Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A top consumer advocate has joined the Microsoft Corporation to lobby for its interests in Brussels. Plus, changes at the top for a Washington IP industry association, and Japan's patent office.
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
BOSTON - Patent law in the United States is in danger of becoming "highly destabilised" as well-funded competing interests try to vie for legislators' ears in Washington, a federal judge said Tuesday.
Speaking here to participants at the Harvard Law School Conference on Intellectual Property Law, the Hon. Paul R. Michel, chief circuit judge for the US Court of Appeals for the federal circuit, said such a disruption could have huge consequences for inventions, investment, property of individual companies, and economies.
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
BOSTON - Japan next month will roll out a new patent process which aims to examine a patent application anywhere from two weeks to one month from receipt of request. Meanwhile, the United States said patent harmonisation among top IP countries is near, and a client privilege treaty was discussed.
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
The presidential election in the United States is getting down to the wire, with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama being officially chosen as their parties' nominees.
The intellectual property community is taking particular note of what positions the candidates are taking on patent reform, copyright enforcement, internet neutrality, and a host of other issues. Both campaigns have a plethora of expertise in the form of law professors, patent lawyers, and others advising them, either informally or formally.
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
The ruling has no precedential value. Nevertheless, the recent decision in Jacobsen v. Katzer will have a major impact on US copyright law, according to IP experts.
Jacobsen held that open source licences can be enforced under US copyright law. "It is first time that a US court of appeals has directly addressed issues about the enforceability of open source licences," said Jim Thatcher, Of Counsel in the Seattle office of Woodcock Washburn. "There isn't anywhere else for [US] courts to turn for guidance on this issue, so they will turn to this case and its logic for the enforceability of open source licensing terms."
"[T]rust me, this is huge," Lawrence Lessig, a copyright expert at Stanford Law School, wrote in his online blog.
The Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Reporter features the most important news on international IP policymaking, the latest on who is coming and going in the IP community at the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Geneva missions, regional and national IP…
By William New
Patent filings continue to rise globally, especially in a few nations, as do problems of high-volume application processing and quality assurance. But more attention is needed to bring smaller economies into the patent system, and patenting may slow down with tough economic times, officials at the World Intellectual Property Organization said last week.
By Kaitlin Mara
It's summertime, and that means many changing faces at the missions and the international organisations in Geneva. Read the latest on the comings and goings of some key IP policymakers.
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is meeting with industry groups and intellectual property experts to determine how to strike just the right balance on industrial design protection in the United States.
In the US, design patents can protect the ornamental appearance of manufactured items such as cars. These differ from utility patents, which provide protection for the innovative, functional aspects of a product as embodied in the structure or operation of the product. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) often spend millions, if not billions, of dollars creating unique and distinctive designs for their products, whether they be strollers, mobile phones, household appliances or clothing.
But recent moves by the European Union in loosening patent protection for car repair parts, specifically, has gotten some attention in the United States, as has a legislative bill sponsored by Representative Zoe Lofgren (Democrat, California). So the USPTO wants to round up ideas and opinions on market effects of such actions, particularly when this country has seen an "incremental increase in design applications" being filed - about 5,000 more in 2007 than in 2003.
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
An important court case in the ongoing saga between two of the mobile industry's most influential technology firms begins next week.
The case is a crucial stage in the ongoing disagreement between the two equipment manufacturers - Finnish Nokia and US Qualcomm - that has become increasingly acrimonious over recent years and resulted in numerous patent infringement cases all over the world.