‘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 […]
Tag Archives: patents
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 […]
Changes in U.S. Design Patent Law
February 27, 2015
Patent
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues both ‘utility’ and ‘design’ patents. A ‘utility’ patent protects how something works (e.g., the better mousetrap). A ‘design’ patent protects the appearance of the thing (e.g., a mousetrap bait that resembles cheese). Design patent law in the U.S. is about to change. The U.S. has taken the […]
PTO’s Secret SAWS Program
February 27, 2015
Patent
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a secret Sensitive Application Warning System (‘SAWS’) program for extra review of patent applications where action might embarrass the agency. The problem is how the program functions and which applicants and applications are subject to SAWS are all secret. We know only the broadest guidelines for the program […]
Secrecy and Grapes: The ‘Public Use” Concept Under Patent Law
January 30, 2015
Patent
We’ll start with the conclusion: don’t use your invention in public until AFTER you file a patent application. Back to the beginning: Under the patent statute, a ‘public use’ of an invention prior to filing a patent application will destroy U.S. patent rights to the invention. Before March 16, 2013, the inventor had one year […]
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 […]
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 […]