Patent news for May 8, 2008.
- Tafas v. Dudas will be appealed: When the Patent Office tried to put some limits on how many times patent applicants can come back wielding continuation applications, and how many claims can be put in a single patent, a large chunk of the patent bar revolted. Big pharma led a counterstrike, sued to stop the new PTO rules from taking effect, and won. Now the PTO has said they will appeal. Is it true that "USPTO = gluttons for punishment," as one commentator opined at Patently-O?
The battle lines here are similar to the patent reform debate: tech companies say the patents are needed to prevent abuses like the Lemelson “submarine patents,” which remained hidden for decades and then were used to sue more or less the whole economy.
Last but certainly not least, the Federal Circuit will hear arguments
today in In Re Bilski, a potentially landmark patent case where a small
Pennsylvania “financial engineering” company founded by Rand Warsaw and
Bernard L. Bilski is trying to get a wide-ranging patent on hedging
weather risk. Warsaw and Bilski have been accused of ripping off consumers by state authorities in Minnesota, as I reported last month. Looking forward to hearing the oral arguments.
Bilski amicus briefs are collected at Patently-O.
A critical history of software and business method patents from Mike Masnick at Techdirt.
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