Bifurcation and the UPC – comments welcome! The possibility for judges to separate infringement and validity is one of the most controversial aspects of the proposed Unified Patent Court. What are your views? By James Nurton January 30 2015
MCM asks Federal Circuit to find IPR statute unconstitutional An appeal to the Federal Circuit has questioned whether actions to revoke a patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board are unconstitutional for violation of the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial By Michael Loney January 29 2015
Pillsbury adds four partners in Texas Pillsbury has added a four-partner team to its intellectual property practice. The partners join from Bracewell & Giuliani By Michael Loney January 29 2015
Myriad settles BRCA litigation following Federal Circuit ruling Myriad Genetics has settled litigation with three of the laboratories it accused of infringing patents on two genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer, following a Federal Circuit ruling last month confirming s... By Michael Loney January 29 2015
What you need to know about evidence on both sides of the Atlantic How can you win opposition proceedings without discovery? What lessons do proceedings at the PTAB offer for businesses in Europe? What are the upsides – and downsides – of discovery? These were among the questions add... By Emma Barraclough January 29 2015
Meet the new model patent litigator The emergence of multinational patent disputes demands new skills from patent litigators. What impact will this have on the IP profession? By James Nurton January 29 2015
Is China’s utility model system getting a bad rap? A recent report published by IP Key suggests that China’s utility model system contains safeguards to help ensure patent quality not always found in other countries By Peter Leung January 28 2015
USPTO appoints law professor as Detroit satellite office director University of Nebraska College of Law professor Christal Sheppard has been appointed as the first director of the USPTO’s satellite office in Detroit By Michael Loney January 26 2015
New lawyer for Gorodissky Valery Narezhny has joined the IP department of Gorodissky & Partners in Moscow, where he will be in charge of new practices such as tax, Customs and commercial law By James Nurton January 26 2015
Gilead's rejected patent application highlights Section 3(d) uncertainties Nearly two years after the Novartis decision, questions about India's Section 3(d) remain By Peter Leung January 23 2015
Ultramercial, Seattle Seahawks, Beastie Boys, US Supreme Court, Copyright Week, USPTO’s... Ultramercial’s request for a Federal Circuit review, the Seattle Seahawks’ aggressive IP strategy, a Beastie Boys motion for fees in a copyright case, the most sarcastic SCOTUS Justice, Copyright Week, and Michelle Le... By Michael Loney January 23 2015
USPTO creates new patent quality role Valencia Martin-Wallace has been appointed to the newly-created position of deputy commissioner for patent quality at the USPTO, as part of a new initiative By Michael Loney January 22 2015
55% of PTAB petitions in 2014 filed against NPEs – report Unified Patents has released an analysis of 2014 at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board By Michael Loney January 21 2015
Supreme Court overhauls Federal Circuit’s standard of claim construction review The US Supreme Court in its Teva Pharmaceuticals USA v Sandoz ruling has outlined a new rule for the Federal Circuit when reviewing the underlying facts in a district court’s claim construction. One observer described... By Michael Loney January 21 2015
European patents expand to Africa The growth of the European patent system is not to be constrained by geographical boundaries: from March this year, it will be possible to validate European patents in Morocco By James Nurton January 20 2015
Rader lays out internationalist vision for patent system At an event in Hong Kong last Friday, Judge Randall Rader took on those calling for patent reform and argued that intellectual property is a fundamental right By Peter Leung January 20 2015
Ellis Terry adds patent partner Blayne Peacock has joined Ellis Terry’s Auckland office By Peter Leung January 19 2015
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology weighs in on FRAND obligations The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which oversees the awarding of telecommunications licences, released a draft template for IP policies in standards setting organisations By Peter Leung January 19 2015
New US patent reform coalition launched The United for Patent Reform coalition is committed to ending patent troll abuses By Michael Loney January 16 2015
Weintraub Tobin hires head of IP group Jo Dale Carothers has joined Californian law firm Weintraub Tobin as a shareholder and will head the firm’s intellectual property group By Michael Loney January 16 2015
Je Suis Charlie, Samsung, Blackberry, Apple, GoPro, India, gTLDs – the week in IP Applications for trade marks on Je Suis Charlie, rumours of Samsung buying Blackberry, GoPro’s shares plummeting on news of an Apple patent, India seeking a geographical indication for yoga, and gTLDs breaking the 4 m... By Michael Loney January 16 2015
