Here are a few stories that do not warrant a full post:
* The mainstream media and the blogosphere are buzzing with predictions of who is on President Obama’s shortlist for replacing Justice Souter The Northern District’s Judge Castillo and the Seventh Circuit’s Judge Wood are both making many of the lists — check out one list at the Daily Writ. Both excellent choices. Over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune ran a story about a local expectation that someone connected to the University of Chicago would be appointed to the Supreme Court during the Obama presidency. I also wonder if the Northern District’s Judge St. Eve is or should be on some shortlists.
* Ronald Slusky is bringing his two-day patent claim drafting seminar to Chicago May 19-20. Slusky promises to teach “a comprehensive approach to analyzing inventions and capturing them in a sophisticated set of patent claims. Through this interactive seminar, participants will enhance their skills in a classroom setting.” I have not attended Slusky’s seminar myself, so I cannot speak to its value, but it definitely looks interesting.
* Last week the House held hearings about the Patent Reform Act. Check out some commentary on the hearings at Patently-O.
* I got out of the habit of posting each week’s Blawg Review, but last week’s was both too good and too unique to pass up. Blawg Review #209 is up at John Hochfelder’s New York Injury Cases Blog (another LexBlog site) — read it here. Hochfelder tells the moving story of his father’s life, the life of an American hero. Blawg Review #210 is also available at the China Law Blog — click here to read it. It is also an excellent Review based loosely on the 90th anniversary of China’s May 4th Movement.

Continue Reading Patent News: Patent Reform & Supreme Court Shortlist

On Monday, April 20, John Marshall is offering a free CLE presentation (click here to register) by Columbia Professor Clarisa Long. The presentation is titled, The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Law. I do not have more information than the title, but it appears to be a timely topic as the Patent Reform Acts works its way through Congress.

Continue Reading CLE: Political Economy of IP Law

Here are some IP stories with a broad focused from Chicago-based institutions:
The latest edition of the John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law is available here. The issue is focused on International Trade Commission (“ITC”) litigation. ITC is a powerful tool, because of the speed of the proceedings and because personal jurisdiction is not required, only that the product or service is brought into the United States. One of the most interesting articles is an overview of the Administrative Law Judge’s (“ALJ”) role in Section 337 ITC proceedings by ALJ Carl Charneski — click here to read the article.
The University of Chicago Faculty Blog is wrapping up an intriguing blog conversation amongst intellectual heavyweights regarding the underpinnings of IP theory and whether the standard economic theories (incentivizing innovation) supporting IP should be broadened to included social and cultural theories (incentivizing broader participation) — click here to read the last post and here to read the first. I cannot do it justice in a paragraph or two, but as we look at various IP reforms in Congress this year, in particular the 2009 version of the Patent Reform Act, it is a good time to consider the underlying reasons and purposes of the IP laws.

Continue Reading Chicago IP News: ITC & U of Chicago IP Conversation

The legal blogosphere is full of analysis and commentary regarding the Patent Reform Act, here is more of the best:
FileWrapper;
Patent Baristas (surveying industry responses to the Act);
Patent Docs (discussing the witness list for Patent Reform Act hearings);
Patently-O (damages provisions analysis), and here and here;
Washington State Patent Law Blog.
And the Bilski amicus briefs began coming into the Supreme Court today. Click here for Dennis Crouch’s post with links to many of the amicus briefs. And here for Crouch’s post discussing the PTO’s Bilski guidance to Examiners.

Continue Reading Patent News: Patent Reform & Bilski

As promised, the new Patent Reform Acts were introduced in Congress this week — click here for the Senate bill and here for the House bill. While I have not yet done a comprehensive review, I understand that the bills are largely similar. Here are some highlights of the bills:
They move from the current first to invent system to the international norm, first to file.
Expanded reexamination and a new period of post-grant review.
Damages provisions require that the specific contribution over the prior art be considered and allow consideration of licensing terms for similar noninfringing substitutes. As Dennis Crouch points out, for alternatives in the public domain the comparable license could be free.
Specifically allows for Federal Circuit jurisdiction of interlocutory claim construction appeals where the district court approves the appeal.
Federal Circuit judges would no longer be required to live within fifty miles of the District of Columbia.
The venue provisions are changed to narrow possible venues.
There is plenty of commentary in the blogosphere. Here are some of the best:
271 Patent Blog (giving highlights, noting changes from the last version and do not miss Peter Zura’s blog makeover);
Patent Docs (discussing the Senate press conference announcing the Senate bill and noting BIO’s response to the bills); and
Patently-O (giving highlights and noting changes from the most recent attempted reforms) and here (reposting comments from Google’s Head of Patents and Patent Strategy, Michelle Lee).

Continue Reading Patent Reform Act of 2009

Another sign that patent reform is heating up again: the ABA’s IP Section has sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a position paper regarding inequitable conduct reform (click here to get to the Section’s advocacy page which has a link to the letter). The ABA argues that inequitable conduct materiality should be based upon the law and standards at the time of the alleged conduct, not based upon the present day standards. The ABA also argues that inequitable conduct decisions should continue to be made by the federal courts, not the PTO. And finally, the ABA argues that the standard for inequitable conduct should be:
(1) that a person having a duty of candor and good faith to the PTO in connection with the patent or an application therefor knowingly and willfully misrepresented a material fact or material information to the PTO or omitted a known material fact or known material information from the PTO;
(2) that, in the absence of such misrepresentation or omission, the PTO, acting reasonably, would not have granted or maintained in force at least one invalid patent claim; and
(3) that the misrepresentation or omission occurred with a specific intent to deceive the PTO, and that such intent cannot be established by the mere materiality of the misrepresentation or omission.

