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)