All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

California Enacts Its Version of GDPR

August 2, 2018 Robert Yarbrough cybersecurity, Internet Law, Privacy

In our April newsletter, we told you about the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) that went into effect in the EU on May 25, 2018. That European regulation provides sweeping privacy requirements for anyone that does business with or collect identifying information on European residents. We opined that an American GDPR would not happen here […]

Patent Fun Facts:

July 19, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

Try rolling these out at the bar tonight. You’ll be the life of the party! Here goes: The USPTO issued its 10,000,000th patent on Tuesday June 19, 2018. That’s 10 million patents. The 10 millionth patent is owned by Raytheon and addresses LADAR range-finding technology, as used in self-driving cars. In 1997, the USPTO issued about 100,000 patents. In 2007 […]

Supreme Court to Consider the On-Sale Patent Bar

July 12, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

Love ’em or hate ’em, we have the most enthusiastically activist Supreme Court in memory. The Supremes are taking on another patent case, this time relating to the on-sale patent bar. In general, when the Supreme Court decides a patent case, the law is in worse shape than it was before. As a refresher for […]

First Trade War Success – China Extends Patent Protection for Drugs to 25 Years

June 21, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

China is the second largest market for pharmaceuticals on the planet, behind the United States. In one of its first concessions to U.S. trade pressure, China has extended patent protection for drugs to 25 years, up from 20 years. The change brings China into line with the U.S. and Europe, which allow a drug maker extra […]

Supreme Court Decides Patent Death Squads are (at least partly) Constitutional

June 14, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

We previously described the evils of inter partes review, by which administrative panels within the USPTO kill issued patents with wild abandon. Former Chief Judge Rader of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals described inter partes review panels as ‘death squads killing property rights.’ A constitutional challenge to inter partes review was recently decided by the […]

The Audacity of [Patent] Hope

April 12, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

There are people who wish that the U.S. patent system would just go away. Their allies successfully lobbied for and passed the ‘America Invents Act’ back in 2011 that resulted in the USPTO patent death squads, also known as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). As we described last month, the PTAB kills patents with impunity […]

Patent Death Squads 1, St. Regis Mohawk Tribe 0

March 15, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

In the America Invents Act, Congress shifted challenges to the validity of patents from the Federal courts to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), an arm of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The PTAB applies different rules and standards than the Federal courts, rules and standards that favor the patent infringer and not […]

China Embraces Patents in a Big Way

February 15, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent

Fifteen years ago, China did not have much of a patent program. After all, with a centrally controlled economy and no private property, what good was a patent? Much of that has changed, at least the private property part. The Chinese government identified homegrown innovation and improving the ‘made in China’ brand as crucial to […]

Shocker at the USPTO

January 18, 2018 Robert Yarbrough Patent, Trade Secrets

Many administrations regard the USPTO as a political backwater and the directorship as a holding pen for less-than-ideal candidates. Here’s the shocker: The Administration has appointed a qualified person to head the USPTO. His name is Andrei Iancu and he is currently the managing partner of a Los Angeles law firm. He’s a degreed engineer and registered […]