IP Thinktank Global Week in Review – 26 October 2007

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

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.

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can separately subscribe to the IP Thinktank Global week in Review at http://thinkipstrategy.com/subscribe/

Global

• IBM’s IP portfolio value extraction patent (IAM), (PLI),
• Facebook – Microsoft has beaten Google to a chunk of the popular
  social-networking site, agreeing to pay $240m for a 1.6 percent stake (ZDNet),
• Global IP Strategy – can you keep up? (IP Thinktank);
• 3M reaches global settlement over lithium battery patents with Sanyo (IP Law 360),
• ACTA – The United States, European Union and other key trading partners on
  Tuesday announced their intention to negotiate an Anti-Counterfeiting
  Trade Agreement (ACTA) to encourage other countries to meet higher
  intellectual property rights enforcement standards: (IAM), (Intellectual Property Watch), (IP Law Daily),
• Pharmaceutical Lifecycle Management and IP Acquisitions: (IP Thinktank),
• China blocks WTO dispute panel put together for US copyright enforcement dispute: (Intellectual Property Watch),
• IP Strategy – more than meets the eye: (IP thinktank),

Canada

• The National Post reports
  that Facebook has asked a Canadian court to order Rogers and Look
  Communications to disclose customer information related to alleged
  attempted thefts of personal information on the social networking site: (Michael Geist), (IP Law Daily),
• The Canadian Music Creators Coalition has issued a press release
  renewing its call for the Canadian government to reject
  anti-circumvention legislation and reforms that facilitate lawsuits
  against individuals: (IP Law Daily),

China

• Tian Lipu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), talked to reporters last week at the Party Congress. States: “The country’s need for an IPR system was more in response to the needs
  of sustainable development than to pressure from other countrie” (China Hearsay),
• Update on the Alibaba Chinese Trademark war, (IPDragon),

Denmark

• Denmark’s version of the RIAA (or CRIA) is considering a proposal to
  allow for unlimited, legalized music downloads in return for a monthly
  fee levied by ISPs (Michael Geist),

Europe

• Microsoft settles its dispute with the EU and agreed not to appeal the CFI’s rejection of its case to the ECJ, (IPWars), (IPKat), (ZDNet), (PLI),
• OHIM Fourth Board of Appeal, refuses registration of a sound mark for Tarzan’s yell (and leaves little room for sound marks which can not be represented by musical notation): (IPKat),
• The European Commission wants to create a new layer of
  intellectual property protections because it says that existing
  structures such as WIPO are not flexible enough: (OUTLAW)
• European Patent Office. New patent information policy to provide ‘barrier-free’ access (IPR-Helpdesk),
• New models for European Copyright Licensing System: (Intellectual Property Watch);
• EU Commission adopts Regulation on enforcement of IP in EU borders: (IPR-Helpdesk)

India

• The uneasy alliance between Basmati and IP: (SpicyIP),
• Why Novartis needs to challenge the Madras High Court Judgment: (SpicyIP),

Israel

• Israel Patent Office allows unsupported terms to be added to claims: (IPFactor),

Italy

• Italian bloggers are protesting at a proposed law that would force them to register with the government in order to write a blog: (OUT-LAW),

Korea

• (In)admissability of hearsay evidence in Korea: (Korea IP Law Blog),
• Is a Portal site liable for its users’ defamatory statement or acts? (Korea IP Law Blog),
• Korean trade mark law governs domain name disputes in Korea (Korea IP Law Blog),

Spain

• Lipitor patent upheld in Spain: (IPLaw 360),

United Kingdom

• House of Lords overturns the Court of Appeal in the Yeda Appeal over Erbitux: (IPKat), (Inner Temple), (IP Law360),
• Novartis AG v IVAX Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 971, Court of Appeal dismisses an appeal against the decision of
  Mr Justice Pumfrey that Novartis’ patent for a pharmaceutical
  composition for an active ingredient, an ‘oil-in-water microemulsion’,
  was not infringed by the Ivax Equoral product in which at least 86% of the active ingredient was carried by particles that were larger than microemulsion size: (IPKat),

United States

• AIPLA has filed an amicus brief in support of GSK’s motion for a
  preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of the PTO’s new rules on
  continuations and claim count: (Patently’O), (IAM), (Filewrapper.com), (Peter Zura), (PLI), (Patent Prospector),
• Meanwhile – GSK’s case is set down for 31 October and GSk brings out former USPTO Commissioner in suport of its case: (Patent Docs), (I/P Updates),
• US Legislation introduced to substitute prizes for patents to provide incentives to pharmaceutical R&D: (Against Monopoly), 
• Groups oppose proposed changes to USPTO Information Disclosure Rules: (Patent Baristas), (PLI),
• Verizon
  and Vonage settled Verizon’s patent assertion: (Patent Prospector),
• Ocean Tomo’s Autumn IP auction sells ~ $10m – solid but not spectacular: (IAM);
• Marvell Semiconductor Inc.’s lawsuit against Australia’s Commonweath Scientific and Industrial Research Organization for
  declaratory judgment that the company and its customers did not
  infringe a CSIRO patent can go forward, but the court declined to stay
  CSIRO’s pending cases against Marvell customers Microsoft Corp. and
  Toshiba American Information Systems Inc. (IP Law360),
• LG Electronics Inc. has settled a lawsuit it brought against China’s
  number-one television maker over digital television patents (IP Law 360),
• SanDisk Corp. has filed patent actions against 25 flash memory
  companies to stop the manufacture, sale or import of their allegedly
  infringing products: (IP Law 360).
• Paroxetine – Mylan enters into a patent
  license and settlement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) relating to
  Paroxetine Hydrochloride (HCl) Extended-release (ER) Tablets (Phillip Brooks), (IP Law360),
• The perils of not registering copyright in the USA – Seeking only minimal recognition for his Baltimore Ravens logo design,
  Baltimore amateur artist ends up seeking certiori from the Supreme
  Court in his copyright infringement case, winds up with no damages award (Maryland IP Law Blog),
• Amgen’s patents infringed by Roche’s generic anemia drug Mircera: (IP Law360),
• AT&T sues Vonage over routing patent: (IPBiz),
• Limits on the rights of Exclusive Licensees in US litigation: (IP Spotlight),
• CAFC approves compulsory licence but calls it an ‘ongoing royalty’: (Patently’O), (I/P Updates).