Alan Wan, at Patently-O, looks at the recently recorded assignment of 1029 patents from IBM to Google – which more than doubles the number of U.S. patents assigned to Google.  A review of the patents suggests that they were carefully chosen from among IBM’s tens of thousands of patents in order to be most effective in a patent fight against the other technology giants and the patents appear to have been chosen for one adversary in particular – Apple.  What stands out is the unusually broad topics that are covered and the topics covered appear to be a tilt towards consumer and network applications with an absence of patents pertaining to IBM’s supercomputers.

Are You A Legal Rebel?

Nominations are now open for the 2011 Legal Rebels project.  This year, the ABA Journal is looking for lawyers and senior staffers who are remaking their corner of the profession at trend-setting Top 250 law firms. The Legal Rebels project has featured the profession’s top innovators who are questioning and changing the status quo.  While the recession has upended the stalwart business paths of some firms, others have embraced new courses with the awareness that many of the profession’s traditions—including those at most successful law firms—were once radical innovations.  Fill out the form to suggest a lawyer they should profile.

7 Essential Apps for Busy Legal Professionals

The Lawyerist has an article naming the essential iPhone/iPad apps.  We are especially fond of his picks of Instapaper – save web pages with 1-click to read later.   Evernote – From jotting down quick ideas as they occur. Google Apps – a suite of applications from email to documents, spreadsheets and presentations, all stored in the cloud.  Upgrade to Google Apps for Business for only $50 a year and get additional storage along with a few other perks.  Dropbox – For the few documents that I store on my local hard drive, I gain some peace of mind by sync documents stored locally on your device to the cloud.

Teva’s Lawsuit Against Viagra Patent Wilts

Pfizer Inc.’s  Viagra will maintain its exclusivity for treating ED at least until 2019.  A federal judge upheld U.S. Pat. No 6,469,012 for Viagra that was granted in 2002 and specifically covers the use of the drug’s active ingredient, sildenafil, for treating erectile dysfunction.   Teva Pharmaceuticals argued that the patent was invalid because anyone well-versed in the art of drug making would have known, from prior research, that sildenafil could be effective as an ED treatment. Pfizer contended that the use of sildenafil in oral form for treating ED was a novel, patent-worthy discovery.  Federal judge Rebecca Smith sided with Pfizer in a 110-page opinion, stating that Teva had not shown “by clear and convincing evidence” that the patent was invalid. “There is utterly no evidence” to support Teva’s claim that that Pfizer intentionally withheld documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

We Need Biotechnology If We Are To Have Enough Food

Nina V. Fedoroff writes in the NY Times that the problems of high food prices and the swelling ranks of the hungry are going to come to a disastrous end without the aid of biotechnology. The adoption of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant soybeans has made it easier for farmers to park their plows and forgo tilling for weed control. No-till farming is more sustainable and environmentally benign because it decreases soil erosion and shrinks agriculture’s carbon footprint.  In 2010, crops modified by molecular methods were grown in 29 countries on more than 360 million acres. Of the 15.4 million farmers growing these crops, 90 percent are poor, with small operations. The reason farmers turn to genetically modified crops is simple: yields increase and costs decrease.  We need to change the regulatory burden slowing down the development of genetically modified crops.

Learn How To Use (and Not Use) Email

The CounseltoCounselBlog wants you to learn to use email correctly.  Please.  While social media is growing in importance as a tool for mass communication, e-mail still has an important role in a law practice.    But we still have a “Tower of Babel” problem when it comes to e-mail.  Simply put, different users of e-mail speak “different languages”. Smartphone users tend to prefer terse e-mail messages.   People who mainly  use their desktop or laptop computers may have more tolerance for lengthy messages.  My pet peeve?  Use descriptive subject lines!!  Good subject lines help the recipient to quickly decide if they need to read the message right away and if the message requires a quick response.

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Two lawsuits seeking class action status were filed against Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan and New York Law School. The plaintiffs, who are all graduates of the defendant schools, seek $250 million from Cooley and $200 million from NYLS in tuition refunds, as well as other damages and reformed employment statistic reporting practices.

Both lawsuits state that the plaintiffs seek “to remedy a systemic, ongoing fraud that is ubiquitous in the legal education industry and threatens to leave a generation of law students in dire financial straits.”  Cooley, at about 1,000 students in each class year, is the biggest in the country. (via WSJ Law Blog)

The End of the Full Service Law Firm?

