Are You Taking Advantage of Blogging and Web 2.0?

Yes, you'll have to moderate this stuff. Yes, it means spending money with no immediately visible return on investment. Yes, it's more work for everyone. But you'll gain trust, goodwill and positive attention. You'll put a human face on your company. And you'll learn stuff about your customers that you wouldn't have discovered any other way.
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Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights

Technology transfer, as defined by Carl Schramm, CEO of Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is a process in which “academic researchers patent their work, then license it, often under a royalty agreement, to companies that ultimately bring the innovation to market” (2006). Schramm claims that there are only five universities that have mastered the cooperative technique of technology transfer: “Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, MIT, and Wisconsin.” The reason so few universities have mastered this technique, according to Schramm, is due to the fact that the majority of universities are overly protective of their intellectual property rights.
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Blawg Review #153

This marks the third year that George M. Wallace has hosted Blawg Review at Declarations & Exclusions. This year, George welcomes new and returning readers to his insurance law blog with a pirate theme for his presentation of Blarrgh Review! Who says insurance lawyers don't have a sense of humor?
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IP ThinkTank

Here is Global Intellectual Property Strategist Duncan Bucknell’s weekly selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.
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Innovation, Invention, and Edison

"Whom we credit with an invention often has less to do with who came up with an idea, and more to do with who translated it into something usable, accessible, commercial." This is, after all, the definition of innovation: the exploitation of a novel idea.
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USPTO Rejects Blackboard Patent

Blackboard's e-learning patent looks to be going down. The United States Patent and Trademark Office this week sent out a "non-final" determination on the reexamination of Blackboard's patent in which all of the claims on the patent were rejected. Blackboard still has a period of two months to respond to the determination...While Desire2Learn and the SFLC celebrated the decision, Blackboard said that its patent still stands, that the company does not intend to back down, and that the decision has no effect on Blackboard's patent infringement suit victory over Desire2Learn.
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IPO Urges Action Against Patent Reform Bill Provision

Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) has made a call to arms agains the patent reform legislation in the Senate (S.1145), which may be considered for a vote within the next few weeks. IPO is all-out against the dreaded Applicant Quality Submissions (AQS).
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USPTO Chief Slams Bad Patents

No less an innovator than IBM once filed a patent on a system for providing restroom reservations. Or, as Ars Technica more crassly describes it, "Big Blue wanted a patent on taking a number to use the can." According to the post, Jon Dudas, the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in a speech yesterday at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood, cited that example as symptomatic of the problems facing his office.
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Top Ten Wackiest Patents

Patent Attorney Brett Trout links to a list of the top ten most ridiculous inventions ever patented, and adds what he believes to be the top ten wackiest patents in the world. We wouldn't disagree.
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The Doomsday Patent

IP maven Ron Coleman, who blogs on developments in trademark, copyright, new media and free speech, adds to the Likelihood of Confusion this story about patents he heard in the car this morning on National Public Radio.
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Lawyer 2 Lawyer Internet Radio Trolls the Patent Blogs

Two different perspectives from the experts. In the first segment, Craig Williams welcomes Raymond Niro Sr., the attorney who was once a target of Frenkel's Patent Troll Tracker blog. Then, in their second segment, Craig speaks with the popular patent blogger, Dennis Crouch from Patently-O, to get his perspective on the Troll Tracker and the dangers of blogging anonymously. You can download the podcast at the link.
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IP Associate Position Available

Patent Associate with at least 2+ years of experience in patent prosecution, counseling and licensing. The candidate should have an advanced degree in a chemical field (Ph.D. preferred), with a concentration in analytical, biochemistry, organic, medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry, or a closely related field. Benefits include the opportunity to work closely with the Patent Baristas!
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Google Indexes Blog Posts in Under Five Minutes

I’d like to share with you an important lesson I learned this morning. The lesson is: Google indexes blog posts incredibly fast. And that’s yet another good reason to write a blog for your business.
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How Innovation Happens

How does innovation happen? Check out this insightful little piece, from Trizoko, a popular business journal on the internet.
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The Trouble With Blogs

