 | INTERNET LAW - Patent Infringement Involving Internet Billing Methods |
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| | Martha L. Arias- IBLS Director
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
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| | The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Wisconsin district court's decision granting summary judgment for eBay in a patent infringement claim filed by Netcraft Corp. Netcraft Corp., patent assignee, claimed that eBay violated two of its Internet billing method patents. The patent claims where based on a narrow interpretation of the patent rights Netcraft Corp. holds. Patent assignees are entitled to sue for patent infringement under the United States patent law and this case is a clear example of assignees' intervention to defend its rights on an Internet billing method.
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| INTERNET LAW - Does US Patent Law have Extraterritorial Application? |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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| | The US Patent Act (title 35 U.S.C) is the legal framework for patent protection in the US. The US Patent Act § 101 defines what is patentable in the US: "Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore…" Section 271 of the US Patent Act sets the requirements for a valid cause of action on patent infringement. Within section 271, literal (f) is one of the ones raising controversy because §271(f) seems to invite for extraterritorial application. This article analyses § 271(f) of the US Patent Act in light of its most relevant court interpretation in AT&T v. Microsoft.
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| INTERNET LAW - London Agreement Patents Law to be Enacted May 2008 |
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| | Kelly O'Connell, IBLS Editor
Monday, May 12, 2008
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| | Getting patent coverage across Europe is set to get easier and cheaper on May 1, 2008 when a new protocol called the “London Agreement” goes into affect. The London Agreement negotiations have been ongoing for some years, and the final details hammered out October 17th, 2000. The purpose was to make getting translations of European patents easier and lessening the costs. The new rules should halve costs for UK businesses toiling to protect their intellectual property rights across all 31 European states. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Automatic Injunctions in Patent Cases must Conform to a Four-Prong Equitable Test. |
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| | IBLS Editorial Department
Monday, March 24, 2008
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| | eBay v. MercExchange seven-year-patent dispute is finally over. Ebay has bought two patents that MercExchange alleged it owned and for which MercExchange accused eBay of patent infringement. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed. MercExchange sued eBay for patent infringement in 2001 and after lengthy court battles, a jury ruled in favor of MercExchange in 2003 and provided a US$30 million ruling against eBay. eBay appealed this judgment and now, before any other subsequent appeal, eBay settled the case and offered to buy the two patents on dispute. Even though this case constituted another ordinary case on patent infringement, its relevance is found on the issue of 'automatic' permanent injunction for online patent cases. This question went to the Supreme Court of the United States ("US”) which rendered an important decision on this point. This article provides an overview of this renowned e-commerce patent case and US decision on permanent injunction for patent cases. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Online Data Privacy and Methods or Mechanisms to Detect Violations |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Monday, January 28, 2008
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| | In the United States, online private companies' collection and use of customers" personal and identifiable information is subject to government regulations on data privacy. Some of these regulations may be specific to the nature of the website or information collected. For instance, collection of banking data, credit card and any related financial data are subject to explicit federal laws like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, among others (listing them is beyond the scope of this article). Further, collection and use of personal information by companies outside the financial, medical or other specifically regulated field, is subject to the general jurisdiction and requirements of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission- FTC. This article explains the U.S. approach to data collection and use by online private companies outside a specifically regulated sector, and provides an example of non-government methods invented to detect violations of data privacy. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - E-Business Patent Infringement Cases: Complex Issues to Unravel |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Monday, January 07, 2008
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| | Certainly, Google has already earned its place in history as the most-sued Internet Company. Every novel intellectual property (“IP”) cause of action has been filed against the search engine giant. First, we witnessed the copyright infringement round. Google has been sued for every type of copyright infringement on thumbnails, meta-tags, keywords, etc. Concomitant with these copyright infringement lawsuits, Google was also accused of trademark violations in keywords, sponsor links, etc. Now, it is the time for the e-business patent round. Google was sued for business patent infringement and, like in most of the other IP lawsuits, it was triumphant (well, partially) this time.
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| INTERNET LAW - African Latin-American Project Teaches Intellectual Property Development while Encouraging Medical Breakthroughs |
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| | Kelly O'Connell, IBLS Editor
Monday, October 22, 2007
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| | The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently reported a successful effort to bring Intellectual Property Rights (IPR’s) into an area of the world that has not benefited as much from Europe’s history of enforcement, being Africa, and also forging a cross-continental academic bridge to Colombia. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Section 103 of the US Patent Act is Alive |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director
Monday, September 10, 2007
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| | Patent holders: be careful; section 103 of the US Patent Act is alive. This caveat seems to be the broad- nontechnical message obtained from the recently decided US Supreme Court case, KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727. This US Supreme Court decision clarified the test to be followed when granting a new patent on an item that combines elements of exiting patents. Yet, even though under 35 U.S.C. § 282 an issued patent is presumed valid, it is interesting to see how patents already acquired may be trembled (lost?) by the posteriori application of both the US Patent Act §103 (35 U.S.C. §103) and this recently refurbished test. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Patent Highway between the UK and Japan opens |
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| | UK Intellectual Property Office
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
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| | A 12 month pilot scheme launched today will speed up processing patent applications in the UK and Japan.
