The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City Asia Optical Company’s rejected the appeal of a judgment by the federal district court that awarded Eastman Kodak Co. $33,726,531 in damages for breach of a patent license agreement (Eastman Kodak Co. v. Asia Optical Co., Inc., May 1, 2013, PDF). The dispute involved a 2004 … Continue Reading
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Patents for Humanity awards were handed out in a ceremony on Capitol Hill last week. In addition to receiving the award and national recognition winners get a certificate for accelerated processing of future patent USPTO matters. The Obama administration has pushed the USPTO to promote programs to solve long-standing development challenges in health … Continue Reading
The micro entity provision of the Americas Invent Act is now law. Now all the rule changes mandated by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) have been implemented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). One reason for the change was to make the patent system more efficient and accessible to the independent inventor. … Continue Reading
The new rules are now official and a first to file system has now been implemented by United States Patent and Trademark Office. This first-to-file is pretty much governed under the 35 USC 102(a) and the exceptions under 35 USC (b). Simply speaking 102(a)(1) – has to do with publications and 102(a)(2) – talks about the … Continue Reading
It’s pretty apparent that nobody likes patent trolls except for the attorneys that represent them. I think the biggest problem with nonpracticing entities (NPE’s) is that they sue on cases that are not true infringement cases. At first blush this may seem unreasonable because why would you sue a case if you didn’t think … Continue Reading
Did you ever wonder which companies file the most patent applications in the United States? Every year the United States Patent and Trademark Office publishes a Performance and Accountability Report. Each report breaks down many different categories of statistics regarding patents. The UPTO reported that there were 305,840 patents allowed and 565,566 additional patent applications … Continue Reading
Guest Blogger: David Stephenson, Rochester, NY patent attorney The Thesaurus of Claim Construction is an essential tool for patent litigators, prosecutors and general counsel. The authors Stuart B. Soffer and Robert C. Kahrl have taken advantage of the wealth of claim construction information available in the record since the Markman decision led courts to begin defining patent … Continue Reading
As a patent attorney here in Buffalo, New York I am constantly amazed at how inventors from all over the country come up with ideas in their heads and turn those ideas into actual products. Recently I spoke with a client regarding his journey as an inventor. I asked him if he would share with … Continue Reading
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been filming new episodes of Ask the Patent Attorney. I have been looking for input and questions from inventors to fill new shows. We are going to film this week and I am looking for inventors to make comments below or email me questions and I will answer … Continue Reading
Recently my first book was published and I became a co-author of the book, “Patent Fundamentals for Scientists and Engineers,” Third Edition. I sent out press releases announcing the book and was pleasantly surprised to receive some nice coverage in the Buffalo News and other local papers. Best of all was a great article written … Continue Reading
Recently, I’ve been working on a new website designed to help inventors. The website is called patenthome.com. Ever since I started blogging at LoTempiolaw I’ve been learning more and more about social networking and search engine optimization and in an effort to increase the traffic on the webpage I purchased a high definition camera and … Continue Reading
Guest Blogger: David Stephenson, Rochester, NY patent attorney As a Buffalo Bills fan from Rochester, I was recently thinking about the parallels between the Bills and Eastman Kodak. Both have been in the local news lately, and the news has not been good. The Bills, once again, don’t look like a playoff team; they lack … Continue Reading
My good friends down at MaxVal have announced a new tool to help patent attorneys and individuals interested in tracking information about corporate filings. It is called the: Assignment Database and Alerts. The Assignment Database offers a structured environment to analyze IP assets purchased or sold by an entity. The Alerts offer an effortless way … Continue Reading
All the new patent rules didn’t all take effect when on September 16, 2011 President Barack Obama signd Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 into law. On the one-year anniversary of the act many of the new rules kicked in. The patent and trademark office was put to the task of incrementally placing the rules … Continue Reading
As a patent attorney in Buffalo, New York I have met many patent attorneys and inventors over the years. Through my association with patent agent Arthur Cookfair I got the opportunity this past year to author the book "Patent Fundamentals for Scientists and Engineers, Third Edition". I’m proud to announce it was formally published this … Continue Reading
Since the track-1 program for prioritized examination for patent applications was implemented on September 26, 2011 when president Obama signed the "American Invents Act" into law, approximately 4528 requests for prioritized examination have been made. Recently a client of mine wished to request a prioritized examination at the time of filing the patent application. As … Continue Reading
There’s no question that patent litigation is increasing every day. If it’s not the big guys fighting it out it’s a nonpracticing entity (NPE) suing on patents that it purchased in an attempt to get a big payday. People argue that NPE’s should not be denigrated as patent trolls because they are just protecting their … Continue Reading
Every day I receive litigation alerts from MaxVal. I think it’s interesting to see who’s filing patent claims in the United States.It seems that most patent litigations these days have to do with methods of using computers and Internet social networking sites. For example Blockbuster is getting sued for digitally selling movies through its Internet … Continue Reading
Respected and beloved longtime Buffalo patent attorney James J. Ralabate passed away last week at the age of 84. James was part of the "greatest generation." As a patent attorney he held many high patent attorney positions in the industry, most notably he was the director of patents for Xerox Corp. Since 1982 Ralabate practiced … Continue Reading
I just got another e-mail from my friends at MaxVal telling me about a new free patent tool that they came up with: the "Reference Annotator". Free is nice. I believe that the MaxVal patent tools I’ve used in the past have saved me time. I like the IDS Creator and the USPTO widget that … Continue Reading
The Facebook and Yahoo patent battle continues. Just last week Facebook answered the Yahoo complaint of patent infringement and issued the Facebook counterclaims. Facebook claims that Yahoo is infringing on 10 patents that Facebook now owns. Of course these counterclaims probably would never have been asserted had it not been for the fact that Yahoo … Continue Reading
I spoke with with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN TV about the patent infringement suit Yahoo recently filed against Facebook. In the interview, we discuss: the numerous patents Facebook allegedly infringes upon, why Yahoo chose to file suit now and the current relationship between Yahoo and Facebook. Funny how people want to ask is "Yahoo a … Continue Reading
Yahoo filed an infringement lawsuit against Facebook based upon 10 patents. Some of the patents have been around for a few years. What took them so long to make this claim? Or is it just coincidence that Facebook is about to go public with huge IPO. Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering … Continue Reading
Anoop Gopakumar and his group at MaxVal provide patent litigation alerts every day and today Anoop provided me with some interesting data on patent filings over the past year. 3963 patent litigation cases were filed 2011. I’ve posted below a detailed chart analysis of who filed those patent lawsuits. The first chart below looks at … Continue Reading
