Recent Decisions In The United States – September 2007
Brian BrunsvoldJohn C. Paul SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN KSR ALTERS APPLICATION OF OBVIOUSNESS STANDARD BY THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT, AND THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS AND INTERFERENCES Determining when a discover y is sufficiently inventive to be entitled to patent protection is one of the most complex challenges in patent law. To be entitled to patent […]
Patenting Software In The European Union
José Ramon Cardeno-Shaadi The motivation for writing this commentary, comes from the general misconception, that computer programs (also known as software) are not protected in the European Union (EU) and its Member countries, by the Law of Patents. Such mistaken belief is based on the ground that Article 52 (2) of the European Patent Convention […]
Licensing In The Context Of The Business Model: One Size Does Not Fit All
Henry Chesbrough In a world of open innovation, every company needs to pay closer attention to its IP than it used to do. Protecting ideas is costly and time consuming, but it has become too important to innovation to neglect. For the same reasons, the management of licensing must also be revisited. Too often, licensing […]
Don’t Feed The Trolls?
John JohnsonGregory K. LeonardChristine MeyerKen Serwin Different entities use the patent system in different ways, depending on their respective business models. It is important to acknowledge this dynamic when evaluating the propriety of revising the patent system to combat trolling or promote other goals. Many vociferous opponents to patent trolls claim that trolls are a […]
Commercialization At A DOE National Laboratory: A Long-Term Proposition
Bruce HarrerSue Chin Technology Commercialization Is Not For Wimps. It is difficult enough to successfully transfer and commercialize technology within a single company, let alone trying to bridge the cultural gap between an organization largely supported by government research funding (such as a National Laboratory) and private commercial companies. Much has been written about various […]
Business Valuation Of Technology: An Experiential Model
Mirjam LelouxAard Groen Nowadays, the valorization of research is a topic of enhanced interest at universities and public or private research institutes. Research organizations generally have a (considerable) portfolio of patents on their shelves, waiting for a sustainable exploitation strategy. However, the transfer of technologies from academia and other research institutes to commercial parties and/or […]
Antitrust Roundup
Alec Burnside On 11 July, the European Court of First Instance (CFI) held that the European Commission should pay compensation to French electrical distribution company Schneider for some of the losses incurred as a result of the Commission’s prohibition of its planned merger with Legrand in 2001. In a key judgment, the CFI stated that […]
Mission Continued?
Peter ChroczielPresident, LES International Almost every international president starts the September message to the LES members with the line that a “short year” comes to an end. You may not be surprised to hear the same from me. At the end of my term I can confirm that time flies by while trying to serve […]
Commentary on EU Competition Developments
Alec BurnsideLinlaters & Alliance, Brussels, Belgium 1. SonyBMG On 13 July 2006 in an unprecedented judgement the Court of First Instance of the European Communities reversed the European Commissions 2004 decision approving the creation of a joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann combining their recorded music businesses. This is the first time that the Community […]
Recent Decisions in the United States
Brian BrunsvoldAttorney, Finnegan, Henderson & Farabow John C. PaulAttorney, Finnegan, Henderson & Farabow DISTRICT COURT REFUSES TO GRANT A PERMANENT INJUNCTION TO A PATENT OWNER Historically it has been presumed that when a defendant has been found to infringe a patent the patent owner would be entitled to a permanent injunction preventing the defendant from […]
