Patent & IP news for June 1, 2012

Please Stop Equating Patents to Monopolies!! from tacticalip.com

TweetBy: Mark R. Malek Ever since I started practicing patent law, one of the things that has continuously driven me nuts is when I hear people calling a patent a “monopoly” on a particular area ...

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Asian Governments Plan To Better Use TRIPS Flexibilities For Health from www.ip-watch.org

International trade rules related to intellectual property rights enshrine the notion that there may be cases where exceptions to IP rights are needed by governments, such as sovereign decisions on a nation’s public health ...

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US Oncologists Report Crucial Cancer Drug Shortages from www.ipwatchdog.com

The mantra of the anti-patent community is nearly in unison on the issue of patented drugs. Of course, everyone wants drugs to be developed, but no one wants to pay the exorbitant prices charged for ...

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Update on the Unitary EU Patent from info.inovia.com

Managing Intellectual Property published an important update this week regarding the proposed EU unitary patent. The EU Competitiveness Council met this week in Brussels. One key topic for discussion was the location of the unified ...

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Judge Posner forbids Apple to turn this month's Motorola jury trial into a popularity contest from www.fosspatents.com

Ten days prior to the start of an Apple v. Motorola trial in the Northern District of Illinois, Judge Richard Posner entered an order on the parties' motions in limine (motions to preclude testimony, arguments ...

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China as an IP Stakeholder from www.uspto.gov

The USPTO and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit May 28-30 co-sponsored an intellectual property adjudication program with Renmin University of China, the China Law Society, the Bar, and others. More ...

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Trade Mark Cluttering, Messy Policy from www.iposgoode.ca

A recent report by the UK Intellectual Property Office [IPO] draws attention to trade mark cluttering. Trade mark cluttering occurs where “where firms hold trade marks that are overly broad or unused raising search costs ...

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Distilling trade dress law: Sixth circuit rules Maker’s Mark dripping wax seal is entitled to trademark protection from ipspotlight.com

Alcohol packaging and trademark/trade dress law have intersected quite a few times in the news this month.  First, as Daniel Corbett recently reported, the maker’s of Daily’s cocktails sued Captain Morgan producer ...

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Anatomy of a new slogan: MAKING TRADEMARKS BLOOM SINCE 1999 from www.erikpelton.com

I recently created and launched a new slogan. MAKING TRADEMARKS BLOOM SINCE 1999™. [Wordpress has a ™ symbol character available and a ®, but not one for 'SM']  This slogan does not replace an old one. Our ...

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Of Trademarks & Movie Titles: The Applicability of Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine from spicyipindia.blogspot.com

If readers can recollect, majority of us agreed that the title ‘Hari Puttar’ makes one think of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ according to a poll we ran on the blog four years ago ...

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House Passes User Fee Bill from www.patentdocs.org

By Kevin E. Noonan -- Less than a week after the Senate passed its version of a bill amending the user fee provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for funding FDA review of ...

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Multiple Ways to Search An Online Catalog of Electronic Theses and Dissertations from intellogist.wordpress.com

Free catalogs of non-patent literature (NPL) that cover the collections of multiple academic institutions can provide a valuable central search portal when a user is searching for a particular type of NPL.  For example, the ...

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Hockey Players Protect Their Noggins from patentlibrarian.blogspot.com


A group of Canadian businessmen have launched a new product that they claim will protect hockey players from concussions.The Noggin is a form-fitting skull cap kitted out with gel pads intended to be worn ...

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Reading Tea Leaves from www.717madisonplace.com

Listening to oral argument recordings from various cases presents an opportunity to try and read the tea leaves as to where the Federal Circuit is heading with respect to a particular area of the law ...

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USPTO Publishes Proposed Rules to Implement Micro Entity Status for Paying Discounted Patent Fees from www.patentabilityblog.com

In a move designed to help independent inventors, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing to amend the rules of practice in patent cases to implement the micro entity provision of the ...

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