Patent Baristas

While we’re on the subject of patent re-exam lately, I received a letter from a plucky individual that has decided to file a request for ex parte reexamination of Amazon’s “One-Click” patent (US Patent 5,960,411), using some prior art that he found. It turns out that New Zealander Peter Calveley is one of the actors […]

The title to the Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”) news release said it all: “PUBPAT Receives Substantial Victory in Lipitor Patent Challenge: Pfizer Concedes to Give Up Original Broad Patent Claims. Or, does it? PUBPAT touted that in the challenge it filed last year against Pfizer Inc.’s patent on Lipitor, “Pfizer has conceded to significantly narrow […]

We reported earlier that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a ruling against one of several patents that Pfizer holds on Lipitor (atorvastatin), its top-selling cholesterol drug. In the reexamination proceeding initiated last year by the Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”), the USPTO rejected all 44 of the claims of U.S. patent 5,969,156 when […]

Earlier, the USPTO required that business method inventions must apply, involve, use or advance the “technological arts”. This requirement could be met by merely requiring that the invention be carried out on a computer. In Ex parte Lundgren, Appeal No. 2003-2088, Application 08/093,516, (Precedential BPAI opinion September 2005), the Board rejected the examiner’s argument that […]

Bill Heinze over at I/P Updates noted an article in Managing Intellectual Property on October 18, 2005, where USPTO Commissioner Jon Dudas is quoted as calling on companies and patent prosecutors to help the Office improve the timeliness and quality of patent examinations by calling for “a reduction in the number of continuations, fewer claims […]

The USPTO published revised procedures for presenting preliminary amendments upon filing of a patent application. If on filing an application, an applicant includes a preliminary amendment to the specification, then the publication of the application must be based on the specification and drawings as amended by the preliminary amendment. The only format for an amendment […]

Blawg Review #28 is up and running at J. Craig Williams’ blog site May It Please The Court. There were a number of blog sites mentioned we haven’t seen before. We particularly enjoyed reading about the USPTO’s decision in the Eolas matter finding the patent of Eolas’ web browsing technology valid and will issue a […]

In a preliminary ruling, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a double-patenting rejection on a Genentech patent indicating that the patent, awarded in 2001, covered basically the same invention as an earlier Genentech patent that was set to expire next March. Genentech called the patent examiner’s action “a routine and expected next […]