You are here: Home / Archives for u s patent and trademark office

Patents ‘Gumming Up’ Innovation: Google – Bloomberg

July 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google Inc. General Counsel Kent Walker said the smartphone industry is using patents in an arms race that hurts consumers, leaving the company trying to “sort through the mess” of litigation.

“It’s hard to find what’s the best path — there’s so much litigation,” Walker said in an interview. “We’re exploring a variety of different things.”

Google is seeking to buy patents that would put it on a level plane with its rivals, and the company will continue to push to have the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office take a closer look at issued patents that are being used in litigation, Walker said. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission also need to do more to rein in software patents and lawsuits, he said.

“The tech industry has a significant problem,” Walker said. “Software patents are kind of gumming up the works of innovation.”

Google, which had $39.1 billion in cash and short-term investments as of June, put in an initial $900 million offer to buy the patents of bankrupt phone-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. It was outbid by a group that includes Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd., which all make devices that compete with phones running Google’s Android operating system.

via Patents ‘Gumming Up’ Innovation: Google – Bloomberg.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

AppleInsider | Apple granted patent for dock connector with USB 3.0, Thunderbolt

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A patent recently granted to Apple reveals that the company is looking into a modified dock connector compatible with newer high-speed communication standards, such as USB 3.0 and a “dual-lane DisplayPort,” or Thunderbolt, connector.

The invention, entitled “Reduced Size Multi-Pin Male Plug Connector,” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday and describes a smaller 30-pin dock connector with updated connection standards.

“Some embodiments of the present invention can provide support for one or more new high-speed communication standards,” the filing read, citing USB 3.0 and DisplayPort as examples of these standards.

via AppleInsider | Apple granted patent for dock connector with USB 3.0, Thunderbolt.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

PTO, European Patent Office Team Up on Classification System

October 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The latest U.S. Patent and Trademark Office innovation is a deal to work with the European Patent Office on a joint patent classification system aligned with global standards.

In an Oct. 22 joint announcement, the two agencies said they plan to create a patent classification system aligned with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s International Patent Classification system.

The agencies also announced that, while they will base the joint system on the European Patent Office (EPO) standard, it will also incorporate the best practices of both offices.

via PTO, European Patent Office Team Up on Classification System.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Russia’s Patent Agency to Conduct Searches for PTO Applicants

September 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Russia’s patent agency signed an agreement to allow the Russian agency to conduct international searches and preliminary examinations for international patent applications filed at the PTO. The PTO has yet to specify when it will implement the Sept. 22 agreement.

The accord gives entities that file international patent applications at the PTO a less expensive option for searches of so-called “prior art” — published information about the subject matter of a claimed invention. The agreement was made under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which allows international patent applicants to obtain a patent filing date in numerous countries by filing one international application.

The Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks, known as Rospatent, plans to charge $449 for an international search. That’s about half of the next cheapest option for international filers at the PTO, said Scott Kamholz, a patent and trademark lawyer at Boston’s Foley Hoag. International patent applicants at the PTO can also opt to ship international searches to South Korea’s patent office, which charges a little more than $1,000 per search, Kamholz said.

via Russia’s Patent Agency to Conduct Searches for PTO Applicants.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

U.S., Russian Patent Offices Strike Fast-Track Deal | National Law Journal

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its equivalent in Russia are launching a one-year pilot program on Sept. 1 to fast-track each other’s approved patent applications.

Such “patent prosecution highway programs” allow patent offices to use each other’s work to help process applications more quickly.

The PTO’s pilot program with Russia’s Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of the Russian Federation, or Rospatent, means that an applicant receiving a favorable ruling from one nation’s patent office on at least one claim in an application may request that the corresponding application filed with the other nation be fast-tracked for examination.

via U.S., Russian Patent Offices Strike Fast-Track Deal.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google wants to patent technology used to ‘snoop’ Wi-Fi networks – Computerworld

June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google’s secret Wi-Fi snooping was powered by new sniffing technology that the company wants to patent, court documents filed Wednesday alleged.

A just-amended complaint in a class-action lawsuit first submitted two weeks ago claims that a patent Google submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November 2008 shows that the search giant purposefully created technology to gather, analyze and use data sent by users over their wireless networks.

