Washington State Patent Law Blog

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

Shortly after my Friday post updating the list of regional IP blogs, Mark Walters, of the Washington State Patent Law Blog, pointed out that I had left him off the list. The mistake was unintentional and I have remedied it in the original post and the list that follows this paragraph. In the process of gathering links to revise my list, I came across the Georgia Patent Law Blog in the Washington State Patent Law Blog’s blogroll. So, now I have two blogs to update:
Australian Trademarks Law Blog*
Canadian Trademark Blog
Delaware IP Law Blog
E. D. Texas Blog
Florida IP Blog*
Georgia Patent Law Blog (N.D. Georgia)
Illinois Trial Pratice Weblog (okay, it is not IP specific, but it is regional and provides excellent content)
IP Dragon(China)
IP Legal Lounge
Las Vegas Trademark Attorney
Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog
Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog*
Patent Trademark Blog(some Orange County focus)
Seattle Trademark Lawyer Blog
Tech Law Forum Blog (N.D. Cal.)
Washington State Patent Law Blog
If you know of other regional IP blogs, post a comment or send me an email and I will add them to the list.
*These are blogs developed and hosted by LexBlog just like this Blog.

Continue Reading More Regional Blog Updates

Since my last post listing the Blog’s “cousin” blogs — regional IP blogs – another has joined the family. The Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog, published by Milord & Associates. Welcome to the family. Here is the revised list:
Australian Trademarks Law Blog*
Canadian Trademark Blog
Delaware IP Law Blog
E. D. Texas Blog
Florida IP Blog*
Illinois Trial Pratice Weblog (okay, it is not IP specific, but it is regional and provides excellent content)
IP Dragon(China)
IP Legal Lounge
Las Vegas Trademark Attorney
Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog
Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog*
Patent Trademark Blog(some Orange County focus)
Seattle Trademark Lawyer Blog
Tech Law Forum Blog (N.D. Cal.)
If you know of other regional IP blogs, post a comment or send me an email and I will add them to the list. A hat tip to Mike Atkins for pointing out the new blog at his Seattle Trademark Lawyer blog.
*These are blogs developed and hosted by LexBlog just like this Blog.

