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By now, patent attorneys who do a fair amount of patent application drafting and patent prosecution should be well versed in the fairly recent PTO rule changes dealing with various aspects of patent prosecution. Rather than discuss those rule changes, this article discusses 10 tips for better patent application drafting and patent prosecution. The first two tips deal with patent application drafting, the next four tips deal with prosecution of a patent application, the next three tips deal with things to do after receiving a notice of allowance, and the last tip deals with all stages of patent prosecution.

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In today's Internet age, the most valuable asset belonging to many of the world's most successful organizations is "source code" &mdash; the programming underlying all software operating systems, databases, and applications. As a result, keeping source code from leaking to the public is of paramount concern, especially in light of the fact that source code published over the Internet can proliferate at an exponential pace with little more than a series of mouse clicks. If confidential code is released into the public domain, even inadvertently, it risks losing any trade secret protection it once enjoyed. <i>See, e.g., Linkco, Inc. v. Fujitsu Ltd.,</i> 230 F. Supp. 2d 492, 498-99 (S.D.N.Y. 2002). In short, once the "genie" is out of the bottle, it cannot be put back in.

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Highlights of the latest intellectual property news and cases from around the country.

In late June 2004, the European Community acceded to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Madrid Protocol on the international registration of trademarks. This development is likely to have a long-standing effect for U.S. trademark owners who wish to obtain trademark protection in the European Community. Indeed, since the inception of the European Community Trademark (CTM) system, U.S. applicants have positioned themselves as leaders in filing new CTM applications. According to recent statistics of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), U.S. trademark owners filed approximately 90,000 CTM applications, which constitutes close to 25% of all applications filed. For comparison, the second and third places taken by Germany and the United Kingdom, with 62,000 and 47,000 applications, respectively, are markedly behind the United States in CTM filings.

What exactly does it mean to interpret claims "in light" of the specification? Do the descriptions and examples in a patent specification affect the interpretation of the patent's claims where there is no express statement that a specialized definition is being given to claim terms? Absent a specific glossary section, is it even necessary to read the specification or should the public be free to read and interpret the claims in a vacuum? Within 4 days, two separate panels of the Federal Circuit delivered seemingly conflicting answers to these questions, highlighting a growing rift regarding the significance of the specification and prosecution history to claim interpretation.

Most find it to be a nuisance. Advertisers consider it to be cutting edge. Either way, spyware (or adware) is receiving a lot of attention recently in the press, in the courts and in legislatures around the country.

eBay Inc.'s savvy user agreement protects it from liability for defamatory postings on its Web site, an appeals court has ruled. But the court's decision left vulnerable other online content providers.