Library Search
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Court Erred in Disregarding Patent Expert ( July 2007 )
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled June 18th that a federal court in a patent dispute was wrong to disregard expert testimony and grant summary judgment upholding two patents. The expert's testimony, which concerned the obviousness of the patented technology, raised a sufficient factual dispute to require a trial as to the validity of the patents, the court said. -
Inherency In The Prior Art; The Rules Are Becoming Clearer ( June 2004 )
When is your invention "known" from a prior art reference thus rendering your invention unpatentable? If a prior art reference teaches your invention but does not explicitly recite each and every element, must the presence of the unrecited element, the inherent element, be apparent from reading the reference? -
Inter Partes Reexamination Starting In 2003--A Potentially Useful Approach To Challenging Invalid Biotechnology Patents ( July 2003 )
Patents form the foundation of most biotechnology companies and are crucial for their economic growth and advancement. However, an up-and-coming company may well come across competitors' patents that could block its future progress. Such blocking patents can cover the exact technology sought to be marketed by the company, or merely block an important subset of its activities. Either way, such patents can cause tremendous problems for a young biotech company at a time when it does not have much money, and additional financing is hard to come by. -
Federal Circuit Leaves Open The Question Of Which Materiality Standard Should Apply In Inequitable Conduct Determinations ( September 2003 )
The defense of unenforceability based upon a patentee's inequitable conduct, when applicable, can be a powerful one for an accused infringer. Typically, the defense is based upon the patentee's non-disclosure of important information to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") while the application was being processed. To prevail with the defense, the accused infringer must show that the information is material, and was deceptively withheld. -
Design Patents as Alternatives to Utility Patents ( January 2003 )
Design patents are rarely encountered in the chemical process industry and yet they constitute a significant portion of the patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The proportion is slowly increasing, with approximately one design patent now being granted for every ten utility patents. -
Understanding "Prior Art" ( January 2003 )
"Prior art" is the mass of pre-existing knowledge that an invention must distinguish over to qualify for a patent. Distinguishing over "prior art" often leads to creative ways to express or define an invention, but the threshold question is: What actually constitutes prior art? -
Joint Venture Companies Must Now Disclose Confidential Information during Patent Prosecution ( October 1999 )
Under 37 CFR ?1.56, there is a duty to disclose to the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) all information known to . -
The Patenting Process ( August 1999 )
Anticipated Chronology of Patent Procurement Definitions, Explanations, and Descriptions of Each Event Client Act. -
Northern District of California Local Rules for Patent Cases ( January 1999 )
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California adopted new Local Rules 16-6 through 16-. -
An Introduction to Patents ( January 1997 )
This article concerns protecting intellectual property, particularly as it applies to the information technology and the communications industry.