Continue Reading New Regional IP Blogs

Last week the intellectual property world obsessed over injunctions – specifically, a preliminary injunction hearing in the Eastern District of Virginia resulting in an injunction against the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s (“PTO”) new continuation rules. There was a lot of analysis about the injunction, including live blogging by Patent Practice Center Patent Blog and a lot of post-injunction analysis by, among others: 271 Patent Blog; FileWrapper; Patent Baristas; Patent Docs (and here); Patent Prospector; PHOSITA; Patently-O; WSJ Law Blog; and Washington State Patent Law Blog. For those of you who have no idea what a continuation is or just do not care about the particulars of the rules, I promise that I am done with patent continuations for this post. Honestly, I find the rules rather tedious myself. I prefer to focus on litigating patents, rather than the PTO’s prosecution rules. So, today we talk about injunctions:
According to TechCrunch, Patent Monkey received a permanent injunction when it was sold to the Internet Real Estate Group. But Patent Monkey’s patent search technology will see its injunction lifted when it is used on www.patents.com. Hopefully, for those like me who enjoyed it, Patent Monkey’s Infinite Monkey Theorem Blog will also see its injunction lifted.
Virtually Blind has an interesting report on Second Life’s* new Patent & Trademark Office, the SLPTO. No word on whether the SLPTO and the Second Life legal system generally will allow for any permanent injunctions. Right now it appears that the SLPTO will be heavily skewed toward copyright and trademark, which makes sense in a virtual world. And before we learn whether the SLPTO has any enforcement mechanisms, Blawg IT is offering to represent virtual clients before the SLPTO. I would get a retainer up front Brett – virtual clients can be difficult to track down when the bills are due.
The Patry Copyright Blog shows why Second Life injunctions may be necessary. Six Second Life players have sued a Queens man in the Eastern District of New York for trademark and copyright infringement based upon sales of goods in Second Life. I wonder if the trademarks and copyrights were registered with the SLPTO or the US PTO/Copyright Office. And does the E.D.N.Y. have authority to issue cyber-injunctions?
Promote the Progress provides an interesting piece on the long-term effects of last week’s injunction against the PTO on shaping patent reform.
SportsBiz explains that plaintiffs who were bilked out of millions in attorneys’ fees by their now-jailed lawyers were not irreparably harmed. A Kentucky court awarded them a 20% ownership interest in Curlin, the prize race horse and Breeder’s Cup Classic winner partially owned by the jailed lawyers.
Adams Drafting issues its own injunction against using virgules. Using what? The virgule, or the forward slash. He explains that it is frequently used to mean: 1) “per” – 50 miles/hour; 2) “or” – and/or; and 3) “and” – all parents/subsidiaries/affiliates are bound by the obligations. The problem is that the various uses create ambiguity. Adams acknowledges that he cannot find any litigation specifically about the virgule. But the best solution is to remove the virgule from your writing before you become embroiled in the first litigation over one. And when it comes to rules of writing and grammar, the best solution is to listen to Adams.
What if you do not want an injunction or just want a faster, cheaper resolution? The IP ADR blog is talking about last week’s big settlement between Vonage and Verizon. They suggest that you consider using contingent agreements to control for changing future conditions and charitable contributions. They also point out that creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are important elements for reaching settlements.
Another way to avoid an injunction is to understand how best to argue against the opposing party and their counsel. The Center for Internet & Society discusses how men and women in the United States and in other cultures communicate and suggests that understanding the nuances of how different people communicate around the globe could advance legal discourse.
Lowering the Bar reports on a Michigan man sentenced to sixty days in jail for a home invasion that ended in him throwing two large pickles at residents of the home. No word on whether he will be enjoined from pickle ownership. Okay, that is a weak tie-in, but who can resist a pickle invasion story.
Deliberations discusses one of the basic truths of trial law – you must connect with your jury about basic truths of your case. That is equally true when seeking an injunction – if the judge senses something is not right about your argument, you will not get your injunction.
The writers’ strike that is expected this week is not an injunction, but it will mean an end to new scripted television and movies. Concurring Opinions has an interesting post about a brewing legal dispute between the studios and the writers’ union, the Writers Guild of America (“WGA”). The WGA is requiring that members provide information on all unproduced projects and an update on the status of those projects, as per the labor agreement between the WGA and the studios. But the studios, based upon their individual agreements with writers, are warning writers that the studios own the scripts and the writers are barred by contract from giving the WGA any information about the projects. These conflicting contracts place the writers in quite a pickle (I could not resist), and it poses an interesting legal question as to which contract controls.
And I end with a post that is actually about an injunction. The Maryland IP Law Blog (another LexBlog creation) posted about a District of Delaware court that upheld a jury verdict of patent infringement and plans to enter a permanent injunction against Lonza, Ltd., Nutrinova Inc. and Nutrinova Nutrition Specialties & Food Ingredients GmbH prohibiting the U.S. sale and use of a fatty acid product currently marketed under the brand name Lonza DHA for use in functional foods and dietary supplements.
Thanks for reading. And for the Blog’s regular readers, I will be back to my usual Northern District of Illinois focus tomorrow.
* Second Life is an internet-based virtual world where “residents” interact through avatars. For example, the Seventh Circuit’s Judge Posner appeared in Second Life with an avatar closely resembling him to answer questions from, among others, a DC IP lawyer using an avatar of a humanized raccoon. Check out the New World Notes blog for a transcript and some screenshots.

Continue Reading Blawg Review #133

Yesterday I blogged briefly about the Eastern District of Virginia’s injunction preventing the PTO’s new continuation rules from taking effect today, November 1st. But the Court’s order was not available yet. The order has been issued — click here for a copy — and it is very interesting. The Court held that plaintiff GSK had shown a likelihood of success on the merits regarding several issues:
That limiting the number of continuations a party can file violates 35 U.S.C. Section 120, which states that later filed applications have the same effect as their parent applications.
That the new rules are impermissably retroactive because the limits on numbers of claims and continuations will change the terms of the bargain struck between inventors currently prosecuting their applications and the PTO when those inventors filed their applications, prior to the new rules going into effect.
That the requirements for Examination Support Documents (“ESD”) are impermissably vague because they do not sufficiently define the paramters of the search required.
The Court also held that GSK would be irreparably harmed by implementation of the rules because GSK has about 2,000 pending applications and GSK’s rights in each of those applications would be materially altered by the new rules.
The balance of hardships weighed in GSK’s favor. The PTO’s losses were sunk costs — updating computer systems and training staff. But if the PTO wins the suit and later implements the continuation rules, the new computer systems and the employee training will still be valuable. On the other hand, the entry of the continuations rules will materially limit GSK’s rights in its 2,000 pending patent applications.
Finally, the public interest is in maintaining the status quo, rather than allowing the implementation of a new set of rules which could be reversed by the Court in a matter of months.
For more on the preliminary injunction and thoughts about whether the PTO will file an emergency appeal with the Federal Circuit, check out:
Patently-O
FileWrapper
271 Patent Blog
WSJ Law Blog
Patent Practice Center Patent Blog
I will continue to update this post with coverage of the injunction and any appeals throughout the day.

Continue Reading Continuation Rules Would Cause GSK Irreparable Harm