Here is IP Think Tank’s weekly
selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and
internet.

Highlights this week included: ISO moving to create a global standard for
patent valuation, Vonage and Nortel settling their patent suit and the establishment press taking on the RIAA.

Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories,
and please do let me know if you think we’ve missed something important, or if
there is a source you think should be monitored.

You can separately subscribe to the IP Think Tank Global week in Review at http://feeds.feedburner.com/DuncanBucknellsGlobalWeekInReview

Global

• Coming out of copyright –
  some notable deaths from 1937: (IPKat),
• Design patents: No longer
  the province of individual inventors: (Patently
  O),
• Fail fast, ready fire aim
  and Stanford v Cal:
  (IP
  Think Tank),
• Walls, Alexander the Great
  and Partha Bose: (IP
  Think Tank),
• A fair use primer for
  online content creators: (Ars
  Technica)
• ISO moves to create global
  standard for patent valuation: (IAM),

Pharma

• Top 15 stories covered in
  Patent Docs relating to pharmaceutical and biotech patent law: (stories 1
  to 5, 6
  to 10, 11
  to 15 – Patent Docs)
• Another dismal year in drug
  approvals: (in
  vivo),

• Altace (Ramipril) – 180 day
  exclusivity for Cobalt triggered: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Crestor (Rosuvastatin) –
  AstraZeneca sues Mylan over Crestor patent: (IP
  Law360),
• Lipitor (Atorvastatin) –
  Pfizer loses Canadian Federal Court bid to block Apotex from marketing a
  generic version of Lipitor: (IP
  Law360), (SmartBrief),
• Omnicef (Cefdinir) –
  Japanese Supreme Court dismisses Taiyo’s appeal in its patent dispute with
  Astellas: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Pantoprazole (Protonix) –
  Sun/Caraco launching generic pantoprazole: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Stalevo (L-DOPA and
  carbiDOPA) – Sun amends Stalevo ANDA: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Tarceva (Erlotinib) –
  Indian patent granted for Erlotinib: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP),
• Valcyte (Valganciclovir) – Investigation
  into Chennai’s grant of Valcyte patent to F Hoffmann-La Roche without hearing
  an opposition filed by a patient group: (Generic
  Pharmaceuticals & IP)

Africa

• Patents,
  morality and the WTO; The African question: (IPKat)

Australia

• Customs restrained from
  releasing Chanel fakes: (Australian
  Trade Marks Law Blog)

Canada

• Electrohome’s trade mark
  assets sold for $1.5million to SYNNEX: (Now Why Didn’t I Think of That?),
• Public Domain Day 2008: (CopyrightWatch.ca),

• Quebec bloggers on Canadian DMCA: (Michael Geist),

• Industry Minister, Jim
  Prentice, calls for ‘extensive copyright discussions’ after the Canadian
  DMCA is introduced: (Michael Geist)

China

• Danone / Wahaha: Both
  parties agree to truce: (Managing
  the Dragon),
• Both Baidu.com and Yahoo China provided deep links to pirated mp3’s,
  Baidu won in court, while Yahoo China lost. What are the
  differences?: (IP
  Dragon),
• IFPI wins the ‘illegal
  music download’ cases against Yahoo! China: (IPKat),
• Progress in collecting
  karaoke royalties: (IP
  Dragon)

Europe

• Sir Nicholas Pumphrey 1957-2007:
  (IPKat),
  (ipeg),
  (IPFactor),
• OHIM decision renders
  Crocs’ foam clog Registered European Community Design invalid: (Washington
  State Patent Law Blog),

• UK dentist firm beats Lacoste
  in trade mark dispute: (IPKat),
  (IP
  Factor),

• Patent Trolls statistics,
  will Europe escape the trolls?: (IPEG),
• EU CORDIS launches a new web
  service for joint research initiatives: (IPR
  Helpdesk),
• EC announces plan to create
  single, EU-wide market for online music, films, and video games: (Ars
  Technica)

Germany

• Germans shun patents, but
  press for patent valuation ISO: (IPKat)

Hong Kong

• Creative commons Hong Kong begins public discussion (Creativecommons.com)

India

• Blawging our way to the
  front pages of Business Standard: (Spicy
  IP),
• Bootleg baloney: It’s music
  to the ears: (Spicy
  IP)

Spain

• Spanish parliament passes new private copying
  levy: (Michael Geist)

United Kingdom

• Use of term ‘buried in
  computer’ not a trade mark infringement (RX Works Ltd v Hunter (T/a
  Connect Computers): (IPKat),
• Compo for HMRC data breach
  – no sure thing: (IMPACT),
• An increasingly militant
  climate on data protection: (IMPACT),

United States

• Long felt, unmet need – And
  level of skill in the art?: (The
  Fire of Genius) (and related articles (1)
  and (2)
  at The Fire of Genius),
• Common misunderstandings:
  ASCAP on creative commons: (Lessig.org),
• Another school refused to
  pass Recording Industry Association of America pre-litigation letters
  along to students: (Ars
  Technica),
• The establishment press
  takes on the RIAA in connection with its copyright infringement dispute
  involving the University
  of Oregon: (Patry
  Copyright Blog), (Against Monopoly),
  (Trademark
  Blog)
• RIAA sues Howell for keeping a collection
  of music recordings on his personal computer: (IPKat),
  (IMPACT),
• A look at the Trademark
  Dilution Revision Act of 2006: (Chicago
  IP Litigation Blog),
• Senators Leahy and Hatch
  address Patent Reform Act for 2008: (Peter
  Zura’s 271 Patent Blog),
• US patenting trends among
  the G8 countries: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),

