IPCrunch

A Ms Corri Fetman who is a US lawyer practicing divorce law had a column in popular magazine Playboy, titled “Lawyer of Love”. Her employment there terminated when she accused an executive of sexual harassment. When she attempted to register the term “Lawyer of Love”, she found herself sued by Playboy who claim that they own [...]

It is sometimes possible to get a refund from the USPTO where it collects fees for services that are eventually not required or not performed. Unfortunately this does not seem to include refunds of International Search fees for PCT applications. Anyway, a Ms Karen L. Parish succeeded in diverting these refunds into her personal bank accounts [...]

A New Jersey jury has found in favor of Novartis AG and against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. on Wednesday in suit that Novartis filed claiming Teva infringed the patent for its genital herpes drug Famvir by seeking regulatory approval to market its own generic version.

„Ideenklau schädigt Firmen um Milliarden“ „notebooksnochgünstiger.de“ gewinnt Markenstreit um Internetdomain Markenrecht Aktuell: BPatG Entscheidungen 46/2009 Schmutzwasserpumpen Tsurumi bekämpft Produktpiraten Bewährung für Markenfälscher Schweizer Wappen soll besser geschützt werden Wortmarken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Mehr Geld für die Urheber

ITAG is organising a conference on IP Leveraging in Software, Electronics and Green Technology in co-operation with Sughrue Mion PLLC, a leading law firm in USA. The conference will be held on 29-30 January 2010 in Bangalore, India. Conference Details: Date: 29 – 30 January 2010 Time: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Place: Bangalore Conference Theme: IP Leveraging in Software, Electronics and Green Technology Speakers: Mr. Chid Iyer - Partner of of Sughrue Mion PLLC Mr. Maniak Mehta - Partner of Sughrue Mion PLLC, Washington Mr. Alan Kasper - President of AIPLA (*TBC) Dr. Prabuddha Ganguli – CEO of Vision-IPR Dr. Pinaki Ghosh – Head, Intellectual Property Cell at Infosys technologies Ltd. Senior Representative - Watermark (a leading IPR Firm in Australia) Mr. Dominic Keating - First Intellectual Property Secretary at US Embassy Dr. D R Agarwal – Director of ITAG Business Solutions Ltd Prof. N L Mitra - Former Director (NLSIU), Bangalore and Founder Vice-Chancellor, National Law University Mr. T C...

I'll be on %26lt;a href="http://www.petermacshow.com/... Peter Mac Show%26lt;/a%26gt; tonight from %26lt;strong%26gt;9-10pm%26lt;/strong%26gt; CST [note: the time has been moved up from the previously scheduled time], discussing IP. Listeners may call in; I'll put up a link for the audio later.

Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel was the featured speaker at the November 20, 2009 Federal Circuit Bar Association Annual Dinner. At that dinner, Chief Judge Michel took that opportunity to announce that he will step-down as from the Bench...

Defenders of patents commonly say they are against innovators' ideas being "stolen" or "plagiarized." This implies that patents simply permit an innovator to sue those who %26lt;em%26gt;copy%26lt;/em%26gt; his idea. This position betrays either disingenuity or ignorance about patent law. Let me explain. Under %26lt;a href="http://patentlawpractice.wikis... law%26lt;/a%26gt;, someone who independently creates an original work similar to another author's original work is %26lt;em%26gt;not%26lt;/em%26gt; liable for copyright infringement, since the independent creation is not a %26lt;em%26gt;reproduction%26lt;/em%26gt; of the other author's work. Thus, for example, a copyright defendant can try to show he never had access to the other's work, as a defense. The reason for this is that the fundamental copyright is, well, a %26lt;em%26gt;right to copy%26lt;/em%26gt; one's original creative work. By the nature of creative works that are subject to...

Law Education Institute, Inc. (LEI) will be holding the 27th Annual National CLE Conference on January 6-10, 2010 in Vail, Colorado. The Intellectual Property program of the conference, which will be held at the Vail Marriott Resort & Spa, will offer presentations on a number of topics, including: • Federal Circuit and legislative update; • Continued importance of opinions of counsel post-Seagate and Broadcom; • Recent developments in licensing case law; • Unglamorous but deadly -- Invalidity under Section 112; • Effective litigation strategies using the ITC, district courts and re-examination • Patent corporate counsel panel: What keeps corporate counsel...

I posted the following comment to Cory Doctorow's BoingBoing post %26lt;a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2009... and Google Book Search%26lt;/a%26gt;: Cory, Google is not perfect but the attacks on them for attempting this seem to me to be demonizing the wrong party. The problem is copyright law--a state legal system. The state is, as usual, to blame. Why some people are trusting the same state that foists IP law on us to protect is us mystifying. In attacking Google they are allying with the state (see my post %26lt;a href="http://www.againstmonopoly.org/index... Digital Library Plan Opposed by German Chancellor%26lt;/a%26gt;), which is the real enemy. I don't see any choice for google to accomplish the quasi-digital libertarian of orphan and other works other than its creative legal-settlement route. Lohmann writes: "Nobody likes this "only-for-Google" aspect of the settlement--in fact, Google has...