The never ending flow of Chicken Little articles telling us that the sky is falling with the advent of blogs and innovative technology continues this week...
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Troll Tracker Allowed To Blog

Dennis Crouch at Patently-O is reporting that Cisco has amended its employee blogging policy to require that any Cisco employee blogging about issues involving or related to Cisco identify themselves as a Cisco employee and provide a disclaimer that the opinions are those of the employee alone and not necessarily Cisco.
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USPTO to Host China IP Seminar

The USPTO recently announced that it will host a seminar next month regarding the protection of IP in China. The seminar, entitled “USPTO China Road Show,” will be held from April 2-3, 2008, at the Houston Hobby Airport Marriott Hotel in Houston, Texas, and will focus on teaching businesses how to protect against intellectual property theft from China.
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Cisco's Blog Disclaimer

There's an extra wrinkle: Cisco employees can no longer circulate links to an employee-written blog without identifying the author as a fellow employee. Apparently, staffers who knew the Patent Troll Tracker author helped spread the word without giving away his identity.
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Cisco Prohibits Anonymous Blogging After 'Troll' Spat

Portfolio Media, New York (March 24, 2008)--Citing the “poor judgment” of its employees in helping to create a “regrettable situation,” Cisco Systems Inc. has prohibited workers from anonymously blogging about company affairs after one of its in-house intellectual property attorneys was outed as the “patent troll tracker” blogger.

Cisco announced Monday on its blog that it had “learned some important lessons” after Rick Frenkel identified himself as the author of the patent troll tracker blog in February....
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Overcoming The Skeptics

Clifford Stoll probably didn't imagine that his 1995 essay in Newsweek dismissing the Internet as a "trendy and oversold community" would ever become an item for discussion again, much less 13 year later.
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Intellectual Property Garden

With ideas now increasingly falling under the umbrella of property law, the abstract idea of ownership becomes increasingly ephemeral. Whilst initially conceived as a protection for the individual, copyright is now increasingly owned by corporation – the modern kingdom. Those who wish to trade with us must agree to be annexed into this kingdom – to practice our conception of justice and ownership over ideas. They become subject to our proprietary rights.
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Blawg Review #152

Blawg Review is not just a blog, it's a clever social networking concept. Every week, a different blawg hosts Blawg Review, pointing out what it deems the most interesting blawg posts from the previous week. Sometimes, the hosting blog will develop a theme around Blawg Review. Check out what TechnoLawyer has put together for this week's presentation.
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Costs & Benefits of Patents

Do patents encourage economic growth, stimulate R&D investment, or deliver wealth to innovators?
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The Properties of Property

For the central problem of patent law has always been to balance the incentives to innovation against the imperative to make the benefits of new knowledge available to the widest possible number of people. That’s why patents, unlike land titles, expire after a limited period of time. It was fourteen years in 1790, when Congress passed the Patent Act; seventeen years from date of issue, from 1861 until 1995; and today, twenty years from date of application.
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Startups Battle Over Who Invented Risk-Like War Game First

Many college students (but few others) will recognize the Risk-like game known as Turf that pits thousands of students against each other in a weeks-long online wargame that is similar to the board game Risk, but uses the college campus as the map.
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Law Firm Launches Fuel Cell Patent Site

The law firm Thompson Hine this week announced the launch of a new Web site devoted to archiving fuel cell patents.
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Patent Invalidation

A defense against the charge of infringing a patent claim is to show that the existing patents is invalid and was granted in error; due to the existence of previously undiscovered prior art which proves that the claimed invention is not novel or non-obvious.
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Dennis Crouch on the move to First-to-File

The entirely re-written Section 102 would create a bar to patentability if “the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public” prior to the filing of the patent application (the ‘effective date’)...The rule would also encompass 102(e) prior art, so long as the prior art filing was prior to the effective date. A one-year grace period would remain in place, but only for public disclosures released by the inventors, the assignee, or a signatory to a joint research agreement.
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HP to Consolidate Innovation Efforts, and Focus on Projects

