Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 17

• Increasing Complexity: The House Judiciary Subcommittee on IP is holding its PTO oversight hearing on Feb 27 at 1:30 pm. These graphs, originally from Patently-O, will be used by POPA when demanding enhanced examiner pay.
• Judicial Conference: The CAFC's Judicial Conference is scheduled for May 15, 2008 in DC at the Grand Hyatt. INFO.
• Seagate: The Supreme Court has declined to grant certiorari in the Seagate decision. That decision has eliminated much of the need for a formal opinion of counsel prepared for litigation.  Expect a study next summer showing treble damages in severe decline.
• Supreme Court Quanta: Quanta is awaiting decision. This decision may follow antitrust regulation and inject more economic analysis into decisions of whether particular license agreements are acceptable.
• Supreme Court Biomedical v. California: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed an amicus brief supporting Biomedical Devices in its attempt to strip California of its immunity from patent infringement litigation.  For an unknown reason, the IP Bar associations have refused to provide any input on this case.
• EPC 2000: The European Patent Convention has received its first major revision in 30 years. Nicholas Fox provides an excellent summary in book form for £25. Hat tip to Bill Heinze.

Comments

[examiner#6k]

First!

Higher pay lol. I'll be making more than lawyers soon, and we'll still be demanding higher pay, and yet nobody will think of easing up or changing the production system. I'll see you guys tomorrow, a primary just busted out a 102(b) showing all but one little detail of an app in about a 10 minute search on a case that I just got an RCE back on and was trying to get allowed. Now I'm down an "expected" count :( I have to give it to them though, some primaries know their choosen little niche of our AU pretty freakin well. Too bad they stopped the practice of giving us little niches a few years back.

If they through in healthcare we migth be getting somewhere. How teachers get healthcare and I don't is beyond me. Seriously, do they do that just so they can artificially inflate the face value of my salary? Anyone have any info on that?

[coast]

examiner#6K -- looks like the best prior art was not uncovered by the PTO on the first OA or the second final OA???

[Another Examiner]

I must agree with 6K. More pay? Well, that would certainly be nice, but what I'd really like is to be given enough time to do my job properly.

[SF]

"I must agree with 6K. More pay? Well, that would certainly be nice, but what I'd really like is to be given enough time to do my job properly."

I predict that, if USPTO management eventually gets its way with its IDS rules, search rules, etc., you'll be given less time per case.

[examiner#6k]

Maybe not, maybe so, the air brakes guy in our airplane unit had seen this piston in this configuration before and knew where it was. To be 100% honest with you though, it's only "the best" because it shows the critical "piston" feature implemented like the app did better than the other ref I used twice as a 102 for his overclaim, this new ref will have to be combined with the previous ref to get a minor "screw" part on the backside of the device which is in the claim so it will be a 103. Then again, the "piston" configuration my first ref had was almost dead on what the app had, so it could go either way as to which is "better". You can look at the best art having been found on first action either way you like, but as for me, I'd say a valid 102(b) just about takes care of the "invention" which is supposedly distinctly pointed out by the applicant.

[Scott]

Seagate has emiminated much of the need for opinions...lol..have you read the case!?

[anonymous]

Scott, if you disagree with that assessment of Seagate, perhaps you can explain why.

[MM (not Mooney)]

6k... We do get healthcare... did you not sign up for any coverage on your first day? Or were you expecting it to be completely free? If so, name for me one governement agency other than the military that gets completely free healthcare. Teachers do not get free healthcare, they have to pay their premiums too (my mom is a teacher in VA). Having once been self employed and had to pay for individual health insurance, I can tell you that the plans available to us at the PTO are stellar. Open your health insurance statement (if you get one) and look at how much the PTO pays for your healthcare compared to how much you do.

The only way you're getting completely free healthcare is to either join the military and only go to military doctors (did that as a kid), or elect Hillary so she can put all of us on Medicaid....

As for the rest, I agree, we need more time, not more money. But I'll take more money just the same.

[M. Slonecker]

Might there be a publicly available location where the Biomedical and amicus briefs can be read? At the Scotus site references is the the docket number (No. 07-956) and a short description of dates when the cert petition was filed and when a reply is due, the latter being 3/24/08. No copies of the briefs are posted.

[examiner#6k]

Idk if your mom is a teacher in NOVA or what, but my dad was a teacher and he paid dang near nothing. And the amounts paid by the USPTO as a percentage are abysmal, they're paying a good AMOUNT, but due to the stellar costs up here the PERCENTAGE fails horribly. Though as I'm trying to get across, teachers up here might have the same problem, but that's not really my worry.

[Another Anon Examiner]

I don't want the money. Give me more time!!!

[MM]

I now pay about half what I paid when I was self employed for health insurance, and it actually *covers* stuff now... Before I was paying over $300 a month and still had to pay for most stuff out of pocket... They really get you good if you don't have a large account like a major employer bargaining for you.

My mom is a teacher in southern VA. As with your dad, she pays dang near nothing, but she still pays something. My point was that you're not going to get completely free health coverage.

If you want dirt cheap coverage as an examiner, try a Kaiser Permanente plan... I'm not on one because I want more choice in my health care, but if you're willing to get all of your health care at a Kaiser Permanente center (and there are plenty around here), it's pretty much total coverage for peanuts. No good for hotelers if they want to live somewhere else with no Kaiser Permanente centers, but then they get a lower cost of living and can just deal with it.

[Another Anon Examiner]

Dennis, you got it wrong. According to the written and spoken testimony reported on POPA's website, they were using your graphs to ask for more time. Thank goodness!