The lawsuit, which was filed by an Oregon woman and a Washington man in a Portland, Ore. federal court May 17, accused Google of violating federal privacy and data acquisition laws when its Street View vehicles snatched data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks as they drove up and down U.S. streets.

Google acknowledged the privacy issue May 14, but said it had not known it was collecting data from unprotected wireless networks until recently.

via Google wants to patent technology used to ‘snoop’ Wi-Fi networks – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Expedited Patent Reviews Proposed – WSJ.com

June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Inventors frustrated with waiting for a decision on their applications from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may soon be able to pay for expedited review under a proposal to be announced Thursday.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office chief David Kappos is proposing a new three-track system for patent applications that would allow applicants to pay an undisclosed amount on top of the standard $1,090 filing fee to jump to the front of the line for expedited reviews.

“Not every application needs to go at the same speed. Some need to go fast and some need to go more slowly,” Mr. Kappos said in an interview.

The system will allow applicants to essentially select which innovations are the most important for patent examiners to tackle first, Mr. Kappos said.

The proposal, which following a public comment period could go into effect next year, would be a major change for the Patent and Trademark Office, which has mostly reviewed applications on a first-come, first-served basis.

Other government agencies offer similar expedited services, including the State Department, which offers expedited passport processing for a $60 fee.

Multi-track reviews are part of a broader effort by Mr. Kappos and the Obama administration to improve the office, which has struggled with funding shortfalls and complaints from businesses about the rising backlog of unresolved applications.

Last year, it took 34.6 months on average for patent applications to be reviewed compared to 26.7 months in 2003.

via Expedited Patent Reviews Proposed – WSJ.com.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft Dealt Major Setback Over $290 Million Infringement Judgment | National Law Journal

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Microsoft Word
Image via Wikipedia

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office‘s recent confirmation of the validity of a patent that netted i4i Limited Partnership a $290 million infringement judgment against Microsoft Corp. means the U.S. Supreme Court is likely Microsoft’s last hope to overturn the judgment.

On Tuesday, i4i announced that the PTO affirmed the patentability of all the claims in its patent for processing and storing information about electronic documents’ structure. In its lawsuit, i4i claimed that Microsoft Word 2007 infringed that patent, and Microsoft had requested a re-examination in the hopes that the PTO would declare the patent invalid. The PTO has yet to issue a formal certificate confirming the patent’s validity, but the agency informed Canadian software company i4i of its notice of intent to issue an ex parte re-examination certificate on April 28.

In an e-mailed statement, Kevin Kutz, Microsoft’s director of public affairs, said that while the company is disappointed, “there still remain important matters of patent law at stake, and we are considering our options to get them addressed, including a petition to the Supreme Court.”

Microsoft’s bid to use its request for a patent office re-examination of i4i’s patent “has failed in a dramatic way,” said i4i’s lawyer for the re-examination, Rob Greene Sterne, founder of Washington-based Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox.

Microsoft filed its PTO re-examination request before the jury verdict but well into the lawsuit, probably as a backup plan in case it lost the lawsuit, Sterne said. “Microsoft, I’m sure, assumed that they would win the re-exam or create significant difficulties for i4i in the re-exam that would drive a better settlement,” he said.

Lawyers say that unless Microsoft finds grounds for a motion for relief from judgment, such as newly discovered evidence or fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court is its last avenue.

Microsoft is “pretty much at the end of their line” unless the Supreme Court takes its case as one of the handful of patent matters the Court hears each year, said Thomas Engellenner, the co-chair of the patent practice group at Boston’s Nutter, McClennen & Fish. Engellenner wasn’t involved in the case.

via Law.com – Microsoft Dealt Major Setback Over $290 Million Infringement Judgment.

Related articles by Zemanta
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Trademark Filings Mostly Down Worldwide in 2009

March 23, 2010 By

International trademark filings at the World Intellectual Property Organization dropped 16 percent in 2009, amid a 12 percent decline in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings.

The WIPO dip stems from a global economic slowdown and restrained consumer demand around the world, said Francis Gurry, WIPO’s director general, in a statement.

Last year, 35,195 international trademark applications flowed into WIPO's 84-member system, which includes countries and groups of nations like the European Union. That compares with 42,075 applications in 2008.

via Trademark Filings Mostly Down Worldwide in 2009.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,