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By Adam Steinmetz • April 5th, 2011

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 [...]

As eBooks proliferate, traditional print publishers are challenged to adapt to the changing market.  The latest obstacle involves the role of eBooks in libraries.  HarperCollins, one of six major U.S. publishers, recently announced changes in its eBook policy for libraries.  The new policy, reported by Library Journal, limits each copy of an eBook to twenty-six [...]

Health law is largely a matter of state law, however, many aspects are common to all jurisdictions. Licensing by state medical boards, physician malpractice liability, hospital liability, and even nurse liability. One area has seemed to slip through the cracks however: technician liability. A recent article documenting the “malpractice” of radiology technicians underscored the dangers [...]

Electronic Medical Records provide many convenient features to the medical community: ease of record-keeping and information sharing among various providers, storage of large amounts of data, as well as a better accountability regarding past occurrences. Therefore, despite its many potential drawbacks and unresolved risks, Electronic Medical Records will likely replace paper-based records in the next ten to fifteen years.

Individuals increasingly rely on sophisticated technologies to perform tasks: automobiles to move, calculators to calculate, social networks to socialize.  In recent years, however, technology has mechanized some very human affairs, with very human costs. The complexity of the technologies, as well as the vast number of parties involved in the creation and use of the technologies [...]

If you get sick today and have to see a doctor that is not your primary care physician, it is often the case that you have to fill out a thick stack of forms that explains your medical history.  If it is a more serious procedure, doctors have to get in touch with your past [...]

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 [...]

Consumer Expectations and Privacy Recently, the Federal Trade Commission terminated its inquiry into Google’s “accidental” collection of Internet users’ personal data through its Street View vehicles after Google promised to improve its privacy efforts and delete the data. As you may recall, the investigation began after the FTC learned that Google’s Street View vehicles had [...]

Last Tuesday, November 2, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, questioning the constitutionality of a California ban on the sale of violent video games to minors.  The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech figured prominently in the debate as the state of California sought to overturn the [...]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced that it will be implementing a new system for measuring the quality of patent examination at the start of fiscal year 2011.  This system is designed to provide a more comprehensive analysis of patent examination to better enable its participants to identify and follow its [...]