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 [...]
STLR-Published Article Selected as One of the Best Patent Articles in the Last Year
Congratulations to Professor Andrew B. Dzeguze (and to us)! Last year, we published his article, The Devil in the Details: A Critique of KSR’s Unwarranted Reinterpretation of “Person Having Ordinary Skill”. It has since been selected for inclusion in the Patent Law Review, an annual anthology published by West, as one of the best patent [...]
Can Microsoft Stop the TiVo Litigation Juggernaut?
Microsoft filed a patent infringement lawsuit against TiVo on January 19, 2010. What does this filing mean for TiVo and its meteoric litigation campaign? As Core Business Fades, TiVo is Turning to IP Licensing People love their DVRs. More specifically, they love their TiVo DVRs. TiVo was one of the first DVR providers (RIP Replay [...]
STLR Link Roundup – January 15, 2010
Here’s the latest on the STLR radar: Twitter is a source of evidence for a murder charge, reports the New York Daily News. But could those tweets be copyrighted? Law.com’s Law Technology News weighs in. The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides a good, link-heavy analysis of the unanswered questions surrounding Google’s decision to stop censoring their [...]
STLR Link Roundup – January 8, 2010
Here’s the latest on the STLR radar: Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco decided to allow showing the trial challenging California’s Proposition 8 on YouTube, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog questions whether that’s a good thing. Patent Librarian notes that Wikipedia citations in patent applications are [...]
After In Re Nintendo, A Quartet of Cases Question TXED’s Status
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a writ of mandamus on December 17th ordering the Eastern District Court of Texas to change the venue of Motiva LLC v. Nintendo Co. to the Western District of Washington. The venue change itself is not particularly eye-catching—the suit is between two corporations with no connection [...]
STLR Link Roundup – December 4, 2009
The latest on the STLR radar: Patent Docs reviews Senator Patrick Leahy’s proposals for patent reform. Third Circuit gives “Spam filter ate my filing notice” excuse a second chance, from the Technology & Marketing Blog. EFF sues to find out how the government spies on us using social networks; Indiana University students makes a Freedom [...]
Court Allows Challenge to Patents on Breast Cancer Genes
Judge Robert Sweet in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has allowed a challenge to two gene patents owned by Myriad Genetics. The ACLU, on behalf of scientific organizations, researchers, genetic counselors, and individual women, is contesting the validity of gene patents in general, and is challenging the patents on [...]
Recap: Bilski Oral Argument at Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in Bilski v. Kappos, which will require it to rule on the patentability of a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. Michael Jakes of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner represented Petitioner Bilski, and Malcolm Stewart, assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, represented Respondent Kappos [...]