Confidentiality Controversy
August 01, 2003
By a slim 17-vote margin, the American Bar Association's House of Delegates during the association's annual meeting changed model rules governing the attorney-client privilege in the hopes of combating corporate fraud.
Risk Modeling, Not Patent Mining: Identifying the Best Patents for Licensing
August 01, 2003
Patent value increases when positive cash flow can be attributed directly to it. Ideal patents for licensing are those already being used (or, perhaps, abused) by others. Unfortunately, identifying unauthorized patent use can be like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. Random patent mining by bibliometric methods is an extremely inefficient method of identifying licensing candidates — but many patent owners continue to use such methods out of habit.
Patent News
August 01, 2003
Highlights of the latest patent news and cases from across the country.
To Develop a Patent Portfolio, Get Active
August 01, 2003
You've conveyed the importance of developing a patent portfolio within your company, hired an IP manager, initiated an inventor incentive program, and budgeted for the costs of protecting your company's IP. Now, you are beginning to wonder where all the inventions are.
Vague Claim Construction Rules Lead to Reversals
August 01, 2003
Why can't federal trial judges figure out what patents mean? As it held en banc in <i>Cybor Corp. v. FAS Technologies, Inc.</i>, 138 F3d 1448 (Fed. Cir. 1998), district court rulings on claim construction —interpretations of the meaning of patent claims — are reviewed de novo as questions of law by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A recent study concluded that more than 40% of all claim construction rulings reviewed by the Federal Circuit in 2001 were reversed in whole or part. Andrew T. Zidel, "Patent Claim Construction in the Trial Courts: A Study Showing the Need for Clear Guidance from the Federal Circuit," 33 Seton Hall L. Rev. 711 (2003).
Maximizing Your Patent Prosecution Dollars: A Few Simple Considerations
August 01, 2003
According to the statistics released by the USPTO (available online at <i>www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm)</i>, approximately 326,508 utility patent applications were filed in 2001 in the United States and 166,045 utility patents were granted. The cost associated with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications last year was a multi-billion dollar business. In this era of cost controls, it is rare to find a patent prosecution department that is not subject to budgetary constraints. In-house patent counsel, as the gatekeepers for prosecution, need to select and work with outside patent counsel to maximize the return on their patent prosecution investment.
News from the FDA
August 01, 2003
The latest information for use in your practice, including rulings, draft guidances, seminars, and more.
Case Briefing
August 01, 2003
Recent rulings of importance to your practice.
New Regs for Reprocessed Single-Use Devices
August 01, 2003
Single-use medical devices (SUDs) are designed and approved by the FDA to be used once and thrown away. The practice of cleaning and reusing disposable medical devices has resulted from hospitals' continuing search for cost-cutting alternatives. The safety and efficacy of reprocessing SUDs has been the subject of significant - and heated - debate.
Counterfeit Drugs: A New Source of Product Liability?
August 01, 2003
Drug counterfeiting robs pharmaceutical manufacturers of their investment in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade dress. It robs pharmacists and consumers of money, for worthless and sometimes dangerous products. It undermines the integrity of and consumer confidence in the American health care industry and in the government's ability to regulate it. More troubling than all these systemic evils, drug counterfeiting has the potential to allow controllable illnesses to ravage patients unchecked, to spread rather than stop disease, and to injure and kill.