The Wired GC has a post about UK’s Legal Week reporting that mega-firm CMS Cameron McKenna was transferring its immigration practice to a specialty firm, Fragomen.

It’s breathtaking because CMS is honestly saying that some work that we could do, we’ve decided not to. Most large law firms never say this. When I see one referring work to another firm (absent a conflict), I can hear a thousand GCs falling off their Aeron chairs.

Is this the end of the full service law firm? Probably not. But it pushes the essential question for all managing partners: why be all things to everyone?

Will Gene Patents Impede Whole Genome Sequencing?

Chris Holman at Holman’s Biotech IP Blog, is writing an article about how there is a widely held perception that 20% of human genes are “patented” and that these patents preclude researchers and clinicians from using, studying or even “looking at” the patented genes without obtaining a license or risk being sued for patent infringement.

In the recent decision in the Myriad a gene patent case (AMP v. PTO), Judge Lourie repeats the assertion. Ultimately, if you trace the string of references back to their primary source, one arrives at the seminal article by Kyle Jensen & Fiona Murray: Intellectual Property Landscape of the Human Genome, 310 Science 239 (2005).

In fact, a careful reading of the supporting online material for the Jensen and Murray article reveals that their study has been grossly misinterpreted by those who claim the 20% of human genes are patented. In fact, those authors only purported to show that, with respect to 20% of human genes known at the time they conducted their study, either (1) the DNA sequence of the gene, or (2) the amino acid sequence encoded by the gene, was mentioned in a US patent claim. The myth that 20% of human genes are “patented” has taken root because too many have incorrectly inferred that the mere “mention” of a gene in a patent claim precludes all uses of the gene.

Fatal Mountain Goat Attack Sparks $10 Million In Wrongful Death Claims

The WSJ Law Blog reports that a local hiker in Olympic National Park was gored by a 370-pound mountain goat, according to Peninsula Daily News reports.  “I feel like they weren’t protecting people and the ecosystem, and…on the day of the accident, they responded very poorly to our calls for help,” the victim’s widow told the Peninsula Daily News.

When RARE is not so RARE!

At BIOtech Now, Nicole Boice, Founder/President, RARE Project, wants you know that there is a community of sick and disabled women, children, and men that is so large that it outnumbers all of those with cancer and AIDS combined worldwide.  The Rare Disease Community is made up of over 7,000 known rare diseases and over 350 million people worldwide.  Here in the US, over 35 million people are affected with the majority being our nation’s children.  The RARE Project™ has developed two initiatives; The Children’s Rare Disease Network™ (CRDN) and the Global Genes Project™ (GGP) to meet the needs of this community.

Should Bert and Ernie Get Married?

The New York Daily News reports that there’s an online petition with 700 signatures requesting a wedding for the two long-time, best friends. BettyConfidential thinks not:

Yes, there have been rumors that Bert and Ernie are gay. But, can we get real here? First of all, they’re muppets. Secondly, anytime two people, err muppets are close friends, the gay rumor pops up. Thirdly, who fanatasizes about muppet sex? And if you’re thinking about muppet sex, you have too much time on your hands and a possible issue with reality.

For their part, Sesame Street notes:  “Even though the Sesame Street Muppets … possess many human traits and characteristics, they have no sexual orientation.”

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It’s not just the small places like mom and pop stores or pet stores that are allowing this.  In fact, large companies such as Amazon and Google are two of the places where your dog is just as welcome as you are (maybe more so)! According to a recent survey by American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, about one in five companies now allows pets, and three percent of dog owners have brought theirs to work a couple dozen times.

Why should an employer want to be a part of this dog day? Studies show that pets in the workplace boost employee morale, productivity and even sales! TYDTWDay is touted as a great public relations opportunity as well as an opportunity to raise awareness of helping save the lives of homeless shelter animals in your area and around the world!

While my dog is laid up with a back injury, I hope others were able to spend some quality time with their pet.

~Ed.

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Ohio has a rich history of innovation including the controlled, powered airplane, the automobile self-starter, the flip-top can, the vaccine for feline leukemia, and numerous other patented inventions which have had a worldwide impact.

