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Archive - November 2008
Europe's Competition DG slams big pharma and calls for the Community patent
In what must count as one of the least surprising pieces of news ever to have come out of Brussels, the European Commission’s Competition DG has announced that its preliminary findings in an on-going investigation of the pharmaceutical industry are that big pharmaceutical companies are very bad. They game the patent system, prevent generics from entering markets and make medicines much more expensive than they could be. According to a press release issued today: ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 28 November 2008 @ 4:41PM
EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal turns down WARF stem cell application
The Enlarged Board of Appeals at the European Patent Office has refused an application from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for a patent relating to human stem cells. In a press release issued today (27th November), the EPO states that the Board decided that “it is not possible to grant a patent for an invention which necessarily involves the use and destruction of human embryos”. It goes on: “The EBoA stressed, however, that its decision does not ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 27 November 2008 @ 4:40PM
AUTM scoops leading international IP award
The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) has become the fifth recipent of the Fifth City of Venice Award for Intellectual Property. At a ceremony in the Palazzo Ducale in St Mark's Squarelast night, AUTM vice-president Kevin Cullen, from the University of Glasgow, receive the award on behalf of the association from Paolo Baratta, the president of the Venice Biennale. Founded in 1974 to promote university technology transfer in the United States and Canada AUTM ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 27 November 2008 @ 6:21AM
European ICT standards-setting is not the job of governments, says new group
On 20th November, a diverse group of stakeholders got together in Brussels to attend an open forum entitled Improving the Global Standards System: Addressing the Needs of ICT Stakeholders. This took place the day after the European Commission held a one day workshop entitled IPR in ICT standardisation, also in Brussels, while the Enterprise DG has also produced a series of recommendations relating to ICT standardisaiton. Two of the organisers of the 20th November forum were ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 26 November 2008 @ 6:07PM
Jaw jaw has to be better than war war as US patent bar members are up in arms again
The naming of three new members of the Patent Policy Advisory Committee seems to have got a lot of people hot under the collar in the United States. The Patent Docs blog, for example, approvingly quotes Hal Wegner, who in a recent email to his newsletter subscribers is reported to have described the appointment of Stephen Pinkos to the committee as “part of an effort to "whitewash" the incompetence of the current management” at the USPTO. Furthermore, the most ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 26 November 2008 @ 10:21AM
IP is a key to an Indian and Chinese challenge of US leadership
There has been a lot of coverage of a recent report prepared by the US National Intelligence Council which states that by 2025 the United States will be facing a serious challenge to its hegemony from countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia. If you have not read the report, it is well worth doing so if you have a spare couple of hours. Even more instructive, if you have a spare four hours or so, would be to read it alongside the EPO’s Scenarios for the ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 25 November 2008 @ 10:02PM
No free ride in battle against patent trolls, says RPX co-founder
More details have emerged about RPX Corp, the anti-NPE (troll) venture first covered on this blog back in September. Designed as a defensive patent fund, RPX will invite companies to contribute between $35,000 and $4.9 million a year, depending on size, to join up. The money received will be used to acquire patent portfolios and, in some cases, to take out licences on patents, that might otherwise have been asserted against members. The first two companies to get involved ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 24 November 2008 @ 5:13PM
Judges condemn Europe's stalled progress on Community patent and court
Delegates at the Fourth European Judges’ Forum, which has recently ended in Venice, have issued a statement deploring the apparent slowdown in negotiations over the creation of a Community patent and a single European patent jurisdiction. The Venice Resolution IV urges “all member states of the European Union to give full support to both initiatives”, but states that, if they are unable to, “both projects should be realised by using the possibilities of ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 21 November 2008 @ 1:23PM
Draft Chamber of Commerce USPTO report now available online
When I was over in the States just before the presidential election, I managed to get hold of a draft copy of a report being put together under the auspices of the US Chamber of Commerce. Entitled Recommendations for Consideration by the Incoming Administration Regarding the US Patent and Trademark Office, the report is a piece of work that has been written by some of the most prominent names in the US patent community. It aims to advise the incoming administration on the issues ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 20 November 2008 @ 6:58AM
Study shows that the US patent system is a vital driver for small, innovative companies
A fascinating piece of work has just been published in the United States. It is entitled An Analysis of Small Business Patents by Industry and Firm Size and has been put together by Anthony Breitzman and Diana Hicks on behalf of the US Small Business Administration, a federal agency that was established in 1953 “to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall ...
Posted by Joff Wild, IAM Magazine on 18 November 2008 @ 6:09AM
