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Man behind the Micron NPE deal has also done business with Intellectual Ventures
Joe Mullin at Corporate Counsel reports that patents formerly owned by Intellectual Ventures are currently being litigated in an East Texas court. The plaintiff in the case is an NPE called Oasis Research LLC, which was established back in June by one John Desmarais. Yes, the very same Desmarais who set up Round Rock Research last year prior to acquiring over 20% of the entire patent portfolio owned by Micron Technologies. Last year this blog looked at IV's involvement with Ray Niro ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 02 September 2010
Making the case for patents by making a case against them
Using the Paul Allen litigation as a hook, a piece entitled "Software patents hurt everyone, but especially SMBs", written by PC World's Katherine Noyes, rehashes a lot of the old arguments made against software patents. It's a remarkably unsurprising piece that adds nothing to the debate. However, my eyes were drawn to one particular claim that she makes: "By their very definition, patents reduce the sharing of new ideas." Of course, there are a million and one ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 01 September 2010
Allen v the internet: a lot of noise, not too much heat
I am not sure if anyone has noticed, but Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, has initiated legal proceedings against what seems to be almost every big player in the internet search and e-commerce world (though not Microsoft and, more surprising perhaps, Amazon). It is claimed that the companies named infringe on four patents held by Interval Licensing, a company owned by Allen which was set up to monetise the R&D work done by Interval ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 30 August 2010
Former Fujitsu IP head becomes first member of IV executive board based outside the US
Masanobu Katoh has been appointed Intellectual Ventures' country head for Japan. He joins the firm after a 30 year career at Fujitsu where, among other things, he was head of the law and IP unit. In addition Katoh is to serve as an executive vice-president of IV corporate. This makes him a senior executive in the firm's overall global management and so part of the team responsible for planning and implementing IV's future trajectory. I ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 30 August 2010
Acacia turns privateer as businesses decide if you can't beat them join them
I got an email from regular IAM blog correspondent Terry Ludlow, the founder and CEO of Chipworks. He wrote in response to two pieces of recent news from Acacia. The first was an announcement that the firm has secured institutional backing to establish a fund that is authorised to raise up to $250 million for the purposes of buying, licensing and enforcing IP "consisting primarily of patents, patent rights, and patented technologies". The second that this self same ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 28 August 2010
German patent funds are still up and running - REVISED
Although IP Bewertung (IPB) has filed for bankruptcy, I understand that the patent funds it managed on behalf of Deutsche Bank are still operating and are now under the control of a Munich-based boutique called Clou Partners. This has been around for 10 years and specialises in intangibles. I am told that it was Clou that first came up with the idea for the funds and it received close to 3% of the €200 million that they raised. It is now Clou's job to turn that investment into ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 26 August 2010
World's first patent exchange inches towards launch; listees to be named next month
Last week I spoke with Gerard Pannekoek, the CEO of IP Exchange International, or IPXI. He told me how moves towards getting the exchange off the ground and open for trading are progressing. If he is right, it looks like we could, at last, be getting close to take-off. The hope is that the first tranche of IP owners that have agreed to list on the exchange will be announced in September. That said, IPXI has been a slow burner: deadlines - for what they are worth - have been missed in ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 24 August 2010
ECJ Advocate General says no to a single EU patent litigation system - UPDATED
In a non-binding opinion, the Advocate General of the Europan Court of Justice has ruled that "as it stands" the current proposals for a unified patent litigation system in Europe are "incompatible" with EU treaties. The opinion was actually issued at the beginning of July - but in French only. You can read it on the EP Law Patent Blog. The opinion was issued after an ECJ hearing that took place in May. This followed a referral from ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 23 August 2010
Pioneering German patent fund business files for bankruptcy
The IP Finance blog is reporting that Hamburg-based IP Bewertung filed for bankruptcy last month. Although I have not seen any other report about this, the story was filed by Rob Harrison - who is based in Germany and knows the market there very well. Among other things, IPB ran three so-called patent funds on behalf of Deutsche Bank and Rob says in his IP Finance piece that it is not clear as yet what has happened to these. In an IAM blog written in 2008, I summarised a ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 22 August 2010
Good news for the UK's IP law service providers and perhaps for others too
After the storm comes the bright blue sky. Following a few very tricky doom-laden years in which the global downturn has exacted a heavy toll on many in the IP legal profession, things could be changing - in the UK at least. That is, if Peter Fellows, managing director of the specialist private practice IP recruitment agency Fellows and Associates, is to be believed. In an online piece written by Fellows, which I came across today, he states that "things are getting ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 19 August 2010