The idea is to place fewer and bigger bets. HP’s chief strategy and technology officer, Shane Robison said, “We are not interested in killing our research, we are interested in killing projects that won’t succeed.”
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We Think

A nice film promoting Charles Leadbetter's new book "We Think".
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Patent challenges have proven effective, which is why they're endangered

New government statistics prove that allowing advocacy groups and private individuals to challenge existing patents is a remarkably effective means of weeding out the worst of them and pruning back the overly broad.
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Blawg Review #151

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Dublin and from the legal blogosphere and welcome this week’s presentation of  Blawg Review at Lex Ferenda hosted by Daithí Mac Síthigh.
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Nerve-tapping neckband used in 'telepathic' chat

A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.
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The United Kingdom as an "Innovation Nation"

The new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has an ambitious goal: to turn the United Kingdom into an “Innovation Nation” that is the world’s most attractive country for innovative businesses, public services, and civil society organizations.
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Bill Gates Testifies on Innovation

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appears before the House Science and Technology Committee to testify.
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Is Intellectual Property Moot?

This weekend, the beautiful surroundings of Worcester College, Oxford, will be filled with scores of intellectual property lawyers as they gather for the 6th International Intellectual Property Moot.
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The Best Innovation Policy

As the headline of this story reads, "The best thing that governments can do to encourage innovation is get out of the way."
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Patent Rights Can Be Lost

Sr. Technology & IP Specialist at Dolcera outlines how patent rights can be lost.
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Patent Failure

As background material, this post reviews the sizable body of empirical research analyzing the impact of patents on R&D investment and economic growth. Three future posts will present new empirical research featured in our book Patent Failure.
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Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we've noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity.
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Bodog asks USPTO to re-examine patents of 1st Technology

"Prior art" could raise a substantial new question of patentability. This week the Bodog online gambling group carried the fight to its adversary, 1st Technology in the patents tussle which has seen Bodog lose its domains and receive a multi-million dollar default judgement in the courts. In its latest move, Bodog has filed a petition for re-examination of patent No. 5,564,001, the patent at issue in the case.
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Complaint Filed in Defamation Lawsuit Against Troll Tracker

On February 27, John Ward filed a complaint in district court alleging defamation against Richard Frenkel (aka the Patent Troll Tracker) and Cisco. Read/download a copy of the complaint via Peter Zura's 271 Patent Blog.
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Patent Troll Tracker Blogger Sued

Troll Tracker author Rick Frenkel, and his employer Cisco, has been sued for defamation by two East Texas attorneys who are players in that district's patent litigation scene.
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New Rules in the N.D. of California Seek to Accomplish More Efficient Patent Trials, with the Help of KSR

Patent litigants, patent rocket dockets, and entities seeking a more streamlined patent litigation should take notice of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California's recent modification of its patent trial rules...the new rules also implement several minor, but very important, changes. For example, the new rules require that the patentee set forth its theories of direct and indirect infringement due to the recent legal developments. And, in light of the Supreme Court's decision in KSR v. Teleflex, if a party is alleging that a patent is invalid under section 103, the party must explain why the prior art renders the claim obvious and must, if applicable, include any relevant combinations of prior art.
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They Call This Intellectual Property?

The already arduous road to patenting a great idea is getting even longer.
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Baseball, Steroids, Patent Reform

Do I really care about juiced-up pitchers? No, not really. I’m just happy Congress is focusing their energy on baseball and getting their minds off something they can really mess up, like “reforming” the patent system.
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Nanotechnology Patents and Copyrights: Strategies for Securing and Protecting IP Rights

Uncertainty as to scope of nanotechnology patents leaves researchers, developers, investors and others confused over IP rights. Such uncertainty will likely lead to patent enforcement challenges and result in litigation. What can patent owners and their counsel do now to protect these IP rights?
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Business and Innovation in China

This presentation was given to a Kellogg Graduate School of Management class preparing for a trip to China to study business practices there. It has basic information on China, statistics on technology and innovation in China, and a brief overview of some of Motorola's history in China.
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Word/Trademark of the Day: "PWNAGE"

