IFA trade show was raided by customers according to the Register. Over 220 (armed) customs agents were involved and seized electronic equipments from over 69 different booths.
The Register reports that this raid was started after complaints by the firm Sisvel. Sisvel is involved with many patent licensing programs for technology such as MP3 and MPEG audio.
According to the USPTO, the Patent Prosecution Highway Program extends between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the UK Patent and Trademark Office (UKPTO).
This is an opportunity for applicants to expedite prosecution in the two jurisdictions when a patent application has been considered allowable in one of the two jurisdictions.
It is interesting to note that the Patent Prosecution Highway Program (PPH) involves now many jurisdictions , at pilot phase or permanent, including Canada (pilot phase), Japan (Permanent), Australia (pilot phase) and Korea (pilot phase).
Many online services offer .pdf versions of patent or patent applications. However, they have serious limitations such as for instance a poor or (unfriendly) user interface, fees charged for downloading the reference, registration required.. Some even act as bots which download a reference page by page to generate the full reference in a single file.
http://www.patents.com/ offers an efficient way to find a reference and download it in a single pdf file without complications. Although it is limited to US and EPO patent-patent applications, I find that this webiste is great for that purpose.
Companies often struggle with their Intellectual Property strategy. They setup, sometimes impose, an Intellectual Property strategy but often do not obtain a clear return on investment on the ressources spent for setting up the strategy and implementing it. This causes lots of frustration in the management team.
While there is no magic formula, I believe that a recipe for obtaining an effective IP, business-oriented, strategy requires finding the right individual for the job. However, finding the right person is not enough since everything has to be made.
The individual should have the following prerequisites:
1. Have a pertinent legal expertise or know ressources having that pertinent legal expertise;
2. Have a technical expertise in the industry of the client;
3. Have a track record and work in a respectable firm;
Other ingredients are needed for obtaining good results; in fact the individual to be selected should be able to:
4. Understand the business of the company, the challenges or the pitfalls associated with it;
5. Learn and understand the competition scene and be proactive with respect to it;
6. Establish a clear IP strategy including clear goals and milestones;
7. Understand the objectives of the company and the ressources available (Intellectual Property must be/become integrated in the business strategy);
8. Get frequent feedback from the company (or be proactive to get it);
9. Help the company control its costs or set a system to control the costs associated with IP;
10. Be accountable (measure ROIp);
11. Be flexible to amend the strategy; and
12. Have a business network to propose synergies to the client.
The company must therefore make sure that the individual has more than the prerequisites.... and do a serious due diligence to avoid deceptions...
The USPTO has announced the development of a Continuing Education for Practitioners (“CEP”) system for on-line delivery of educational materials to patent practitioners, and is seeking help in piloting the on-line system.
Basically, the purpose of the system is to increase the efficiency of the patent system by ensuring that the practitioners have the required and up-to-date knowledge.
According to the announcement, the USPTO is looking to get 1000 registered practitioners to help evaluate the system and provide pertinent feedback.
The test course is supposed to take 1h.
It is worth noting that each participant in the pilot program will be deemed to have satisfied the first year’s requirement for CEP at such time as the USPTO makes CEP a requirement.
At the same time it is interesting to note that the test will not affect the registration status of any practitioner on the official roster of patent attorneys and agents.
Nuance Communications and its Tegic subsidiary have announced today that they have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Zi Corporation in the Federal Court in Toronto, Canada. They assert that Zi’s Qix and eZiText products infringe Canadian Patent Numbers 2,399,961 and 2,278,549.
It is interesting to note that Zi had just rejected an all-cash $40.5 million takeover bid from the plaintiff.
According to the statement Nuance holds more than 1000 patents and patent applications.
Zi has retaliated with a press release.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a complaint has been filed by start-up, Hillcrest Laboratories Inc. of Rockville, Md which claims that its patents have been infringed by the Wii console. The complaints allege infringement of four Hillcrest patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,139,983, 7,158,118, 7,262,760, and 7,414,611. The complaint has been filed at the U.S. International Trade Commission. A lawsuit has been concurrently launched at a federal court.
Law.com has an interesting article about the fight between IP boutiques and general practice firms. For many years oracles have predicted the end of IP boutiques...
Still interesting to note that "In IP Law & Business' survey last November of "Who Protects Innovation in America 2007," IP specialty firms accounted for only four of 31 firms listed as handling IP litigation in the United States for the world's 50 most innovative companies".
Issues to consider for choosing a firm: cost issues, expertise of the firm, business network of the individuals in the firm, requirements of the management team of the company hiring the firm/investors funding the company.
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