The Internet-enabled business method patent just clutched its chest and fell over dead.The cause of its demise is theUltramercial v Hulu (Fed. Cir. 2014) case in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Ultramercial patents address a typical Internet-enabled business method. Under the patents, a consumer agrees to view an advertisement and then […]
All posts by: Robert Yarbrough
Death Spiral of Software Patents
October 30, 2014
Patent
In the not-so-slow death spiral of software patents in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Alice v CLS Bank, another trial court has determined that a patent for software should not have been issued because the software addressed by the patent is not the kind of invention eligible for patenting. In the case of […]
See the Amazing Shrinking Software Patent (Before It’s Gone)
September 30, 2014
Patent
As discussed above, the Alice v CLS Bank decision of the United States Supreme Court has the potential to preclude patent protection for many software and computer-implemented inventions and to invalidate many issued patents for those inventions. The Court gave only the sketchiest guidance on how to determine when a claimed invention is too abstract. […]
Patent Litigation: Collecting Attorney’s Fees Just Got Easier!
August 29, 2014
Patent
Patent infringement litigation usually is high stakes and very expensive. The cost of the litigation can easily reach seven figures or more. In the United States, each party to litigation generally bears its own costs, with exceptions. Section 285 of the patent statute contains the exception for patent litigation. The statute is short and sweet: The […]
Busy, Busy, Busy
June 28, 2014
Patent
The Supreme Court has had a busy time of it in June stirring the patent pot, with decisions in three cases and arguments in a fourth. The general rule is that whenever the Supreme Court decides a patent case, the law is left in worse shape than it was before. The recent decisions are no […]
Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.1
June 28, 2014
Internet Law
A cyber security firm called Norse maintains what it claims to be a dynamic, real-time map of cyber attacks as they happen, showing cities of origin and targets. The first thing you’ll do after viewing this constantly-changing map is update your security software. The second is to clean the cobwebs out of your filing cabinet. […]
Do your employees create new inventions, products or designs? Have all of your employees assigned all company inventions to the company? If not, then the company does not own the invention, even if the invention was created on company time and with company resources and in the course of the employee’s work for the company. […]
Provisional Patent Applications – File Early and Often
April 30, 2014
Patent
A provisional patent application is a temporary application that provides patent-pending status for one year. The provisional application can be a relatively low-cost way to preserve your patent rights while you develop your invention. The protection offered by a provisional patent application is only as good as the information contained in the application and only […]
Google Street View Revisited…
April 30, 2014
Litigation
Last month, we reported that Google lost patent infringement litigation relating to the Google Street View technology and that Street View was off the air. While Google did lose the infringement litigation, if Street View was ever down it was back on line by the time our newsletter published. — Robert Yarbrough, Esq.
What Happened to Google Street View?
March 30, 2014
Patent
Google Street View is the popular feature of Google Maps that allows you to see panoramic photographs of, well, pretty much anywhere with different orientations and magnifications. The photographs are stitched together in software to allow the viewer to navigate through a virtual representation of the real world. You may have seen the Google photography […]