Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Markedly Low: An Argument To Raise The Burden Of Proof For Patent False Marking, Caroline Ayres Teichner

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The Federal Circuit's liberal treatment of the patent false-marking statute, 35 U.S.C. § 292, has created a climate in which opportunistic qui tam plaintiffs facing a low burden of proof can recover potentially enormous sums of money under the statute with no showing of competitive injury. This note argues that the Federal Circuit erred by ruling that plaintiffs must prove the key element of false-marking claims—namely, intent to deceive the public—by a mere preponderance of the evidence, and further contends that the court should have adopted the clear and convincing standard instead. Support for this elevated burden of proof can …

A Comparative Perspective On The Patent Eligibility Of Software Inventions, Hung-San Kuo

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Computer software is considered similar to an algorithm, a mental activity, or an abstract idea, so whether or not it meets patent eligibility is full of controversy. Although computer software products are sold all over the world, each jurisdiction deals with them differently based on individual regulations. If there were an objective and proper way to deal with this subject matter, it would reduce the number of debates and narrow the gap of patent protection among different jurisdictions.

The meaning of "invention" in patent law in each jurisdiction is the most important factor affecting the determination of patent eligibility, which …

Bilski V. Kappos: Everything Old Is New Again, Joe Miller

Scholarly Works

My goal in this brief Essay is to introduce the symposium papers by describing the basics of the Bilski case. I also offer a brief thought about where interested observers might turn next in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's § 101 jurisprudence for insights about how that court may implement Bilski's unmistakable revival of Benson and Fook. Specifically, now that the 15-year Alappat/State Street misadventure, with its patent-maximizing "useful, concrete, and tangible result" standard, has come to an end, it is time to revisit the reasoning and results in a rich trove of cases from the …

Book Review: Gene Patents And Collaborative Licensing Models: Patent Pools, Clearinghouses, Open Source Models And Liability Regimes (Ed. Geertrui Van Overwalle), Jonas Anderson

Book Reviews

A review of Gene Patents and Collaborative Licensing Models: Patent Pools, Clearinghouses, Open Source Models and Liability Regimes.

Partial Patents, Michael Mattioli, Gideon Parchomovsky

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this Article, we propose a way to improve the workings of the patent system. Unlike most extant reform proposals that focus on the USPTO and the Federal Circuit and the procedures they employ, our proposal is conceptual in nature. We introduce two new intellectual property forms—“quasi-patents” and “semi-patents.” Quasi-patents, as we define them, would avail only against direct business competitors of the inventor, but not against anyone else. Semi-patents would have the same scope as traditional patents, but their grant would be conditioned on an applicant’s consent to publish all research information pertaining to the protected invention. These two …

Preliminary Report On Patent Literature, Search Methodology And Patent Status Of Medicines On The Who Eml 2009, Jon R. Cavicchi, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over the past several decades the World Health Organization (WHO) has produced the Essential Medicines List (EML) to assist countries in deciding what medicines should be essential and available in National Essential Medicine Lists.1 WHO, through the work of regional offices, supports nations using the EML to ensure the quality, availability, and affordability of pharmaceuticals required to promote and advance public health in nations across the globe. However in some cases, access to EML pharmaceuticals might be complicated by existing patents, i.e., where issued, patent rights might pose obstacles to access and inclusion in national EMLs. Indeed, in developed and …

Clear But Unconvincing: The Federal Circuit's Invalidity Standard, David O. Taylor

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The Federal Circuit’s standard for proving invalidity of patent claims is clear. The Federal Circuit always requires clear and convincing evidence to prove that a patent claim is invalid. The rationale behind this standard, however, is unconvincing. There are significant reasons to believe that the Patent Office rarely considers the most relevant prior art and that, instead, alleged infringers often find prior art that is more relevant than the prior art considered by the Patent Office. It defies logic to apply the clear and convincing burden where the Patent Office considered only prior art that is less relevant than the …

Tacit Knowledge Transfer With Patent Law: Exploring Clean Technology Transfers, Margaret Mcinerney

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Medimmune V. Genentech: A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Supreme Court’S Continued Assault On The Patentee, Nicholas G. Smith

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

In 2007, the Supreme Court decided MedImmune v. Genentech. This decision changed the landscape of the patent licensing field by holding that a licensee in good standing may challenge the validity of a patent in a declaratory judgment action. By adding to the cost of entering a license agreement, MedImmune erodes one characteristic of a patent from which it derives its worth—the patent’s ability to be licensed. Unfortunately, this has decreased the incentive to innovate by decreasing the value of a patent. This Comment seeks to illustrate, using a game theoretic model, how MedImmune will increase litigation against patent …

Can The Patent Office Be Fixed?, Mark A. Lemley

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) finds itself caught in a vise. On the one hand, it has been issuing a large number of dubious patents over the past twenty years, particularly in the software and electronic commerce space. It issues many more patents than its counterparts in Europe and Japan; roughly three-fourths of applicants ultimately get one or more patents, a higher percentage than in other countries. Complaints about those bad patents are legion, and indeed, when they make it to litigation, they are quite often held invalid. Even the ones that turn out to be valid are often …

