Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:40:46 GMT IP Insights http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights 049870e1-9d8b-4bb8-85be-da2c6842208f Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:40:46 GMT Federal Circuit Holds That Settlement Negotiations Are Not Privileged http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Federal-Circuit-Holds-That-Settlement-Negotiations-Are-Not-Privileged 24a6747c-4702-41b0-a6cf-d5ea1cdfadc8 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:37:27 GMT Crowell & Moring's Top Ten Copyright Cases of the Last Year http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/2011-Top-Ten-Intellectual-Property-Copyright-Cases-Crowell-Moring bdf8e66e-14b6-4c63-9613-cebfd0fbbe99 Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:00:58 GMT What You Should Know About U.S. Copyright Office’s New White Paper on Mass Digitization of Copyrighted Works http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/What-You-Should-Know-About-U.S.-Copyright-Office's-New-White-Paper-on-Mass-Digitization-of Copyrighted-Works a2ed6336-2cc8-4a6e-a6db-4a5df740fb0a Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:23:47 GMT Sweeping U.S. Patent Law Changes - America Invents Act http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Sweeping-US-Patent-Law-Changes-America-Invents-Act 19a35256-5121-4398-87aa-f0e60fa35e93 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT USPTO Announces Prioritized Examination for One Year Prosecution Available May 4th http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/USPTO-Announces-Prioritized-Examination-for-One-Year Today the United States Patent and Trademark Office (U.S.P.T.O.) announced a final rule implementing a prioritized examination track with a goal of providing a final disposition of an application within 12 months of prioritized status being granted. A request for prioritized examination may be submitted with any original non-provisional application filed on or after May 4, 2011. 84442c9b-8b0c-460a-bc59-f9744267f80d Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Crowell & Moring's Top Ten Copyright Cases of the Last Year http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Crowell-Moring-s-Top-Ten-Copyright-Cases-of-the-Last What are the trends that will impact copyright owners in 2011? To answer that question, we start by taking a look at what we believe are the top 10 most significant copyright cases from 2010. Understanding the drivers behind these mega cases, which include two Supreme Court decisions, will be crucial to devising your IP strategy for the coming year. edf5ee94-ada4-4fe8-8484-1b019e561377 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Retailers With Websites Containing Store Locator Function Sued In Series of Patent Lawsuits http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Retailers-With-Websites-Containing-Store-Locator-Function The last two weeks of 2010 witnessed the launching of what may be the largest patent infringement litigation in the United States. Between December 17, 2010 and December 23, 2010, a "patent troll," Geotag, Inc., filed eight patent infringement lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, each of which alleged infringement of a single patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,930,474 (the "'474 Patent"), against different groups of defendants. The principal targets of these lawsuits were retailers with websites containing a store locator function. More than 300 companies were named in the lawsuits. 5b4b34de-2e0b-4ac9-93d0-e9bbf7a66b48 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Supreme Court's Bilski Decision: Business Method Patents Survive, at Least for Now http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Supreme-Court-s-i-Bilski-i-Decision-Business-Method The United States Supreme Court yesterday issued its long-awaited decision in Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. ___ (2010). Although this case was expected to be a vehicle for a definitive pronouncement on the patentability of so-called "business methods," the Supreme Court decided the case on much narrower grounds, leaving the broader question unanswered. Specifically, the Supreme Court agreed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the particular invention at issue, directed to a method for managing risk in commodities markets, was unpatentable. 9f082cff-1299-4550-bc40-4465f8eec551 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Protecting Your Trademark on Facebook http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Protecting-Your-Trademark-on Facebook®, the popular social networking system, has announced that starting at 12:01 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday, June 13, 2009, its users will be allowed to create personalized URLs. (see http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130). This raises the possibility that some Facebook users may try to incorporate third party trademarks as part of their new URLs. aa7c956d-32b8-471d-8fb0-08c49964db18 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Federal Circuit Affirms Extension of The 30 Month Hatch-Waxman Stay Preventing FDA Approval of Generic Version of Evista http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Federal-Circuit-Affirms-Extension-of-The-30-Month-Hatch For the first time, the Federal Circuit has affirmed the extension of a thirty month stay under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (known as the "Hatch-Waxman Act"). The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana extended the stay because the generic company recast its product, disclosing new samples only eight months before trial was to commence and produced documents after the discovery cut-off. But a vigorous dissent claims that what the majority had done is to "effectively eliminate the statutorily required finding." 