Archive for the ‘Medical Device Patenting News’ Category
Patent Reform Act of 2007 to Put Brakes on Frivolous Patents
Recently, the Patent Reform Act of 2007 was approved by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. It closely tracks a similar bill passed by the Senate Committee last week. This acquires added significance in light of the fact that numerous companies had put forward a series of complaints concerning an increase in the number of frivolous patents in recent years. Sen. Patrick Leahy informed that infringe... Read More
Both Medical Patents and Medical Patent Infringement Lawsuits Surge
Not surprisingly, yet another article is touting the surge in medical patents in the past few years. According to an article in Law.com, medical process patents are being issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office at twice the rate they were in the 1980’s. According to the article: "Many physicians are constantly coming up with new techniques and devices. They... Read More
Patent Litigation at an All-time High
The latest issue of the New York Times carries an article which discusses the inherent value of patents. Other than touching on an age old debate, the article also draws attention to the rising trend of patent litigation – Domestic litigation costs alone, meanwhile, soared to $16 billion in 1999 from $8 billion in 1997. Things have probably become worse since then. For instance, patent litig... Read More
Electronic Patent Application Practice at the U.S.P.T.O.
The patent office is beginning a pilot program of sending electronic office actions and replacing the paper version. USPTO will let a few participants into the program starting from August 31. Not only is this convenient, this would be a step forward in rapidly clearing the bottlenecks in a situation where the patent office is being flooded with patent applications, riding on the wave of the boom ... Read More
Value of Patents in Productivity and Growth
How important are patents to the growth on an economy? A report, ‘Economic Effects of Intellectual Property-Intensive Manufacturing’, by economists Robert Shapiro and Nam Pham throws some light on this issue. According to these renowned economists, most of the value of America’s large businesses can be traced to patents and trademarks. An excerpt – The creation and adoption... Read More