For you old folks (over 18) who aren’t up on the latest lingo, the word for the day is Pwn, and its derivatives: Pwned, Pwnage.
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Patent Lawyer Porn

As conditions of my parole release prevent me from posting anything that even remotely approximates patent lawyer porn, the best I can do is to direct you to this list of rather strange patents.
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Managing Intellectual Property magazine shortlists firms for 2008

Awards will be presented on April 3, 2008 to winners from the lists of nominees published here in the Managing IP magazine.
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Italian "troll" goes on the attack

The Italian outfit Sisvel has been busy again. Called by some, Europe’s most notorious patent troll, the company – which licences the right to manage patents relating to MP3 and MPEG technology from the likes of Philips and France Telecom – has gained a reputation for being a very aggressive opponent.
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Unique and rare software patent data and valuable prior art

The Software Patent Institute (SPI) is a nonprofit corporation formed to provide prior art related to software technology with the intention of improving the patent process. We strive to aggregate hard-to-access software data which is not readily available online or in electronic form elsewhere. Our source documents include computer manuals, older textbooks, journal articles, conference proceedings, computer science theses, and other such materials which may contain valuable prior art.
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Ending software patents: Has the time come?

The End Software Patents Web site, here, highlights a long list of diverse businesses that have been sued for allegedly infringing software patents, including the Green Bay Packers, OfficeMax, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods , ADT Security Services, AutoNation, Wal-Mart , Walgreen , Barnes & Noble, Circuit City Stores , Ford Motor , E I du Pont de Nemours and Co. , and so on. In most cases, the companies have been sued because of certain basic, routine functions performed on their Web sites — the way images are displayed, the way data is gathered or transmitted — which are said to infringe software patents.
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Naming Inventions

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. When you do succeed, you’re gonna need a name for your invention. And if, being a scientist, you’re not good at inventing names, you might just name your invention after the number of times you tried, like say, WD-40 or Formula 409.
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How many people work at the Patent and Trademark Office?

It currently takes about 6,500 employees to do the job that the first patent board-Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmond Randolph-did a little over 200 years ago.
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Google Honors a Thief

Professor Marc Randazza writes, "I like how Google sometimes changes its graphic to mark holidays or other important days. Today, this is the image that appears on the Google home page. For those of you who do not know, today is Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday. Hence the cute little old man with the antique phone. What most of you don’t know is that Bell was a fraud and a thief."
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Smart Aleck!

Alexander Graham Bell (3 March 1847 – 2 August 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor and innovator.
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Don't dismiss writing a blog

Rick Spence for the Financial Post writes in his column today, "I have been blogging for three years. But I have been following 'weblogs' (online journals by individuals and businesses) for five or six years, and believe in their potential to help organizations communicate more effectively. Three caveats here: Organizations that blog have to have lots of content other people want, an ability to communicate, and be passionate about writing."
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Intellectual Property protection paramount to economic growth

"IP protection will directly affect every one of our countries' economic stability in the 21st century," said David Chavern, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, opening the 2nd Annual Global Forum on Innovation, Creativity, and Intellectual Property before a global audience of individuals from Brazil, China, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, and the United States. "If we lose our ability to create, innovate, and generate the best artistic, technological, and knowledge-based intellectual property, our businesses and civil society will fail."
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Intellectual Property Careers

"One of the questions that I am asked often when I introduce myself is, why and how did I choose a career in Intellectual Property (IP)," says Arjun Bala, the Chief IP Strategy Consultant of Meta Yage IP Strategy Consulting. He is a patent agent, registered to practice before the Indian Patent Office and works out of the firm's offices in Bangalore and Mumbai. He has experience in variety of areas in Intellectual Property spanning the US, Europe and India.
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The Carnival of Trust

Our post, "Don't Trust IP to the Post Office!" was featured in The Carnival of Trust, hosted this month by Australian patent lawyer and intellectual property strategist Duncan Bucknell on his IP ThinkTank blog.
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