97a54369-ccc9-4e3a-8fc1-d08d617e7542 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Patent Application Process Must Be Compliant with U.S. Export Controls http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Patent-Application-Process-Must-Be-Compliant-with-U-S-1352006 Commerce Reinforces the Need for Export Compliance in Patent Transactions. The Department of Commerce – through the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) – is reaching out to patent applicants and practitioners in several ways to ensure compliance with U.S. export control obligations relevant in the patent context. e93b6e35-ffc9-4c8c-a2a9-42d317e41670 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Judge Upholds Smithkline's Challenge To USPTO Continuation Rules http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Judge-Upholds-Smithkline-s-Challenge-To-USPTO-Continuation The US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia today issued an opinion rejecting the PTO's proposed rules (issued last year) that would have limited the filing of continuation applications, as well as the number of claims per application. This result, while not unexpected, at least removes the immediate threat that these draconian measures could have become effective in the near term. It will now be up to the PTO to decide whether it will appeal this decision to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, issue new proposed rules, or give up the idea altogether. 993ea75a-a2dd-461f-8cd4-9f8aafb4bc35 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT New TTAB Rules Go Into Effect November 1 http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/New-TTAB-Rules-Go-Into-Effect-November Significant new rules applicable in Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings will go into effect on November 1, 2007. These include a number of new rules governing the parties' conduct at the very early stages of the proceeding. 2a715e47-b51f-42ce-a232-7b8568182c72 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Federal Circuit Raises the Bar for Proving Willful Infringement, and Provides for Protection of Trial Counsel Communications and Work Product From Discovery -- Great News for Accused Infringers http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Federal-Circuit-Raises-the-Bar-for-Proving-Willful The threat of treble damages against defendants based on allegations of willful infringement has been reduced. Based on the recent unanimous en banc decision of the Federal Circuit, only objectively reckless behavior by a defendant may warrant a finding of willful infringement. Additionally, the Court held that the scope of waiver of privilege resulting from an 'opinion of counsel' defense against willfulness charges does not ordinarily extend to trial counsel, which should provide further assurance to defendants that typically segregate opinion and trial counsel. In re Seagate, No. M830 (Fed. Cir., Aug. 20, 2007). 30bb3454-199f-4f13-9e4c-ddee5f15a9f5 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Controversial New Continuation And Examination Support Document Rules Are Effective November 1, 2007 http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Controversial-New-Continuation-And-Examination-Support Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) issued its much-awaited final rules involving continuing applications, requests for continued examination and the numbers of claims to be examined. de031cdc-9bbd-4de8-afdb-1961389f0fea Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Post-KSR Patent Prosecution “Survival Guide” http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Post-KSR-Patent-Prosecution-Survival-Guide In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s ruling in KSR International v. Teleflex, US patent applicants are likely to encounter a surge of obviousness rejections from the USPTO. Undoubtedly, KSR has dramatically altered the patent prosecution landscape: some arguments that might have prevailed prior to KSR may no longer be viable. In this alert, we first summarize the KSR decision, and then predict the top arguments for combating post-KSR obviousness rejections before the USPTO. 054d4098-e541-4ec6-b5ad-026275148fd6 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT US Supreme Court Makes it Easier to Find Patents Obvious http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/US-Supreme-Court-Makes-it-Easier-to-Find-Patents In a much-anticipated decision, KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, overruled the Federal Circuit’s longstanding test for determining when an invention is "obvious" under the patent statute. b96e97b6-cc72-4f0a-9fce-616de11107d9 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT MedImmune's Impact May Be Greater Than Many Suspect http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/MedImmune-s-Impact-May-Be-Greater-Than-Many ced22135-e06d-4424-96e4-fc1774af693f Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:38:02 GMT Supreme Court Signals Shift in Obviousness Standard http://www.crowell.com/NewsEvents/AlertsNewsletters/IP-Insights/Supreme-Court-Signals-Shift-in-Obviousness A recent oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court may be signaling a shift in the patent landscape towards increased difficulty in obtaining patents and more frequent invalidity findings in court actions.