17. Juli 2010 — On 7 July 2010 the US Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) has decided its first decision after the Supreme Court's opinion on Bilski v. Kappos (see earlier posting here or here). In the the case ex parte Proudler (Hewlett Packard) the BPAI rejected all of the pendin…
17. Juli 2010 — After the Supreme Court of the United States decided in its long awaited Bilski opinion of June 28, 2010, that both business methods and software-related inventions may still represent eligible subject matter according to 35 U.S.C. §101, the free and open source software (FOSS) community and other …
16. Juli 2010 — Rule 36(1) EPC and Rule 161 EPC have been amended as of 1 April 2010. In the meantime, among practicioners the question occured whether or not the issuance of the communication under Rule 161(1) EPC (by the examining division) marks the starting point of the new two-years time limit for filing mand…
8. Juli 2010 — On the very same day the US Supreme Court handed down its long awaited Bilski v. Kappos opinion, the USPTO issued a memorandum for guidance of Patent Examiners, authored by Robert W. Bahr, Acting Associate Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, according to which: Examiners should continue…
1. Juli 2010 — The translation regime currently is a major obstacle to the EU Patent, as Margot Fröhlinger, Director of Knowledge-Based Economy inside the DG Internal Market of the European Commission, explained last month at the IP Business Congress in Munich, where she also announced that the adoption of a prop…
1. Juli 2010 — Much as expected, the US Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Circuit's decision Bilski v. Kappos in that the rejection of Bilski's patent claims was upheld. While the Court considered the claims as impermissible attempt to patent abstract ideas, it explicitly left open the possibility of protecting …
22. Juni 2010 — Margot Fröhlinger, Director of Knowledge Economy inside the DG Internal Market of the European Commission, said yesterday at the IP Business Congress in Munich that both the EU patent and the unified patent litigation system in Europe are "not in the best shape". She referred to the 35-years-old di…
12. Juni 2010 — According to Forest Group vs. Bob Tool Company of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) earlier this year, false patent marking with an intent to deceive the public into believing that a product is patented when such is not true is punishable by fine up to USD 500 for each falsely mar…
11. Juni 2010 — US CAD company Autodesk's efforts to monopolise the ".dwg" file extension via a pending US “DWG” word mark application (No. 78 852 798) claiming all kinds of "computer software", have, even though the USPTO has not yet issued a final refusal to register the mark, meanwhile led to the satisfactory r…
10. Juni 2010 — As you may know, on May 31, 2010 German Federal President (Bundespräsident) Horst Köhler surprisingly resigned from office with immediate effect. His successor has to be elected by the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) within 30 days, and the political class in Germany has meanwhile nominated …
6. Juni 2010 — Well-known US CAD company Autodesk Inc. holds, inter alia, pending “DWG” word mark application (No. 78 852 798) claiming “computer software for [...] creation and manipulation of engineering and design data, particularly adapted for engineering, architecture, manufacturing, building, and constructi…
1. Juni 2010 — In recent weeks, the iam magazine, which is dedicated to intellectual asset management, reported on a newly founded group of IP strategists, that aim at nothing less than helping to "transform the position of IP within the business world". Over the last few months a group of IP strategists have hel…
30. Mai 2010 — As reported e.g. on "The Local" and "Die Zeit", a Karlsruhe district court (Landgericht Karlsruhe) handed former Social Democratic parliamentarian Jörg Tauss a 15-month suspended sentence on Friday, 28 May 2010, for the possession of child pornography, which Tauss said he would appeal and raged abo…
30. Mai 2010 — In the decision X ZB 22/07 ("Steuerung von Untersuchungsmodalitäten") of January 20, 2009, the X. (10th) Civil Panel of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) under Chief Judge Uwe Scharen analysed the circumstances under which an "embedded" software may represent statutory subject-m…
26. Mai 2010 — The USPTO has announced a number of program changes in order to further streamline its processes, reduce the backlog and focus on important technologies: The "Project Exchange" is expanded from small entities to all applicants (press release). That is, any applicant with multiple pending applicat…
25. Mai 2010 — By order of April 27, 2010 the Berlin District Court decided under Az. 7 O 190/10 that a website operator who provides third-party content on his website via an integrated feed is fully liable for the content provided via that feed (see here, in German only). In the underlying case, a website opera…
23. Mai 2010 — I am currently in Boston for the INTA Annual Meeting, and there are increasing rumors about the reasons for the extraordinarily long lag between the oral arguments in the Bilski vs. Kappos case held by the Supreme Court on November 9, 2009 and the issuance of the decision and, of course, about whet…
23. Mai 2010 —Today it was not only the first day of the INTA Annual Meeting in Boston but also the day of the UEFA Champions League Final Bayern München vs. Internazionale Milano in Madrid. And so it was quite natural that a group of 50 to 60 trademark and IP professionals from all places in the world to…
17. Mai 2010 — As reported earlier, in case G3/08, being a referral of former EPO President Alison Brimelow to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (see full text of referral here), the Board had to decide on the following questions: Can a computer program only be excluded as a computer program as such if it is explici…
15. Mai 2010 — This years INTA annual meeting will be held in Boston, May 22 to 26, 2010. It is the largest and considered to be the most prestigious meeting of the international trademark community, with more than 7000 participants from more than 130 countries taking advantage of five days of educational program…
13. Mai 2010 — As the place of location of the European Patent Office, the Federal Patent Court (BPatG), the widely known Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and its Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, a number of professional associations as well as the highest density of national and internation…
11. Mai 2010 — The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) are currently exploring opportunities to formalize and further strengthen their cooperation to leverage their respective expertise in support of sustainable development. UNIDO thinks that whil…
10. Mai 2010 — The recent decision T 1423/07 of the EPO Board of Appeal disagreed with the opinion of the Examining Division, according to which a second application cannot be granted on the grounds that the claims on file were identical to the claims granted in the first application from which priority was claim…
8. Mai 2010 — USPTO Director David Kappos recently commented on the March 22, 2010 Federal Circuit en banc decision Ariad Pharmaceuticals v. Eli Lilly and concluded that the written description requirement remains alive and well and is an essential “backstop” against overclaiming. In the case, the Federal Circui…
5. Mai 2010 — As reported here, the USPTO issued 167,349 utility patents at an average rate of 3,218 per week in 2009, which increased in April 2010 to an average of 4,385 patents per week. That is, the weekly average has been increased more than 35% from the 2009 weekly average, whereas patents issued from Janu…
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