• US patent and published
  applications stats for 2007: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),

• Review of patent law news
  in 2007: (Patent
  Prospector),
• Patent troll activity to
  look out for in the new year: (Troll
  Tracker),

• Iran and copyright – the impact of the lack of copyright relations between Iran and the US: (Patry
  Copyright Blog),

• After Seagate,
  counsel is optional – but advisable: (IP
  Law360),
• US & Japan – Patent Prosecution Highway to
  continue on full-time basis: (IP
  Organisers),
• US & Japan – trial of New Route for
  obtaining patents in foreign countries: (IP
  Organisers), (PLI),
• Fewer IP lawsuits filed in
  2007: (IP
  Law360),
• Foreign trade marks are
  capable of protection under New
  York competition law under theory of misappropriation:
  (Mondaq.com),
• Another objectionable part
  of the Pro-IP bill: (Patry
  Copyright Blog),
• Appeals court affirms lower
  court decision that karaoke machine makers cannot print or display song
  lyrics by merely obtaining a compulsory license from the copyright holder
  or by citing the fair use doctrine: (IP
  Law360),
• Courts, not Congress, shaped
  patent law in 2007: (IP
  Law360),
• Cases to watch in 2008: (Patently-O),
  (Patent
  Prospector),
• Wikipedia references in
  issued patents: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),
• USPTO discontinues paper
  version of its ‘Patent and Trademark Office Notices’ publication: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),
• How patent examiner
  performance appraisal may affect allowability: (IP
  Updates),
• Reexamination pendency
  continues to rise: (Patently-O),
• The USPTO has issued eight
  new classification orders since 1 October 2007: (Patent
  Librarian’s Notebook),
• The National Association of
  Patent Practitioners has written Senate leaders to set them straight about
  proposed patent legislation: (Patent
  Prospector)

• Acacia – Sprint settles
  with Acacia over GPS tracking: (IP
  Law360),
• Acacia – Patent troll
  tracker update on new patent suits commenced by Acacia and its
  subsidiaries: (Troll
  Tracker),
• Apple – Apple settles
  video-on-demand patent dispute with Intertainer Inc.: (IP
  Law360),
• Crater Corp – For the third
  time, a judge has axed the trade secrets claims in Crater Corp.’s suit
  against Lucent Technologies Inc. and AT&T Inc. over an underwater
  coupler for the U.S. Navy: (IP
  Law360),
• Crown Packaging – Summary
  judgment granted to Reexam Beverage Co finding patent infringement by
  Crown: (Delaware
  IP Law),
• eBay – District Court held
  that likelihood of confusion analysis is not limited to the goods or
  services for which mark was registered in Applied Information Sciences
  v eBay: (IP
  Law Observer),
• Global Patent Holdings –
  GPH files another patent infringement case regarding their JPEG on a
  website patent: (Troll
  Tracker),
• Google – Appellate Judge
  vacates district court order stating Google Inc.’s AutoLink service does
  not infringe a HyperPhrase patent: (IP
  Law360),
• Illumina – USPTO orders
  reexamination of Affymetrix patents asserted against Illumina: (Patent
  Docs)
• Kinetic Concepts Inc – Kinetic
  launches suit against Innovative Therapies Inc and three of its principals
  (former Kinetic employees) for allegedly stealing its vacuum-assisted
  technology for treating chronic wounds:
  (IP
  Law360),
• LANCOR – LANCOR sues
  non-profit charity One Laptop Per Child project for $20m for patent
  infringement: (Ars
  Technica),

• Limelight – Level 3 files patent infringement
  suit against Limelight: (Philip
  Brooks),

• McNeil Nutritionals -The maker of Splenda allowed
  to go forward with a trademark infringement lawsuit against rival Heartland
  Sweeteners: (IP
  Law360),

• Motorola – Motorola and Metrologic settle patent
  discord: (Philip
  Brooks),

• Parallel Networks – PN is suing Netflix Inc.,
  E*Trade Financial Corp. and John Wiley & Sons Inc., accusing them of
  infringing two patents related to real-time Web page generating technology: (IP
  Law360),

• Qualcomm – Broadcom wins
  injunction against Qualcomm in patent infringement case: (IP
  Law360), (Philip
  Brooks), (Patent
  Prospector)
• Rosenruist-Gestao E Servicos – Rosenruist-Gestao attempting to
  register a mark in contested proceedings against Virgin Enters. Ltd before
  the TTAB could be compelled to produce corporate designee witness pursuant
  to District Court subpoena: (IP
  Law Observer),
• SanDisk – SanDisk settles
  flash memory disputes with PNY Technology: (IP
  Law360), (Patent
  Prospector),
• Vizio – Vizio reaches settlement
  in Positive Technologies Inc.’s suit over plasma display television patents:
  (IP
  Law360),
• Vonage – Vonage and Nortel settle
  patent suit: (IPBiz),
  (Philip
  Brooks), (Patent
  Prospector), (IP
  Law360),
• Wacom – Wacom cries foul
  over recent claim construction order in its suit against Hanvon Corp: (Washington
  State Patent Law Blog)