Belated Blawg Reviews

The Blawg Reviews are not belated, just my post about them.  Last week's Blawg Review #179 is up at Securing Innovation -- click here to read it.  It is an ode to the ballpoint pen on its seventieth anniversary.  It was a transformative invention, dispersing the power of the pen much more broadly across societies.  I am a rollerball guy, but it is still a great review.  And as would be expected from an IP-focused blog, there is a heavy dose of IP.

This week's Blawg Review #180 is up at Law Pundit -- click here to read it.  Law Pundit focuses on German-American Day with exhaustive information about German-Americans and Oktoberfest.  After completing Review #179, Securing Innovation also plays a role in #180 because of its highlight of an article suggesting that the US nonpracticing entity patent litigation strategy has found its way to Germany and Europe generally -- click here for Phillipa Maister's IP Law & Business article discussing NPE's in Europe.

Next week's Blawg Reivew #181 by the Mediation Channel.

Congratulations to Chicago's Members of the IP 50 Under 45

IP Law & Business recently named its top 50 IP lawyers under 45 years old (free registration required).  Two of those 50 are Chicagoans -- David Callahan and James Malackowski.

A political science major from the University of Chicago, David Callahan learned electronic warfare, including cryptography, as a U.S. Army Reserve captain. The military discipline has served him well. A University of Michigan Law School grad, Callahan has commanded the defense in key patent infringement wins for 3M, Amazon.com, and Gast Manufacturing in cases covering everything from one-click Internet payment systems to chewing gum additives and dental compounds. He has excelled at big-ticket defense cases involving multiple patents and parties, where his leadership and organizational skills-to say nothing of his legal marksmanship-force plaintiffs to duck.

  • James Malackowski is the President, CEO and founder of  Ocean Tomo, a Chicago-based and IP-focused merchant banc.  Here is what IP Law & Business said about Malackowski:

This University of Notre Dame-trained CPA has made a name as a patent market-maker. Twenty years ago he cofounded a firm that did patent valuations. In 2003 Ocean Tomo started offering investment banking services, and it broke new ground in 2006 with the first live auction for IP. The company has conducted six so far-the most recent in April in San Francisco-that have generated $70 million in transactions, including the $15 million sale of guitarist Jimi Hendrix's catalog and the $6 million sale of patents related to digital systems media and management. The latest innovation from Malackowski? He is trying to market insurance that would lessen the cost to companies of patent troll attacks.

Congratulations to both Callahan and Malackowski.  The honor is well deserved for both men.

Harris v. Fish & Richardson Update: Patent Troll Tracker Returning

Joe Mullin, an IP Law & Business reporter, has an excellent series of posts on his The Prior Art blog discussing the Harris v. Fish & Richardson case and the Patent Troll Tracker -- click here for this blog's coverage of the Harris case.  Mullin has three posts with lots of details and has promised a fourth:
  1. Harris has dropped his subpoena for a deposition of Rick Frenkel, the previously anonymous creator and author of the Patent Troll Tracker -- click here for the post.  The post includes detailed analysis of each party's declaratioins and allegations about the other. 

  2. Frenkel, in a declaration related to the subpoena for his deposition, stated that his Patent Troll Tracker blog will return -- click here for the post.  Unfortunately, Frenkel did not give a date for his blog's return.  While I have not always agreed with the Troll Tracker (for example, I  am not a fan of the "Troll" name), Frenkel researches and writes very well and it will be good to have his voice back as part of the blog conversation.

  3. Mullin's third post is a detailed analysis of whether Frenkel is a reporter, including an analysis of Harris's arguments, through the Niro Scavone firm, that he is not -- click here for Mullin's post.  Mullin concludes that Frenkel is a reporter.  The facts that he wrote anonymously, did not reveal his sources and was advocating a position (which Harris argued meant Frenkel was not a reporter) do not mean Frenkel could not be reporting.  Mullin explains that there is a long history of both advocacy in reporting and anonymous reporting, and that reporters generally do not reveal anonymous sources.

  4. Mullin promised a fourth post this week about anonymous blogging, a subject I have weighed in on several times -- click here for the Blog's anonymous blogging posts.  I will likely comment on Mullin's post once it is up.  But I think he previewed his position when he posted over the weekend that he was discontinuing moderation of comments and welcomed anonymous comments.