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“How a company tries to protect its trademark from misuse is important, especially in the age of the Internet when even one web site created by an angry customer can cause major headaches.” Two professors “are recommending companies try creative approaches to the trademark infringement problem before considering legal action.”
From the New Yorker magazine, Patent Bending: “For most of American history, it was next to impossible to get a patent on what the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office called ‘a mere method of doing business’… But in July, 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit did away with that principle. The …
From the press release: “The U.S. Department of Commerces United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that effective June 30, 2003, all newly filed patent applications will be converted to electronic applications and processed electronically. Additionally, over the next 15 months, the USPTO will scan more than a half million pending applications into …
Proposed rules changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which constitute a Part 27 rewrite, were published in this May 28 Federal Register notice (pdf), and intend to “clarify, streamline, and update guidance and clauses on patent, data, and copyrights to provide a more logical presenation of this complex material.” Also see the government’s acquisition …
From AP: “A federal jury has ruled that eBay’s model for selling fixed-price merchandise violates a patent filed by a Virginia attorney, a ruling that could force the online auction house to shed as much as a third of its total business. The decision: Mercexchange, LLC v. eBAY, Inc and Half.com, Inc., May 27, 2003 …
From the press release: “The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property approved H.R. 1561, the United States Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act of 2003. The Department of Commerce’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is fully funded by user fees. The new fee structure contained in the legislation will fund …
A single global patent system could simplify the international patent process. Will the United States sign on? See also the Technology Review Patent Scorecard 2003, (full-text available here in pdf), “which tracks the U.S. patent portfolios of 756 of the world’s top technology companies.”
An interesting article from News.com addresses the legal obstacles (DMCA, patent claims) at the disposal of established companies who seek to block emerging technology competitors.
Via Slashdot, this WTOP Radio Network (Washington, D.C.) report indicates that the USPTO has at a minimum a two year backlog for approval of a new patent. Patent Office Director James E. Rogan went on record to Congress warning that this backlog could rise to over one million requests by 2008. Kevin W. Grierson comments: …
On April 3, the Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property held a hearing on H.R. 1561, the United States Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act of 2003. The Committee provides links to the following: Chairman Lamar Smith James Rogan, Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the …
A press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that a March 28 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California reversed in part the court’s March 22, 2002 order against Taxes.com directing the company to change content critical of its competitor J.K. Harris that appeared prominently in search engine results.
This United States Patent and Trademark Office proposed rulemaking seeks to implement a “beginning-to-end electronic processing of patent applications.” The use of paper in the application process will be replaced by an imaging system to scan all documents and produce digital image files.
