First title page of the scientific journal Nature, November 4th, 1869.
Summary: News about patents, ranging from action against software patents in the United States to patent trolls and their use of software patents to terrify US-based businesses
Brett Smith from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has just issued a call for mail to be sent to the USPTO, urging it “to stop issuing softwar
Software patent wars have always existed: companies fought them (or paid up), sometimes quietly, sometimes making a big fuss. However, something has changed over the last year or so: people started getting directly affected by software patents (ask anybody wanting a Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia for Christmas 2011...).
Apple has always been a little over possessive of “multitouch,” but today it appears the USPTO has put an end to that unhealthy affair. In a preliminary ruling, the multitouch patent was found invalid on all 20 points.
The patent dramas of the last couple of years have included fights between the very biggest tech titans — Oracle v. Google; Samsung v. Apple; etc. — those picking on the little guys — remember patent troll Lodsys suing all those iOS developers?
Once again, your prior art searching on Groklaw proved useful.
The USPTO on September 16 issued an order granting Fortinet's petition to reexamine the validity of the Trend Micro patent on antivirus functionality, the 5,623,600 patent, on the grounds that a "substantial new question of patentability" exists based on prior art now being considered.
Written by: Graeme Philipson | Published in: RegulationThe US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued 253,155 utility patents in 2012, the highest annual number on record and an increase of approximately 13% over 2011.
In a stunning turn of events, the US Patent and Trademark Office has filed an initial ruling declaring Apple’s rubber-banding patent invalid. If you recall, the patent focuses on an effect that can cause a page on a device to bounce back up after a user has swiped to the bottom of the screen on a mobile device.
The USPTO has issued a preliminary notice indicating that the famous ‘Steve Jobs’ patent, which describes basic multitouch technology including scrolling, might be invalid, according to a first Office action uncovered by FOSS Patents.
Summary: Patent system leniency in the United States is causing legal chaos; the FSFE and FFII try to stop it from entering Europe ushered by lobbyists, countering a Microsoft mobbyist (Florian) in the process
A MAJOR shakeup in the patent world may be catalysed or caused in part by the LG-Sony patent fight, which is proving yet again that the patent system harms customers.
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