The Ohio Patent Awards will be granted in two separate categories in 2011:

1. the Ohio Patent Legacy Award, and
2. the Ohio Patent Impact Awards.

The Legacy Award will be granted to a prolific and/or historic Ohio patentee-inventor in recognition of their contribution of significant intellectual property in the form of a U.S. patent or collection of U.S. patents.

Ohio Impact Awards will be granted to the Ohio inventor or organization and their counsel who have contributed new intellectual property in the form of an issued U.S. patent which has significantly impacted the state of Ohio through positive changes. Among the criteria to be examined for the Ohio Impact Awards will be significance to Ohio’s economic, social change, health benefits, or growth of new industries and/or jobs.

The patent must be a U.S. patent issued prior to March 1, 2009, and may be from a not-for-profit or for-profit corporation, government agency, an academic institution or association, or from an individual inventor residing in Ohio either on the filing date of the patent or on the date of patent issuance. The law firm or attorney that prosecuted the patent will be recognized by association with the outstanding patent. Such law firm or attorney must reside within the State of Ohio.

All applications must be mailed to The Ohio Academy of Science by the postmarked date of March 1 or submitted electronically. An online, printable application and further details are posted at www.ohiosci.org/PatentAward.pdf . Email questions to oas@iwaynet.net or call 614.488.2228.

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The Coalition for Patent Fairness (CPF) has put out a memo trying to debunk what it sees as the myth that patent reform no longer requires congressional action.  From CPF:   “The Court’s ability to effect needed changes is limited because it is restricted by the language Congress enacted more than 50 years ago. Only Congress has the authority and the responsibility to ensure that our patent system is meeting the needs of the 21st century economy and the current need for economic growth and job creation.”  (More here)

Large Hadron Particle Collider Punk’d By Time Traveling Bird

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), outside Geneva, was shut down by a “bit of baguette” after a passing bird may have dropped the chunk of bread on an electrical substation above the accelerator, causing a power cut.  Some physicists have formulated a theory that suggests a time-traveling bird was sent from the future to sabotage the particle accelerator. Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, have published several papers over the past year arguing that the CERN experiment may be the latest in a series of physics research projects whose purposes are so unacceptable to the universe that they are doomed to fail, subverted by the future.  (via Time)

Congress May Be Helping European Biotech

European researchers are on the cusp of overtaking their American counterparts in biotechnology innovation. In 2004, European biotech firms had access to only 20% the private equity financing that U.S. firms had. Currently, the European Union has just about as many dedicated biotechnology firms as the U.S.  Now, Congress is considering a bill that would allow drug companies to make knock-off versions of biologics much sooner than in Europe by allowing a data exclusivity period of just five to seven years. Biotech companies believe they won’t have enough time to recoup the hundreds of millions of dollars invested before having to compete with biosimilars.  The biotech sector argues that  the data exclusivity period needs to be at least 12 years to be competitive. (via WSJ)

Post-Grant Review System

The Innovation Alliance recently sent a letter to USPTO Director David Kappos outlining requirements for a post-grant review system that is designed for prevent delay and abusive challenges. The letter proposed that, in order to be fair to all parties, a post-grant review system must prohibit the ability of private parties to later challenge the validity of a patent in court on any grounds that the challenger: (a) Actually raised in a post-grant challenge; (b) Knew about but did not raise; and (c) Would have known through a reasonable search of the prior art as determined by the guidelines the Patent Office developed and already enforces in other contexts. (pdf)

Is The Practice of Medicine Impeding Innovation?

Citing the fact that the majority of patients receiving the personalized medicine drug Herceptin had not been previously administered Herceptin’s diagnostic test, the BiotechBlog asks whether the practice of medicine is capable of keeping pace with medical innovation.  This is important since the diagnostic test can identify those patients most likely to benefit from the drug and exclude those who are likely to see no benefits.  Are the gatekeepers unaware of how to effectively prescribe personalized drugs?  (via IP Think Tank)

Hilter is Furious at the Supreme Court for Granting Cert to Bilski

Using the Hitler rant scene from Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2004 film Der Untergang (“Downfall“), someone named patentlybilski made a spoof on the Bilski case, as though that case needs anything to make it more surreal.  While this seems somewhat overdone, it’s amusing to those in the field.  The poster notes only:  “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”  Decide for yourself.  (via 271 Patent Blog)

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