Hot Topics
Is It Death or Merely “A Flesh Wound”: Business Methods After Bilski
In Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, Sir Arthur is confronted by the indomitable Black Knight while attempting to cross a bridge. After a rousing fight, Sir Arthur cuts off the Black Knight’s arms and then informs the skeptical Black Knight that he’s “got no arms left.” The Black Knight, after overcoming his disbelief by looking down, rallies and states: “It’s just a flesh wound.”
Egyptian Goddess Gets a Manicure: Test for Design Patents Gets Trimmer
With a decent set of drawings in hand, most design patent applications are only a few clicks away from being ready to file and in some instances only a few months away from issuing. Despite the simplicity often associated with design patents, the straightforward infringement test pronounced by the U.S. Supreme Court over a century ago had in recent years become less like reading a picture book and more like translating hieroglyphics.
Trademark Hot Topics Select Keyword Case Summaries
Keyword advertising, which is paying to link certain “keywords” to an advertisement in the form of a web page on the Internet, has become a substantial source of trademark litigation. A disputed issue in many of these cases is whether such keyword use constitutes “use in commerce” under the Lanham Act. The Trademark Litigation Subcommittee has prepared a summary of the notable court decisions to address this issue.
2008: The Year of Indefiniteness
The second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 requires that a patent specification conclude with one or more claims that particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of the patent. For years, however, the “definiteness” requirement, as it is known, was largely pro forma, and rarely were patents invalidated for indefiniteness. But, as Bob Dylan famously wrote, “times, they are a-changin’.” In a spate of recent decisions, the courts and the USPTO have both given teeth to a once toothless requirement.
