IP P®OSPE©TIVE

Things have been warp-speed at the office lately, so I apologize for being about 3 weeks late on this. Better late than never. Ocean Tomo was asked by Bloomberg Business Week to use their PatentRatings platform to rank the 25 most inventive companies in the world. OT's patented program ranked companies based on the most valuable patent portfolios. Read more about the rankings and the results at Ocean Tomo's press release. A good James Malackowski quote from the release: "The ultimate value of a patent ... Read More

At a town hall meeting in Elyria, Ohio on Friday, President Obama took questions from the audience.  One local businessman asked the President about patent protection, expressing his frustrations that large corporations are holding large patent portfolios simply to stifle innovation.  The following is Ohio.com's report of the President's response: ''We need a patent system that encourages innovation and doesn't lock in big monopolies from trying to get another 10 years on a patent that prevents new products into the system,'' Obama said. The ... Read More

Word comes from the IAM blog that the Annex on Intellectual Property to UNCITRAL's Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions, about which I have been regularly posting for almost a year now, may be solidified as soon as February (the next session for Working Group VI, charged with the responsibility for the Annex), and offered for adoption at the next Commission session in June/July 2009.  The Legislative Guide will be a guide on secured transactions offered to all member states of the UN in an ... Read More

The Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI) has announced that it has hired a new President, Gerard J. Pannekoek.   This looks promising for IPXI, as Pannekoek was the former President and COO of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world's first multi-national and multi-sector exchange for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions.  His leadership there led to a successful IPO within twelve months of his employment. The Intellectual Property Exchange International explains itself as follows: The Intellectual Property Exchange International provides an innovative approach to ... Read More

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the appointed non-profit and independent governor of the internet.  On September 30th, ICANN announced the signing of the Affirmation of Commitments, a document confirming the mission and duty of the corporation in regulating and defining the internet for the rest of the world to use.  ICANN's latest project is the unleashing of New Top Level Domains to be used alongside .com and .net for website domain locators.  Among those soon to be allowed ... Read More

China's Standardization Adminstration (SAC) recently posted a draft patent regulation titled "Regulations for the Administration of the Formulation and Revision of Patent-Involving National Standards."  After reading some analysis of the draft standard-setting regulation, it seems that these standards are not far off from many Western patent-office standards and patent regulations.  There are, as expected, a few concerns.  One of the major concerns is found in Article 8 of the draft regulation, which purports to deem any company which fails to satisfy disclosure ... Read More

As patent reform discussions heat up, it is important that intellectual property professionals, inventors, businesses, and academics stay abreast of the issues and have a common forum for sharing points of view.  Apparently, David Kappos and his USPTO team are on top of this, because the USPTO has launched a public blog called the Director's Forum, where David Kappos himself will be publicly addressing its readers with the ongoings of the USPTO.  Transparency is key to the advancement of the IP market, and ... Read More

Oral arguments in the Bilski case began yesterday before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Gathering from the numerous blogs and other sites covering the arguments, it is apparent that the Justices were ready, questioning both sides incessantly on their arguments' weaknesses.  A large question in the minds of the Justices is whether the authors of the 1952 Patent Act contemplated patenting business methods.  The patentability of business methods awaits its fate.  There are numerous blogs with full coverage of the arguments.  See IP Watchdog, ... Read More

President Obama named Victoria A. Espinel the first IP czar, charged with the responsibility of enforcing the nation's intellectual property laws.  The position is a product of the ProIP Act, signed into legislation last year.  Ms. Espinel has served as an advisor on intellectual property issues to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Finance Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. More on the appointment and Victoria A. Espinel HERE. Read More

The Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum has published a ranking of countries for strength of intellectual property laws. The latest report, which is put together after a study of numerous world economic indicators, identifies Singapore as the country with the strongest intellectual property laws, while the United States is ranked 19th.  For the rest of the list, see HERE.  For analysis on the gaps in proof stemming from this survey, see Joff's comments HERE over at the IAM blog. Read More