All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

What Happens If the Lights Go Out at the PTO?

February 23, 2016 Intellectual Property

Now we know.  On December 22 the PTO experienced what it called a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the electronic patent and trademark filing and data systems due to a power outage.  The PTO technology staff worked through the Christmas holiday, and this writer can testify that the system was back up and receiving patent filings by […]

Oracle, Say It’s Not So!

February 16, 2016 Intellectual Property

The Federal Trade Commission both announced charges of deception against Oracle and that those claims have been settled.  The claims relate to misleading statements made by Oracle relating to security vulnerabilities of the Java software.  Java is installed on 850 million personal computers, including yours.  Oracle represented to consumers that updates to the Java product corrected security […]

Want to Collect Attorney’s Fees? Explain Why You Don’t Infringe!

February 9, 2016 Lipton Weinberger & Husick Blog

Most parties to litigation have to pay their own attorneys’ fees.   The patent statute includes an exception – in “exceptional” circumstances, the successful party in patent infringement litigation can collect attorneys’ fees from the losing party. Not every losing litigant is liable for the other party’s fees.  The reasonableness of the party’s litigation position and the unreasonableness […]

When will a Federal court order a patent infringer to stop infringing?

September 30, 2015 Patent

Apple and Samsung have been fighting for years over copying by Samsung of patented features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad.  The features at issue in a recent Apple v Samsung case before the Federal Circuit Court were swipe-to-unlock, telephone number recognition, and spelling correction.  A jury found that Samsung actively copied these features and infringed the patents […]

Hostility to Computer Inventions Moves Past Computers

July 31, 2015 Patent

In Alice v CLS Bank, the Supreme Court determined that an abstract business method implemented by software entirely within a computer was not ‘patentable subject matter,’ meaning that the invention could not be protected by patent even though it met all of the requirements for a patent; namely, the process was novel, unobvious and had […]

Collecting Royalties After Your Patent Has Expired

June 30, 2015 Licensing, Patent

‘Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead!’* At least insofar as patent licensing goes.  On June 22 the Supreme Court decided yet another patent case – this one relating to patent royalties after the patent expires.  In 1964, the Supreme Court in the Brulotte case determined that even with a contract, a patent owner cannot collect royalties for […]

New Patent Legislation Pending 2015

May 29, 2015 Patent

“They’re baaack…”* *Heather Michele O’Rourke, ‘Poltergeist II,’ 1986 Congress, that is.  Several patent bills are pending, most of which will make it more risky and expensive to enforce a patent or defend against a patent infringement action in court.  These bills represent the second half of the America Invents Act, which changed the patent landscape […]

Want to sell your patent?

April 30, 2015 Patent

Google is running what it calls a ‘patent purchase promotion.’  From May 8 through May 22, 2015, you can offer to sell your issued U.S. patent to Google.  You must provide the patent number, contact information and a take-it-or-leave-it price along with the submission contract.  Google will let you know if it is interested by […]

PTO Axes the SAWS Program

March 30, 2015 Patent

The PTO intended that its secret Sensitive Application Warning System (‘SAWS’) program would avoid embarrassment to the agency by requiring additional layers of review for potentially controversial patent applications.  The program had exactly the opposite effect and the patent community harshly criticized the PTO for the secret and arbitrary nature of the program.  The PTO […]

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