Patent Attorney Vincent LoTempio says, "I'm sorry if I insult anybody by using the derogatory term 'Patent Troll' for a non-practicing entity (NPE) or patent dealer that claims patent rights to technology and demands a licensing payment for the use of the technology. But if the name fits..."

What drives innovation? How does it contribute to the growth of firms, industries, and economies? And do intellectual property rights help or hurt innovation and growth? Uniquely combining microeconomics, macroeconomics, and theory with empirical analysis drawn from the United States and Europe, this book introduces graduate students and advanced undergraduates to the complex process of innovation.

Kevin Thompson, of Davis McGrath LLC in Chicago, practices primarily in the area of domestic and international trademarks, copyrights, and internet law issues. Kevin blogs at Cyberlaw Central, where he hosted Blawg Review #213, which has been honored with the coveted Blawg Review of the Year Award for 2009. Congrats!

With the launch of the iPad, is a trademark dispute brewing between Apple, Inc. and Fujitsu?

iPads, iPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners.

China Law Blog has a guest post by Michael Carrier, professor of law at Rutgers University and author of the book, Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law. Read it at the link in the headline above.

Cisco has filed a patent application on a method that seeds search engine crawlers using intercepted network traffic. Cisco's method includes monitoring data packets exchanged in a computer network over which documents having respective location identifiers are distributed, so as to detect a request to access a given document.

Click on the link above to see this week's selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and on the internet.

"IBM released these inventions through publication as part of its commitment to improving patent quality. Consequently, the inventions are freely available in a public database of prior art and can be cited by patent offices in limiting the scope of patent applications. The company's publication effort may also spur follow-on innovation, which enables dynamic business growth."

IBM, which once again was the top patent producer in the industry in 2009, is now ready to share its IP processes and software with customers. IBM will help customers learn how to identify inventions that could be patented, apply for patents, license their IP and manage their portfolios. IBM also will license its in-house IP management software to customers.

Announcing a new approach to its operations in China, Google states on its official blog, "In the last two decades, China's economic reform programs and its citizens' entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today." Read about Google's new approach to China in the post at the link in the headline above.

Harnessing social media tools to boost sales, connect with customers and increase brand recognition has become standard operating procedure in Corporate America. More than 60% of Fortune 1,000 companies with a Web site will connect to or host some form of online community to build customer relationships, according to Gartner Inc.

Click on the link above to see this week's selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and on the internet.

“The Patents.com upgrade is about both form and substance. The site has numerous upgrades and added features which will provide an opportunity to engage with members of the global patent community in new and exciting ways”, said Paul Ratcliffe, CEO of Patents.com.

AwakenIP has an interview with Bilski and Warsaw. Here's the lede: "Sitting in the U.S. Supreme Court next to my clients, Bernie Bilski and Rand Warsaw, I wondered what they were thinking as the Justices inquired about horse whispering, speed dating, and tax evasion methods. While we on the Bilski v. Kappos litigation team may have anticipated many of the questions from the Justices, what perspectives might these beleaguered inventors have in common with others who may now think twice before filing patent applications or innovating in the first place?" Check out this fascinating interview at the link in the headline above.