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

Click on the link above to check out IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top Pharma & Biotech intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.

More complex IP management tasks require an interface that provides for quick and easy navigation while allowing power users shortcuts to key features. At the same time, organizations need to visually integrate applications such as InnovationQ into their overall environment. InnovationQ 3.2 accomplishes this with a brand new user interface and configuration features that allow customers to substantially customize visual elements of the application to appear like their other Intranet applications.

Study reinforces the importance of universities in driving entrepreneurial growth. "We found that the MIT alumni-founded companies have a disproportionate importance to their local economies because so many of them are manufacturing, biotech, software or consulting firms that sell to national and world markets," said Edward Roberts, founder and chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.

Power Twitter user, former Mac evangelist, and Alltop cofounder Guy Kawasaki knows a thing or two about innovation. But, he says, that doesn't make it easy.

Spicy IP reports the signing of an agreement between the Indian Government and the EPO to enable access to India’s Traditional Knowledge digital library (TKDL). The library itself is an impressive undertaking! The CAS-IP blog takes a look.

The internet truly scares those who haven't learned how to use it beyond searching for a bookstore on Google. They understand it is about providing education to attract clients, something a yellow page ad can't do. And their goal is to attract clients, not entertain the masses with their witticisms or criticisms and sensational posts to drive traffic. They are the ones who seek out blogging and social media sherpas.

In a survey of information-technology executives, 42 percent of respondents said laid-off workers were the biggest threat caused by the economic slump. Businesses reported losing $4.6 million on average last year as employees and outsiders took company information.

Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, mashes up Chris Brogan's recent blog post, “50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing“.

Intelligent use of Twitter can help you stay on top of current news, get and keep in touch with clients, and develop contacts around the world. It takes some effort to get up and running, but if approached properly, Twitter can be worth it.

Ever wondered who is the most responsible for flooding the US courts with frivolous patent litigation suits over the past decade? While most fingers will inevitably point towards the so called “patent trolls”, the recent study proposed by Nathan Myhrvold in collaboration with the Stanford University Law Professor Mark Lemley is determined to bring the truth to the surface. The reason why this study has already drawn a lot of scepticism is because Myhrvold, a former high-ranking Microsoft Corp. executive, is also a co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, a company labelled as a “non-practising entity (NPE)”, or a “patent troll”.

Last year, the University of Missouri spent $1.4 million commercializing intellectual property while bringing in $6.2 million in licensing income. Now, the university has filed a lawsuit in district court against chemical engineering professor Galen Suppes to regain rights to his research relating to renewable energy.

Key findings from the 2009 Patent Focus Report include: For the first time a Chinese company, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, topped the list of Patent Co-operation Treaty applications. The European Patent Office received 140,700 applications in 2007, up over 3% from the year before. In contrast, the number of patents granted fell from 62,800 in 2006 to 54,700 in 2008. The number of patent examiners in India has remained relatively static - raising questions about the quality of patents coming out of the Indian IP Office. In response, at the end of 2008 India announced 414 new examiner posts to be created by 2012. For the second year in a row, the Japan Patent Office reported the lowest level of approved patent applications since the mid-1990s. Patent approval rates at the US Patent and Trademark Office continue to fall to below 50% of applications examined.

In honor of Black history month, Brett Trout has compiled a list of what he thinks are the top African-American inventors of all time.

"As we honor our past leaders this Presidents today, It is especially noteworthy that Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of technology in society," writes Stephen Albainy-Jenei in his book review of Lincoln the Inventor posted on the Patent Baristas blog this Presidents Day. "He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent (No. 6469, granted May 22, 1849). The patent was for a device to lift riverboats over shoals."

One of the many problems with the patent offices around the world is that they are often unaware of prior art, granting patents for so-called inventions that are, in fact, common knowledge. In the computer world, there have been a number of efforts to provide prior art to patent offices, either after a patent is granted, in order to have it rescinded, or – even better – as part of the examination process. That's fine for a community with easy access to online source materials, but what about other fields, where prior art exists in other forms like books, or perhaps orally?

The CIPO's Canadian Patents Database now displays representative drawings in patent records.

Katherine McGuire, attorney for Woods Oviatt Gilman, presented "Staying in the Know — Prior Art Searches" as part of the Offices of Technology Transfer's For Investors, Researchers and Entrepreneurs Series at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Believe it or not, IBM has filed for a patent on tech that heightens our reflexes so that we could, theoretically, dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix.

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

Click on the link above to check out IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top Pharma & Biotech intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.

Ft.com has a very helpful article on how to handle the economic downturn in China and in India, written by Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, professor of operations, technology and innovation management at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School (h/t to CalPolyMBA blog) The article is entitled, "Managing in a downturn:Looking long term on the passage to ‘Chindia.’" and it sets out "five suggestions that can help companies design a [long term strategy.

Marking the end of the Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival takes place on the 15th day of the year - during the first full moon. People across Mainland China and Taiwan celebrate the festival in many colorful ways, from fiery folk traditions to firework displays and laser shows. Unfortunately, this year's festival ended on a somewhat sour note as an unauthorized fireworks show set an unoccupied skyscraper on fire in downtown Beijing, and one firefighter lost his life fighting the blaze. Collected here at the Boston.com link above are 27 photos of the festival, and a handful from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel fire in Beijing.

"Almost nothing has been invented yet."

Guy Kawasaki, founder of Garage Technology Ventures and Alltop, the digital magazine rack, has links to the best of the blogosphere about inventions at patents.alltop.com and innovation.alltop.com, which are worth a special look today, on National Inventors' Day, this year marking the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Thomas Alva Edison.

Mass layoffs are painful events for employees and employers alike. But for employers, increasingly more than just personnel are leaving their facilities: researchers estimate that data theft cost businesses $1 trillion in 2008.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Microsoft its 10,000th U.S. patent for surface computing technology.

Global Community Awards $50,000 Payment in Close of First Winning Patent Validity Study; Seven New Patent Studies Posted

"Most prior art is intimately known to somebody: the person who invented it, a student who wrote or read a paper about it, a user of the product, etc. If one of these people fortuitously happens upon a patent, he can provide a clincher instance of prior art in a few minutes." - Andy Oram of O'Reilly Media

Conducting an IP audit is a way for a firm to assess the nature and value of its intellectual property assets. Such assessments may be critical and more commonplace in certain industries, such as IT and pharmaceuticals. However, in the wake of legislative changes and the current economic downturn, the potential value in conducting an IP audit may have become clearer in other industries as well.

Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen. The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when they're done. Pattie Maes of the lab's Fluid Interfaces group said the research is aimed at creating a new digital "sixth sense" for humans.

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

Click on the link above to check out IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top Pharma & Biotech intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.

On December 27, 2008, the Standing Committee of People’s National Congress approved amendments of the Chinese Patent Law. This third amendment aims at enhancing the innovation ability and enforcing protection of patent rights. Among other provisions noted in this guest post on the Patent Baristas blog, there's this: The “prior art” is now explicitly defined as the state of the art known worldwide to the public prior to the application/priority date. This raises the bar of the novelty requirements.

Blawg Review #197 is hosted on Legal Blog Watch this week by John Bringardner from LegalTech New York, where thousands have gathered at the Hilton Hotel for some of the the most important legal technology events of the year.

If I see my shadow this morning, I'm going back to California for the next six weeks.

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

Click on the link above to check out IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top Pharma & Biotech intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.