IBM has assigned 41 patents and one pending application to Finjan Blue, a subsidiary of cybersecurity company Finjan Holdings, which owns IP covering cybersecurity. The deal was revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, May 15, the same day the deal took place.[link]

(NEW YORK) Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced the addition of Deepro R. Mukerjee and Lance Soderstrom as partners in its Intellectual Property (IP) practice group in New York and Dr. Jitendra “Jitty” Malik as a partner in the IP group in Charlotte.[link]

HTC Corp., a Taiwanese corporation, and its subsidiary HTC America, Inc., based out of Washington, were sued for patent infringement in the District of Delaware. HTC Corp. and HTC America moved to dismiss for improper venue. The district court found that venue was improper with respect to HTC America, but was proper for HTC Corp. HTC Corp. then petitioned the Federal Circuit for a writ of mandamus directing the district court to vacate its order denying HTC Corp.’s motion to dismiss.[link]

In early May, the online creator advocacy groupContent Creators Coalition (c3) published a digital ad calling on Congress to hold hearings to look into various illegal activities which have been enabled by abuse of online platforms maintained by Google. [link]

In 2011, Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Altaire”) and Paragon Bioteck, Inc.’s (“Paragon”) entered into an agreement to pursue U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approval for Altaire’s products. [link]

It's not easy to teach drones to fly quickly and safely. You usually have to create an elaborate proving ground with real obstacles, and a single mishap could prove very costly. [link]

A Texas federal jury has found that consumer electronics company HTC did not infringe patents asserted by a former rocket scientist employed by the US government. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division announced the decision on Friday, May 11.[link]

On April 30th, alternative fuel vehicle manufacturer Nikola Corporation filed a complaint alleging claims of design patent infringement against electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. Filed in the District of Arizona, Nikola’s complaint accuses Tesla of copying various elements of design patents held by Nikola in the area of heavy duty semi truck cabin design.[link]

For many years now, the majority of the popular press has spun a tale of how patents hinder innovation, and that organizations or individuals who lawfully assert the rights associated with them are unreasonable to ask for compensation for this inventive output.[link]

Once you pass the patent bar exam how does one learn to actually practice? Like so many things in life, experience is the best teacher, but finding a job without some experience can be extremely difficult. [link]

Appellant General Hospital Corp. (“GHC”) appealed the Board’s dismissal of an interference because the claims of its involved patent application lacked sufficient written description. GHC also appealed the Board’s denial of its contingent motion to add a new claim.[link]

Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC said attorneys from its class action and intellectual property group filed a class action complaint “against the United States and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for damages to Christy, Inc. and a class of other patent holders whose property was taken by the USPTO without compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.”[link]

Lex Machina recently released a Hatch-Waxman ANDA Litigation 2018 Report which looks at recent trends in patent litigation related to generic pharmaceuticals being introduced to the U.S. marketplace. Key takeaways from the report include a recent rebound in the number of cases related to abbreviated new drug applications(ANDA) filed in U.S. district court as well as a significant increase in ANDA case filings in a particular district currently facing a shortage in its judicial bench.[link]

The Federal Circuit’s decision in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, No. 2016-2707, addresses the complicated topic of patent eligibility in the pharmaceutical space. [link]

I recently had the opportunity to interview USPTO Director Andrei Iancu. In a wide-ranging interview where no questions or topics were ruled out of bounds, we discussed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), inter partes review, patent eligibility and more. [link]

On Friday, May 11th, Mountain View, CA-based personal genetics testing company 23AndMe filed a lawsuit alleging patent infringement claims against Lehi, UT-based genealogy firm Ancestry.com. The suit, filed in the Northern District of California, targets Ancestry’s use of a DNA testing kit,  which allegedly infringes upon a genetic testing patent held by 23AndMe.[link]

Suppose you are valuing a large patent portfolio with issued patents and pending applications in more than 20 countries throughout the world. One of your tasks would be to project how much royalties each patent could collect in each of the subject countries over time. How many years should you model out your anticipated revenue streams? The fewest number of years when considering the term of the license agreement, obsolesce of the subject technology and the expiration of the patent.[link]

My story of abuse and patent promises broken by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) usually falls on sympathetic ears. The fact that both Telebrands and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have teamed up to rob me of my patent rights is unjustifiable and outrageous. But I’m surviving. Even if the lawyers take 70 cents of every dollar I’ve earned, it leaves me with 30 cents. Not bad.[link]

“I do worry that the current state of Section 101 in patentable subject matter weakens the robustness of our IP system in the affected area,” Iancu said.[link]

A lawsuit filed in China last week accused Beijing-based Xiaomi of developing mobile devices which contain patent infringing technology.[link]