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) will allow patent applicants who have received an examination report by either the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) or the Japan Patent Office (JPO) to request accelerated examination of a corresponding patent application filed in the other country.
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| INTERNET LAW - Chaotic Environment for U.S. Patents |
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| | IBLS Charter Partner: Gerry Elmans, Elman Technology Law, P.C., www.elman.com
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
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| | The recent US Supreme Court case, KSR International v. Teleflex, answered the following question: "If a new product combines, albeit in a novel way, two or more pre-existing products, is it worth a patent?” To answer this question, the US Supreme Court established a new test that experts deem it will make more difficult to obtain a patent on a new product that combines essentials of already exiting patents. The decision was rendered on April 30, 2007, and our Charter Partner and intellectual property expert, Gerry Elman, have provided the following comments to IBLS,
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| INTERNET LAW - Unlocking inventive step — the Australian High Court in Lockwood Security Products v Doric Products |
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| | IBLS Contributor: Shaun McVicar, Campbell Thompson, Freehills Law Firm, www.freehills.com
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
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| | The High Court has handed down its second judgment in the case of Lockwood Security Products Pty Ltd v Doric Products Pty Ltd1, which addresses several important aspects of the law of obviousness or inventive step.
In summary, the High Court upheld an appeal by Lockwood, the patentee of an invention for a lock device, finding that the invention was sufficiently inventive, notwithstanding that the problem it sought to solve was well known before the priority date, and that the solution was, at least in hindsight, relatively simple.
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| INTERNET LAW - Cybersettle Verdict Upholds Patents for Online Dispute Resolution |
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| | Michele Markel, Greenberg Traurig New York, markelm@gtlaw.com
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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| | Cybersettle, Inc., the world leader in accelerated dispute resolution, whose President is the co-inventor of Cybersettle’s automated, online, double-blind bid system, has announced that it has won a major patent infringement case it filed against National Arbitration Forum (NAF). [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Free Software Community Challenges e-Learning Patent |
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| | IBLS Contributor: Jim Garrison, Software Freedom Law Center, U.S., garrison@softwarefreedom.org
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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| | The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, has filed a formal request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for re-examination of Blackboard's e-Learning patent. If successful, the request will ultimately lead to the cancellation of all 44 claims of the patent.
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| INTERNET LAW - Japan’s Intellectual Property Department Top E-filers Firms |
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| | Martha L. Arias, IBLS Director.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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| | Japan’s Intellectual Property Department (IPD) recently published the top 10 users of its E-filing system to submit trademark, patent and design forms. Deacon is the leading firm in this list followed by Wilkinson & Grist; Wenping & Co.; Baker & McKenzie, Sit, Fung, Kwong and Shum Solicitors, among others.
The IPD also stated that during 2006, registration of trademarks accounted for 47.38% of the e-fillings; and applications for registration of designs accounted for 34.26%. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - The European Institute of Technology opens its doors in 2009 |
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| | Editor, Maricelle Ruiz, IBLS Director -- Europe
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
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| | Europe is in the process of joining the list of regions in the world with elite higher learning institutions specifically focused on technology. The European Institute of Technology is scheduled to open its doors during the 2009-2010 academic year. A draft legal document setting up the institution and addressing issues such as the Intellectual Property Rights of its projects is slated to be released later this year by the European Union. [More...] |
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| INTERNET LAW - Software patents: the ‘historic vote’ in the European Parliament brings the battle to an end |
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| | European Parliament
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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| INTERNET LAW - Trilateral patent offices set to improve mutual exploitation of their work |
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| | European Patent Office
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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| INTERNET LAW - European patent system is too costly and may be discouraging innovation |
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| | European Parliament
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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| INTERNET LAW - Latvia Joints the European Patent Organization as its 31st Member State |
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| | EPO - Press releases
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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| INTERNET LAW - Patenting in Europe, EPO Fee Policy Regarding the PCT International Search Opinion |
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| | Information from the European Patent Office
Thursday, May 04, 2006
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