Gender And Invention: Mapping The Connections, Victoria Phillips

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Examining Exclusion In Woman-Inventor Patenting: A Comparison Of Educational Trends And Patent Data In The Era Of Computer Engineer Barbie, Annette I. Kahler

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

“Selling” Women: Lillian Gilbreth, Gender Translation, And Intellectual Property, Rayvon Fouché, Sharra Vostral

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Do Patents Have Gender?, Dan L. Burk

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Researcher Rat's Culture And Ease Of Access To The Publication Lever: Implications For The Patentability Of University Scientific Research, Joshua R. Nightingale

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Patent law - and innovation policy more generally - has traditionally been conceptualized as antithetical to secrecy. Not only does the patent system require inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in order to receive a patent, but various patent doctrines are designed to encourage inventors to forego trade secrecy. This Article offers a critique of the law’s preference for patents. In particular, this Article examines whether and under what circumstances the law should prefer patents over secrets, and vice versa.

As an initial step towards a theoretically-supported system of inventor incentives, this Article constructs a framework that attempts to balance …

Unpredictability In Patent Law And Its Effect On Pharmaceutical Innovation, Christopher M. Holman

Faculty Works

In recent years, the major innovator pharmaceutical companies have experienced two pronounced and significant trends: a decreasing output of innovative new drugs and cutbacks in research and development (R&D) investment. The two phenomena probably are not unrelated and raise significant concerns for a society intent upon providing affordable health care for an aging population. While the root causes of these trends are complex and diverse, we should not overlook the critical role patents play in creating the necessary incentives for the substantial investment required to develop pharmaceutically-interesting chemical compounds into actual drugs and to take them through the clinical trials …

Implementation, Or The Possible Lack Thereof, Of The Bilski Supreme Court Decision, Abby Bhattacharyya

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Patent Claim Obviousness In Jury Trials: Where's The Analysis?, Wesley A. Demory

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Small Business Strategies Series: Patents & Trademarks, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

A November 14 2011 presentation by Robert Berry, Research Librarian and Patent and Trademark Resource Center representative for the Sacred Heart University Library.

Trumbull Library System, Business Program: Patents & Business Intelligence, Amy Jansen, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

A November 10, 2011 presentation by Amy Jansen, Business Librarian at Sacred Heart University and Robert Berry, Research Librarian and Patent and Trademark Resource Center representative for the Sacred Heart University Library.

Business Roundtable: Patents & Trademarks, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

An October 2011 presentation by Robert Berry, Research Librarian and Patent and Trademark Resource Center representative for the Sacred Heart University Library.

Patenting Genes And Genetic Methods: What's At Stake?, Eileen M. Kane

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Patent law - and innovation policy more generally - has traditionally been conceptualized as antithetical to secrecy. Not only does the patent system require inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in order to receive a patent, but various patent doctrines are designed to encourage inventors to forego trade secrecy. This Article offers a critique of the law’s preference for patents. In particular, this Article examines whether and under what circumstances the law should prefer patents over secrets, and vice versa.

As an initial step towards a theoretically-supported system of inventor incentives, this Article constructs a framework that attempts to balance …

The Geneticists' Approach To Bilski, Joann A. Boughman, Kyle M. Brown

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Facilitating Patient Access To Patent-Protected Genetic Testing, Janice M. Mueller

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Who’S Afraid Of The Federal Circuit?, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief Essay, Professor Rai responds to Professor Jonathan Masur's Yale Law Journal article "Patent Inflation." Professor Masur's argument rests on the assumption that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") behavior is determined almost entirely by a desire to avoid reversal by the Federal Circuit. Although the PTO is certainly a weak agency over which the Federal Circuit has considerable power, Masur overestimates the extent to which high-level PTO administrators are concerned about Federal Circuit reversals and underestimates institutional influences that are likely to operate in a deflationary direction. The PTO is influenced not only by the Federal Circuit …

A Compensatory Liability Regime To Promote The Exchange Of Microbial Genetic Resources For Research And Benefit Sharing, Jerome H. Reichman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"Willful Patent Filing": A Criminal Procedure Protecting Traditional Knowledge, Vincent M. Smoczynski

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article explores the interaction between current intellectual property regimes and traditional knowledge and concludes that national laws currently in place inadequately protect traditional knowledge holders. When property rights are granted on traditional knowledge, the effects can extend not only to the indigenous communities, but to the surrounding ecosystems and the global market. Commercialization and increased demand leads to shortages in natural resources and increased prices. Therefore, in order to ensure that patent applicants are deterred from acquiring property rights in traditional knowledge, as well that traditional knowledge holders receive proper benefits for their labor and knowledge, this article advocates …

Dynamic Federalism And Patent Law Reform, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Indiana Law Journal

Patent law is federal law, and the normative approach to patent reform has been top down, looking to Congress and the Supreme Court for changes to the broken and complex patent system. The normative approach thus far has not yielded satisfactory results. This Article challenges the static approach to patent reform and embraces the dynamic-federalism approach that patent reform can be an overlapping of both national and local efforts. Patent reform at the local level is essential as locales can serve as laboratories for changes, vertically compete with national government to reform certain areas of the patent system, and become …