by Dennis Crouch
- Human-Attorney Interaction: I've been enjoying the forum at ASKPatents. My favorite question so far: How to torpedo a bad patent my former large employer is filing in my name?
- Patent Infringement as a Civil Liberty: The ACLU has filed its petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Myriad gene patent case. Many of us believe that the Supreme Court is likely to take the case. Dr. Kevin Noonan (who is pessimistic on the case) has more on Patent Docs. Dr. Noonan has also written an interesting post on In re Droge and its place in the obviousness doctrinal framework.
- More Patent Harmonization: The Senate has passed S.3486 – the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012. The House has not yet voted on its version of the Bill and is unlikely to take any action until after the November 6 elections. The Act would implement both the Hague Agreement (common design application) and the Patent Law Treaty (common filing issues for utility patents). [BNA]
- Is China Serious about Intellectual Property?: IPKat writes: “Xiao Zhenjiang, the leader of a counterfeiting gang was sentenced to life in prison and all of his belongings and property was ordered confiscated for counterfeiting almost GB £9,900,000 of luxury goods, specifically HERMÈS handbags/purses.”
- Kodak Rounding Error: As another example of American schools failing to teach mathematics, it appears Kodak accidentally added a decimal when predicting a $2.6 billion sale of its patent portfolio. Market estimates are now about 10% of that figure. Neil Wilkof writes more.
- Next USPTO Director?: Managing Intellectual Property is queuing recently “retired” but indefatigable Robert Armitage as next USPTO Director. Armitage should rightfully be seen as the driving force behind passage of the America Invents Act (AIA). Armitage says that Kappos continues to be the right person for the job.
- No Standing to Defend Constitution: The USPTO has responded to Mark Stadnyk's constitutional challenge to the AIA. Their stance — that Stadnyk has no standing to defend the constitution because he cannot show any real or immediate injury due to the law's implementation.
