Wednesday - 13 August, 2008Patentable subject matterA 'manner of manufacture' is something 'more' than a mere discovery or principle: it must be some thing or praactical means of applying that principle in a field of economic endeavour (qua NRDC at e.g. [15] and [22]) and now, apparently, we have an example of a discovery or principle which was not patentable as being too abstract rather than a practical application ... Tuesday - 22 July, 2008Patentable subject matter issues paperACIP has released its issues paper on Patentable Subject Matter ... Monday - 30 June, 2008The Problem with Software PatentsIn the third of their series on Patent Failure in Patently-O, Bessen and Meurer consider that software patents and business method patents are in fact part of the problem as, amongst other things, they are very much more likely to be litigated than other patents and the likelihood of litigation is continuing to rise ... Thursday - 26 June, 2008Patent "rocket" proceduresFor those who (for whatever reason) were unable to make it to the Federal Court's recent Patent Procedures seminar (in Melbourne), the schedule to Black & Decker Inc v GMCA Pty Ltd (No 3) [2008] FCA 932 contains the printed guidelines ... Monday - 02 June, 2008Patent subject matter reviewACIP has commenced a public inquiry into patentable subject matter including, in particular, the appropriateness and adequacy of the 'manner of manufacture' threshold requirement... Friday - 11 April, 2008Patent failure part 2Remember how Professors Besson and Meurer started summarising their thesis that patents (at least in the US) are not providing the incentives to innovation they are supposed to? There is a second instalment 'The Costs and Benefits of Patents to Innovators' ... Wednesday - 02 April, 2008AjinomotoThe Full Court has dismissed Ajinomot's appeal from Finkelstein J's finding that its patent for a new artificial sweetener was invalid because it lacked an inventive step. The main point in the appeal was whether the botched attempt to introduce the diligent searcher via s 7(3) - in the form it stood before the 2001 amendments - meant it was necessary to identify a person skilled in the art in Australia. It turns out that the short answer was "Yes", but there was in fact such a person ... Monday - 17 March, 2008Patents and R & D investment and growthJames Besson and Michael J Meurer have published a book Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureacrats and Lawyers put Innovators at Risk and, in the first of four articles, have published a summary of their argument ... Thursday - 28 February, 2008Searching patentsIPAustralia has announced the beta release of its new, online patent searching tool AUSPAT beta ... Tuesday - 22 January, 2008Incorporation of Patent and Trade Marks AttorneysFollowing its consultations on incorporation of patent and trade marks attorney practices, IP Australia has now published its Position Paper ... Monday - 19 November, 2007Spicy IP needs our helpThe bloggers at Spicy IP are trying to enlist the help of the patent and internet communities to sign up to a petition to the Prime Minister of India to (a) get an electronic searchable database of patents in India online; (b) get Indian Patent Office decisions published on line too ... Friday - 19 October, 2007IT Patents seminarSomebody called Tech IP Professional Development has arranged an eminent triumvirate of speakers on the subject of Information Technology Patents in the USA, Europe and Australia. Speakers are our very own David Webber and Peter Finney from the UK and Eric Nelson from Knobbe Martens in the US ... Friday - 19 October, 2007New patent regsThere are new patent regs under ss 27(1), 45(3) and 101D: With effect from 22 October 2007, the amendment regulations substantially remove the requirement for applicants and patentees to inform the Commissioner of Patents of the results of documentary searches by, or on behalf of, foreign patent offices. The amendment regulations also allow notices of matters affecting the validity of a standard patent to be filed up to three months from the date of advertisement of acceptance of an application. Official notice ... Wednesday - 17 October, 2007Incorporation of Patent and Trade Mark AttorneysPatents Act 1990 s 201(5) prohibits a company from carrying on business as a patent attorney practice. Ther is apparently no similar prohibition in the Trade Marks Act, but s 156 restricts use of the description trade marks attorney or agent. As all States and Territories now permit legal practices to incorporate, IP Australia has released a Consultation Paper on its preferred model to allow patent attorney and trade mark attorney practices to incorporate. ... Wednesday - 19 September, 2007How long before the non-innovators start patenting over the innovation?Duncan Bucknell has a second paper in his continuing serios on Pharmaceutical & Biotech Lifecycle Management: looking at a sample of 15 patents and how long it took for the "non-innovators" to start patenting ... Friday - 07 September, 2007Revising the black armband Whig version of patent historyIt's received wisdom that the Statute of Monopolies was one of the great steps in the Parliamentary War on the overweening Executive: to wit the practice of Elizabeth I and James I in granting perfidious patents over every day things like the playing card. Now, Dr Chris Dent at IPRIA has published a paper exploring just what those perfidious patents were up to and contends that Elizabeth and James may well have been helping their economy along ... Friday - 07 September, 2007Searching for patentsIP Australia is previewing a new online system for searching AusPat data ... Wednesday - 22 August, 2007TRIPS, the Protocol and exporting genericsYou might remember a recent post about how Rwanda became the first country to announce it was going to take advantage of the DOHA 2003 Declaration. The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has recently published its recommendations after reviewing the Protocol ... Monday - 20 August, 2007Attempting to amend a patentImagine you have a patent and you sue someone for infringing it. Just before trial, you apply to amend; however, rather than adjourn or seek to have the amendment heard at trial you decide to proceed with the hearing of the trial on the unamended patent. Unfortunately, as a result of that hearing, the judge decides that your patent is invalid. Can you still try to amend? Friday - 17 August, 2007Patent statisticsThe WIPO Patent Report (2007) Edition provides a range of statistcs on worldwide patent activity ... |