The Washington Post has a business article today entitled "Crackdown targets counterfeit drugs" which leaves out most of the truth %26lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...; link here%26lt;/a%26gt;. There is no mention that some of these drugs are generic and perfectly legal in the country where they are made. And that the US has for some years stopped enforcing imports of such drugs by individuals. That policy seems to have changed now, if this story is to be credited. However the amount of spam from sellers of such drugs doesn't seem to have abated. The story begins, "In highly orchestrated raids around the world this week, Interpol officers in Europe, drug agents in the United States and task forces from Sweden to Singapore hunted down counterfeit prescription drugs in an effort to stem a rapidly growing criminal business preying on financially pressed consumers looking for bargains. "The operation, code-named...

Informal negotiations appeared to bring the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property within reach of consensus on a coordination mechanism for the Development Agenda early this morning, but this afternoon governments were unable to overcome remaining differences.

In the ACLU v. Myriad case, the ACLU has alleged that the patents involved in the case cover genes found in nature. This statement is so patently (pun intended) false, that the ACLU either purposely deceived the court or is guilty of gross negligence about the facts plead in the case. As Gene [...] Related posts:Fired Up: Challenging the Constitutionality of the Patent ActThe Plaintiffs allege that because human genes should not be patented. Hardly something that anyone can argue. The only trouble is that this is not what the US Patent Office allows, and it is not what Myriad Genetics has been granted a patent on. Nevertheless, the frivolous ACLU lawsuit that seeks to use the US [...]...ACLU Files Frivolous Lawsuit Challenging PatentsThe ACLU should be sanctioned for its frivolous lawsuit challenging gene patents, which was filed Tuesday in the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. This lawsuit is nothing more than grandstanding, it presents...

Iovate & University of Florida Research Foundation v. Bio-Engineered Supplements & Nutrition (BSN) (Fed. Cir. 2009) (Download 09-1018) Iovate is the exclusive licensee of UF's patented method for "enhancing muscle performance or recovery from fatigue." Pat. No. 6,100,287. The method...

Truly %26lt;a href="http://blog.mises.org/archive... speech%26lt;/a%26gt; by Jeff Tucker on the problems of intellectual property.

I rarely use Westlaw/Lexis, but the CiteGenie FireFox extension could be really useful for those of you whom do. As their website points out: Cutting and pasting when doing legal research using your browser is simple. But having to construct the citation for what you pasted is not so simple. This is especially true with legal citations [...] Related posts:Tech Tip of the Day — Archive.org and FireFox Extension Many of us use www.archive.org’s “Internet Archive Wayback Machine” for...Open Sourcing PACER Documents via a FireFox Extension If you use PACER often, you might really like the...Patent term extension/adjustment rule changes Explanation of 37 CFR 1.703(f) and of the United States...

The World Intellectual Property Organization has been known to be different from the rest of the United Nations family in that it earns most of its own revenues, and typically operates with a budget surplus. But recognising that it could better meet the needs of its members with additional funds, it now is turning to the international donor community.

Registernummer: 30553276 und Registernummer: 302008071161 Quelle: DPMA

Um die an den Markenbereich in München gerichteten Faxe intern schneller bearbeiten zu können, wurde hierfür mit der 089/2195-4000 eine eigene zentrale Faxnummer eingerichtet. Diese ersetzt für den Markenbereich in München die schutzrechtsübergreifende allgemeine Faxnummer -2221. Für den Markenbereich der Dienststelle Jena bleibt es bei der Faxnummer 03641/40-5690. Daneben sind die Markenteams in München und [...]

The Google Book settlement received an initial signal of approval by a US court yesterday, according to a book settlement website. A final settlement/fairness hearing should be held on 18 February 2010 before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to a document posted on the Google Book settlement website. [...]

The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies examines the phenomenon of Auto-Tune with help from special guest Professor "Weird Al" Yankovic!

Angemeldet am 20.11.1909 Registernummer: 126751 PRITEG Nizzaklasse: 09 Inhaber: Avaya GmbH & Co. KG Registernummer: 133487 KISMET Nizzaklasse: 08 Inhaber: F. Koeller & Co., Quelle: DPMA

Have you checked the IPKat's list of Forthcoming Events? There's plenty coming up, as you can see from the side-bar on the IPKat's front page. It gets a bit quiet over Christmas, but January's only just around the corner. Are you IP-savvy, as fit as a fiddle and always carry an umbrella in case it rains? If so, the United Kingdom's IPO has a job for you as Senior Policy Advisor, International Policy on IP, Public Health and Climate Change. The post is based in London, not Newport, so you can't escape the IPKat's attention by blending in with the local sheep ... Duties include representing the IPO "... in relevant international meetings for example at the World Health Organis[z]ation and the World Intellectual Property Office [is this a new competitor for the World Intellectual Property Organization, or perhaps a breakaway group of dissidents?]. The job will involve regular lobbying of inter-governmental contacts in Europe and elsewhere, and meeting with key players [it's those...

The following is excerpted from an OraSure press release published by GlobeNewswire on November 19, 2009 and available at The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch: OraSure Technologies, Inc. (OSUR) today announced the settlement of the patent infringement lawsuit filed against...