If you read IP blogs with any regularity you no doubt know that patent reform has come courtesy of the America Invents Act (“AIA”), although the “old” patent law hasn’t really left us and won’t for quite some time. The most blogged about change brought on by the AIA has undoubtedly been the change from (...) [Read More]
Category Archives: Patents
Is Software Patentable?
October 10, 2012
We may soon have an answer to that question. By “soon” I mean probably sometime in the next two years. By “answer” I mean we will have the en banc opinion of the Federal Circuit in the case of CLS Bank v. Alice Corp. Yesterday, the Federal Circuit granted CLS Bank’s petition for rehearing and (...) [Read More]
A Divided Court on Divided Patent Infringement
September 25, 2012
The Federal Circuit’s recently issued decision in the cases of Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. and McKesson Technologies, Inc. v. Epic Systems Corp. received less attention than its importance might have warranted, perhaps because Apple’s win over Samsung in the patent litigation between the Smartphone giants occurred at about the same time and (...) [Read More]
Victory for Ober|Kaler’s Patent Litigation Team In Hotly Contested Area of Law
April 19, 2012
The Ober|Kaler patent litigation team recently won a significant victory for its clients in Maryland federal District Court. We were able to keep a patent infringement suit in the local federal court despite our opponent’s multiple attempts to have the case transferred to its home state of Florida. The latest gambit by our opponent was (...) [Read More]
Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus
April 16, 2012
In the post-Bilski/KSR/Prometheus regime patents are unquestionably a costlier and riskier investment. Statistics confirm this. Fifty percent of patent applications are abandoned these days, as opposed to only thirty-five percent in 2004. Paying more to prolong prosecution (via request for continued examination) restores the odds of success, but at a price. [USPTO statistics at www.uspto.gov/dashboards/patents] (...) [Read More]
Conception Is Not Reality
March 27, 2012
One of the most interesting aspects of being a patent attorney is that I meet with a lot of brilliant people, the majority of whom have both some really great ideas and an unconventional way of looking at the world. This is as true of our individual inventor clients as it is of our corporate (...) [Read More]
Supreme Court Decision A Kick In The Gut For Prometheus Labs
March 21, 2012
The Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in the case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. yesterday, finding Prometheus’ patents for a method of administering a drug used to treat gastrointestinal disorders invalid for being directed at unpatetnable subject matter. Prometheus marketed a diagnostic test to Mayo and others that took advantage (...) [Read More]
ITC Gives Apple A Gift, Puts Coal in HTC’s Stocking
December 23, 2011
Earlier this week the International Trade Commission put something nice under Apple’s tree in the form of a ruling that a patent for a method of recognizing and manipulating structured data that Apple had asserted against HTC was both valid and infringed by certain HTC smartphones running Google’s Android operating system. The ITC banned the (...) [Read More]
Supreme Court oral argument in Mayo v. Prometheus method patent suit almost upon us.
November 28, 2011
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the method patent infringement case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. The question presented is as follows: “Whether 35 U.S.C. § 101 is satisfied by a patent claim that covers observed correlations between blood test results and patient health, so that the claim (...) [Read More]
10th Circuit Dish Network insurance case reinforces the need to read your policy closely……very closely.
October 19, 2011
Well-known patent troll Ron Katz sued Dish Network in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging infringement of 23 patents by Dish Network’s customer service telephone system pay-per-view ordering features. Dish had five commercial insurance policies in place all of which provided for defense costs in lawsuits claiming “advertising Injury.” As (...) [Read More]