Record patent filings at EPO in 2014 The European Patent Office received 273,110 patent filings last year, an increase of 3% on 2013, according to provisional figures By James Nurton January 15 2015
Apple and Ericsson battle over royalty rates Apple and Samsung may have settled much of their multi-million dollar litigation, but that doesn’t mean that the smartphone wars are over. Now Apple and Ericsson are battling over royalty rates By Emma Barraclough January 15 2015
India’s Section 3(d) strikes again The India patent controller has rejected Gilead’s sofosbuvir patent application, citing the controversial Section 3(d) of the Patents Act By Peter Leung January 15 2015
Federal Circuit judge says willfulness jurisprudence needs review A Federal Circuit judge issued a call to “review our willfulness jurisprudence” in a concurrence in Bard Peripheral Vascular v WL Gore & Associates, in which the Federal Circuit affirmed a judgment on willfulness in a... By Michael Loney January 14 2015
US patent litigation rocketed 32% in December – Lex Machina After months of plummeting patent litigation in the United States, patent litigation shot up in December - possibly driven by a fear that patent reform is imminent. A new Unified Patents report has also revealed detai... By Michael Loney January 13 2015
Baker Botts expands in London Mark Heaney has joined the London office of Baker Botts as a partner in the IP group By James Nurton January 12 2015
Pooley sets up new firm Former WIPO deputy director general James Pooley has launched an independent practice focusing on IP strategy and litigation in patents and trade secrets By James Nurton January 12 2015
Google enters top 10 in US patent recipient rankings In newly revealed US patent recipient rankings for 2014, IBM has become the first company to have more than 7,000 patents granted in a year while Google’s 39% increase over 2013 pushes it into the top 10, according to... By Michael Loney January 12 2015
Unitary Patent fees should be at low end of scale – CIPA President The president of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys has told Managing IP she would like to see “an announcement about sensible fees” for the Unitary Patent as soon as possible By James Nurton January 09 2015
Q&A: Catriona Hammer, CIPA president and senior IP counsel, GE Healthcare James Nurton sat down with Catriona Hammer, this year’s president of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, to hear about her goals for the association, the likely impact of the Unitary Patent and other areas of... By James Nurton January 09 2015
Toyota, China, Intellectual Ventures, Google, Apple, Coca-Cola – the week in IP Toyota sharing hydrogen car patents, China aiming to double patent applications, a judge saying IV cannot be called a troll, Google takedown notices increasing 75%, Apple being granted bendable iPhone patents, and Coc... By Michael Loney January 09 2015
PTAB allows first contested claim amendment The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to allow Silver Peak Systems to amend the claims of two patents is only the second time it has permitted amendment, and the first amendment to have been contested by the pe... By Michael Loney January 08 2015
Covington adds China partner Ruixue Ran has joined Covington & Burling’s Beijing office By Peter Leung January 08 2015
Unhappy new year for the US patent market? IP Nav’s Erich Spangenberg’s predictions for 2015 will make gloomy reading for IP practitioners – he says patent reform will pass, IPRs will become even more popular, patent lawsuits will fall, GAAP write-downs are on... By Michael Loney January 08 2015
Alice provides “substantial boost” to PTAB CBM reviews Alice has greatly increased the number of covered business method review petitions alleging unpatentable subject matter and has also increased the PTAB’s rate of institution of 101 reviews, data from Goodwin Procter r... By Michael Loney January 07 2015
What US companies need to know about European patent reform Managing IP hosted forums on the Unitary Patent and UPC in San Jose and New York last month. Here are some of the takeaways for IP owners in the United States By Emma Barraclough January 07 2015
Data: A busy month for district court rulings on 101 An analysis of Docket Navigator data since the Alice decision reveals that – following a busy December – 40 cases have now included a motion for judgment as matter of law, a motion for summary judgment, a motion to di... By Michael Loney January 07 2015
Record PTAB year ends with 1,681 petitions filed December was the second busiest month of 2014 for filings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and rounded out a record year. The month also included a patent owner being sanctioned for the first time, after an offens... By Michael Loney January 06 2015
New Israeli IP firm launched Liad Whatstein, former head of litigation at Dr Shlomo Cohen & Co, has established a boutique IP firm in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel By James Nurton January 06 2015
