Is it too easy for high-tech companies to patent inventions that are not really new, but simply take an old idea and blend it with computer wizardry?

Tagged with: Patent Law SCOTUS

The Supreme Court decided Friday to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that a federal judge called the "death" of software patents.

Tagged with: Patent Law SCOTUS

The Supreme Court ruled June 13 that companies cannot patent parts of naturally occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and biotechnology industries.

Tagged with: Patent Law

The Supreme Court said May 13 that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto Co.'s patents on soybean seeds that are resistant to its weed-killer by growing additional crops without buying new beans.

Tagged with: Patent Law U.S.Supreme Court

Weil v. Killough The plaintiff-client alleges that the defendant-attorney, who also served as the client’s attorney-in-fact, failed to inform the client when the Patent and Trademark Office sent the attorney notice that a 7.5-year maintenance fee was due on the client’s patent.

Tagged with: Attorneys Civil Practice Federal Jurisdiction Legal Malpractice Claim Patent Law Tort/Negligence

If changes are made to a longtime piece of American law, a race to the patent office could be on, and South Carolina attorneys may be swept up in the pursuit. For several years, attempts at national patent reform have failed, but this year, it appears the votes in Congress are sufficient to significantly change the way Americans secure patents. Under the current "first to invent" patent law, when inventors have an idea, they have the opportunity to work on it in depth, reduce it to practice, then file it with the patent office, as they know their idea is safe if they're able to prove they discovered it first.

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Patent Law

By DAVID E. FRANK, Dolan Media Newswires david.frank@lawyersweekly.com   A rule that lawyers and judges nationwide have been using to determine damages in patent infringement cases has been abolished by the Federal Circuit Court. In Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Patent Law

Are your numbers up to date? That's the question patent lawyers are asking corporate clients as plaintiffs nationwide continue to file dozens of lawsuits over mismarked patent numbers. The cases began piling up in 2009 after a lawsuit brought under a 1952 federal patent act tested a previously untried provision that bans companies from marking products with erroneous or expired patent numbers. The provision, at 35 U.S.C. § 292(b), gives anyone standing to sue, and violators are liable for up to $500 for each mismarked article in a product line.

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Patent Law

Of course lawyers don't need anyone's blessing to copyright their own work. The question is, when they do, are their claimed rights enforceable? The short answer is yes, maybe. Intellectual property attorney John C. Nipp of Charlotte, N.C.-based Summa, Additon & Ashe told Lawyers Weekly that the requirements for obtaining a copyright are not strict. "It has to be a literary work in a tangible form of expression that involves some degree of creativity," he said. "Plenty of documents in the legal world meet that definition."

Tagged with: Intellectual Property lawyers Patent Law