under Rule 56?
Inequitable Conduct and the Duty to Disclose 37 CFR 1.56 (Rule 56) establishes that there is a duty to disclose information to the Patent Office. The regulation states that “[e]ach individual associated with the filing and prosecution of a patent application has a duty of candor and good faith in dealing with the Office, which [...]
The Active Placebo Effect: Patent Eligible Subject Matter?
Last week President Barack Obama asked a bioethics committee to review federal guidelines for the use of human subjects in medical testing. This announcement came in the wake of revelations that the U.S. sponsored experiments in Guatemala the 1940s where people were intentionally infected with sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea without their consent [...]