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Patent

2009

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

Rethinking Patent Fraud Enforcement In A Reform Era, Kali Murray, Dmitriy Vinarov Jul 2009

Rethinking Patent Fraud Enforcement In A Reform Era, Kali Murray, Dmitriy Vinarov

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Article contends that, while the defense of inequitable conduct offers an avenue to combat fraudulent patent applications, the doctrine suffers from shortcomings that spring from two compromises. First, the amorphous nature of the equitable defense prompts institutional conflict between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Circuit. Second, by relegating enforcement solely to a patentee's market competitors, the defense fails to protect the public interest adequately. In light of these compromises, the authors propose two goals to guide current reform efforts in Congress. Initially, Congress's attempt to reform patent fraud enforcement should relieve the aforementioned institutional …


Toward A More Reliable Fact-Finder In Patent Litigation, Amy Tindell Jul 2009

Toward A More Reliable Fact-Finder In Patent Litigation, Amy Tindell

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Juries have been perceived as a blessing and a curse. They are perceived differently in different areas of law. For example, practitioners in patent law view juries in a negative light as the fact finders. In accordance with this view, Federal Courts of Appeals have begun to narrow the role of juries in patent trials. This paper follows the development of the Seventh Amendment in the patent context and its current status. This paper then proposes a system similar to peer-review to replace the traditional jury in patent trials.


Emerging Scholars Series: Cross-Border Injunctions In U.S. Patent Cases And Their Enforcement Abroad, Marketa Trimble Jul 2009

Emerging Scholars Series: Cross-Border Injunctions In U.S. Patent Cases And Their Enforcement Abroad, Marketa Trimble

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Injunctions enforcing a patentee's right to exclude provide an incentive to invent; however, injunctions are only effective if they can be enforced. Enforcing an injunction becomes problematic when other jurisdictions are involved, yet plaintiffs request such injunctions despite the potential inherent difficulties of cross-border enforcement. The author empirically analyzes the number and types of cross-border injunctions issued in the United States against foreign entities by discussing methods of enforcing injunctions abroad and the difficulties inherent in those methods. Comparing cases of cross-border injunctions issued by European courts, the author reviews the controversial pan-European injunction that covers not only the territory …


Not All Grace Periods Are Created Equal: Building A Grace Period From The Ground Up, Renee E. Metzler Jul 2009

Not All Grace Periods Are Created Equal: Building A Grace Period From The Ground Up, Renee E. Metzler

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The grace period for patent application filing is the amount of time a patent applicant has to file the application after the invention has been disclosed to the public. The rules and amount of time allowed vary greatly among countries. This comment explores the theoretical justifications for a grace period, the structural elements of a grace period, and other approaches to a grace period used in countries outside of the United States. The author proposes an ideal grace period model that would create international harmonization.


Fixing Continuing Application Practice At The Uspto, Kevin Rizzuto Jul 2009

Fixing Continuing Application Practice At The Uspto, Kevin Rizzuto

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Controversy surrounds continuing application practice at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. Legal scholars highlight problems with continuing application practice and ways that applicants abuse the system. Patent practitioners admit that continuing application abuses exist, yet believe that establishing limits on continuing application practice would lead to an increase in appeals to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The USPTO attributes much of its continually growing backlog to the volume of continuing applications and requests for continued examinations, and published Proposed Rules to limit continuing applications. Legal scholars and the USPTO propose solutions that are too restrictive on …


What Goes Around, Comes Around: How Indian Tribes Can Profit In The Aftermath Of Seminole Tribe And Florida Prepaid, Jeremiah A. Bryar Jan 2009

What Goes Around, Comes Around: How Indian Tribes Can Profit In The Aftermath Of Seminole Tribe And Florida Prepaid, Jeremiah A. Bryar

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Of the approximate 1.5 million American Indians living in the United States only 403,714 were employed in 2001 and nearly one-third of them lived below the poverty line. This article explains that one possible solution to American Indian poverty is the creation of sovereign chartered research groups that would be shielded by tribal sovereign immunity. In patent law there are exceptions to a patent owner's ability to bring a successful suit against patent infringers. One of these exceptions is when a sovereign, such as an American Indian tribe, infringes on a patent owner's patent. Tribal sovereign immunity means that American …


Rethinking The Role Of Clinical Trial Data In International Intellectual Property Law: The Case For A Public Goods Approach, Jerome H. Reichman Jan 2009

Rethinking The Role Of Clinical Trial Data In International Intellectual Property Law: The Case For A Public Goods Approach, Jerome H. Reichman

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Clinical trials are currently used to test drugs; however, the risk and cost of clinical trials are increasing so drastically that the clinical trials may become unsustainable. This article evaluates the legal and economic trends of intellectual property protection for pharmaceutical clinical trial data. The protection of clinical trials has become an alternative to patents as market exclusivity encourages the development and testing of unpatentable pharmaceuticals. This author argues that clinical trials should be treated as a national and international public good instead of a private good and proposes that the government should oversee and fund the clinical trials to …


Nanobiotechnology, Synthetic Biology, And Rnai: Patent Portfolios For Maximal Near-Term Commercialization And Commons For Maximal Long-Term Medical Gain, Thomas M. Mackey Jan 2009

Nanobiotechnology, Synthetic Biology, And Rnai: Patent Portfolios For Maximal Near-Term Commercialization And Commons For Maximal Long-Term Medical Gain, Thomas M. Mackey

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This article examines patent portfolio construction and management of three nascent technologies: nanobiotechnology, synthetic biology, and interference RNA. The author outlines how a practitioner can use patent portfolios to help his or her client to maximize long-term gain. Finally, the article advocates changes that would remove barriers to patentability and increase patent quality.