Continue Reading Patent Reform: ABA on Inequitable Conduct

Here are several Northern District and IP news stories that did not warrant separate posts:
The Northern District’s new Rockford courthouse is being named for retired Judge Roszkowski. Judge Roszkowski was the first federal judge permanently seated in Rockford and served for over twenty years.
Blawg Review #198 is up at the East Central Illinois Criminal Law & DUI Blog (click here to read it). As you might expect based upon the blog’s subject matter, there is not a lot of IP content. But there are several Illinois-specific stories that Blog readers may find interesting. For example, My Law Life warns that an Illinois statute makes it illegal to jog (or walk) on Illinois roadways where sidewalks are available — click here to read the post.
Several blogs are reporting that patent reform may be back on in Congress this year: Patently-O; and 271 Patent Blog.

Continue Reading Northern District IP News

I have several smaller IP-related items today, none of which warranted a single post:
The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that the Patent Reform Act (S. 1145) will likely not reach the Senate floor — click here for the story. It was widely reported throughout the first quarter that the bill was expected to be brought to the full Senate by March or April of this year. The WSJ reported that the Act’s move out of the Judiciary Committee stalled because of a stalemate over the Act’s controversial damages provision.
Virtually Blind hosts a Blawg Review #156 focused on, no surprise, all thinks virtual and Second Life.
The John Marshall Law School is hosting a free presentation by Southern Methodist University Law School Professor Shubha Ghosh tited IP as CP: Competition Policy Norms in Intellectual Property Law. Click here for registration information.
The final edition of the 2008 Chicago IP Colloquium is this afternoon from 4:10 – 5:50 pm. The presentation will be by Professor Mark McKenna of the Saint Louis University School of Law about his paper Testing Modern Trademark Law’s Theory of Harm. It looks like it will be another excellent IP discussion.
The Lewis & Clark Law School has a new podcast up with Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Associate Dean and Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law Graeme B. Dinwoodie. Professor Dinwoodie speaks about developing trademark defenses.

Continue Reading IP News & Presentations

Tomorrow I will be back to case analysis, but there is some Northern District news and some excellent IP and litigation blog posts worth reading, here they are:
Ninth Annual Pro Bono and Public Interest Awards — The Northern District and the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations for excellence in pro bono and public interest work. Nominations should be based upon work performed in civil cases before the Northern District which are no longer pending. Send nominations by March 28 to:
Amy Rettberg, Executive Law Clerk
Email: amy_rettberg@ilnd.uscourts.gov
Chambers of the Chief Judge James F. Holderman
219 South Dearborn Street, Suite 2548
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Patent Reform is Moving Forward — The Senate is preparing to vote on the Patent Reform Act after its spring recess (yes, it is spring already in DC). Here is some additional coverage of the Act’s status:
271 Patent Blog — looking at the latest amendments to the Act.
Maryland Intellectual Property Blog — looking at the latest amendments and questioning whether proponents have the sixty votes necessary for cloture, thereby avoiding a filibuster.
Patent Docs — taking sides, but asking you to call your Senators regardless of which side you take.
Check out the newest entry to Chicago’s law blog scene, the Lean & Mean Litigation Blog. It is not IP-focused, but it is an interesting read for any commercial litigator or litigant.
William Patry at Patry on Copyright has an interesting post about the difficulties of serving corporate entities based upon a District of the District of Columbia case involving a pro se plaintiff. The best advice, of course, is to hire counsel because if you do not get the party served properly, you have no case.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed Judge St. Eve’s ground breaking opinion in the CLC v. Craigslist case. The Seventh Circuit held that an ISP is exempt from cases based upon user content when the case attempts to treat the ISP as a publisher of the content. This is considerably narrower than most of the other circuits, which have held that Section 230 exempts ISPs from essentially all suits based upon user content. For more coverage, check out the WSJ Law Blog (which erroneously elevates Judge St. Eve to the Seventh Circuit), Internet Cases, and the Technology & Marketing Law Blog (very detailed analysis of Judge Easterbrook’s opinion).

Continue Reading Northern District & IP News: Pro Bono & Patent Reform

The Patent Reform Act is on the Senate’s calendar and is expected to be voted on in February. The version voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee is different than the version passed by the House. Experts expect that, instead of forming a joint committee to resolve the differences which generally requires a second vote by both chambers, the House will vote on any version of the Patent Reform Act passed by the Senate.
That means that it is time to take a close look at the Senate version of the Patent Reform Act. The damages and venue provisions continue to be some of the most significant and hotly-contested. And it is no surprise that the various stakeholders are making their positions heard loudly again. I considered analyzing each provision of the current Senate bill, but Patent Docs beat me to it and did an excellent job:
Venue
Damages
First to file
Several other blogs are also keeping a close eye on the stakeholders and the sausage-making aspects of the Patent Reform Act, among the best:
271 Patent Blog
Filewrapper
IP Biz
Patent Barristers
Patently-O
Maryland IP Law Blog (and here regarding the increased internet coverage of Patent Reform during February)

Continue Reading Patent Reform: It’s Baaaaaaaaack!