AmiCOUR IP Group News and Opinions

Welcome to the AmiCOUR IP Blog.  We invite your comments.  Past Issues.

October 21, 2010 - Congressman Bob Latta of Ohio's 5th congressional district wants to limit false patent marking fines to $500 in aggregate.  Read the proposed bill.

October 13, 2010 - More than one billion viewers watched 33 miners ascend through a solid rock hole almost a half mile deep. The engineering work of a small company just outside of Pittsburgh, PA helped "Plan B" succeed two months ahead of schedule. The Quecreek Mine rescue was also the work of Center Rock, Inc.. Its owner, Brandon W. Fisher, is the named inventor of USPN 6827162 for a "Self-retaining downhole-hammer drill bit." and Leland H. Lyon and Warren Thomas Lay are named as inventors of Center Rock's pending application US 2010/0059284 titled "Down-the-hole Drill Hammer Having A reverse Exhaust System and Segmented Chuck Assembly." The technology proved its ability to "out drill" traditional rotary rock bits.

October 13, 2010 - "Motion granted" for defendant Hunter Fan's request for a venue change to its home jurisdiction.  The Order cited Hunter Fan's locale as the place where the alleged offense would have occurred as a basis for granting the motion. The decision follows a series of indications suggesting "intent" and proof thereof as a logical focus of false marking cases.  See Simonian v. Hunter Fan Co.

October 6, 2010 - The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, has awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry to the a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University, Ei-ichi Negishi, a Japanese citizen who was born 1935 in Changchun, China (formerly part of Japan).

October 5, 2010 - After a jury awarded Mirror Worlds LLC  $625.5 million based upon a 2008 suit alleging infringement of three patents, Apple Computer filed a defensive motion based upon its legal theory that the award constituted “triple dipping.” Apple's attorneys claim that two patents have problems yet to be adjudicated, thus being incapable of justifying two thirds of the mega-award. Bloomberg news reported Apple general counsel Jeffrey Randall as citing prior sales of the patents for an amount far less than the award, but prior to the litigation. Yale professor David Gelernter filed the patents.  In 1992, Gelernter was a victim of the unabomber, surviving with serious injuries. Apple is accused of using the technology to help facilitate its document management graphics. Large jury awards are becoming familiar to IP cases, including a $200 million jury award against Microsoft. In the face of failing patent reform, Apple and the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently joined Microsoft in arguing a lower standard of legal review to invalidate patents, currently presumed valid after USPTO claim allowance and consistent with other administrative law. Opponents suggest that granting defendants a lower invalidation bar gives a second bite at the apple and ignores ex-parte rights to participate at the administrative level.

October 4, 2010 - An HBO movie, now available in DVD, reveals the inventive inspiration and struggle of Dr. Temple Grandin, an autistic inventor credited with making significant improvements in the livestock handling equipment and methods used in stockyards and slaughterhouses. The movie suggests that Grandin's unique disability facilitated her astute observations of cattle behavior.  Although seen as eccentric, she used her observations to design better handling equipment that performed remarkably well. The new equipment was widely acclaimed and adopted in the industry, reducing or eliminating losses related to the panic caused by prodding handlers forcing animals through the system. Grandin recommended fully enclosed "chutes" to eliminate shadows or objects that could frighten animals.  Her successful curved cattle chutes were based upon her observation that frightened animals will happily travel a curved path because they believe they are turning back from danger.  Grandin faced resistance because of her autism and the male dominated culture of the meat packing industry.  She was granted a 1999 patent on a modern electrical stunning system. AmiCOUR IP research also discovered that Dr. Grandin's autism publications are cited in patents covering devices used to comfort autistic children.  Her PhD was earned at the University of Illinois.