This column highlights some of the more notable recent online notices, newsletters, and blogs dealing with IP prosecution issues.

Patently-O – a blog written by Dennis Crouch – www.patentlyo.com.

  • On February 25, 2020, Professor Crouch discussed a Federal Circuit opinion, HZNP Finance Limited, et al. v. Actavis Laboratories UT, Inc., 2017-2149 (Fed. Cir., Feb. 25, 2020) (en banc) (PDF). The Federal Circuit considered the rare “patent trap” of the transitional phrase “consisting essentially of.” (Details). On February 26, 2020, Professor Crouch provided another post to “calm down” concerns about this “patent trap.” (Details).
  • On February 29, 2020, Professor Crouch made plots of data he analyzed regarding the use of claim terms, “said,” “means,” “whereby,” and “wherein” over the last fifteen years.  (Details).

IPWatchdog – a patent law blog – IPwatchdog.com

  • On January 30, 2020, a post by Eileen McDermott related USPTO user complaints at a public forum on the PAIR system (Patent Application Information Retrieval) as having serious issues. Users present stated that their staff is spending several hours a day to retrieve basic information about patent applications such that “due diligence can now be a four-hour project because Public PAIR is so overloaded.”  (https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2020/01/30/users-lament-pair-changes-uspto-forum/id=118409/).

Patent Docs – A patent blog – patentdocs.typepad.com/

  • In a February 25, 2020 post by Kevin E. Noonan, he discussed a Federal Circuit opinion, Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recreations Products Inc., et al., 2019-1080 (Fed. Cir., Feb. 19, 2020) (PDF) that distinguished willful infringement and actual notice of a patent as it related to marking of patented goods made or sold by a patentee. (Full details).

AIPLA – the profession’s national organization – see AIPLA.org

  • LAIPLA will hold its 2020 Spring Meeting May 6-8, 2019 in San Antonio, Texas More information on this meeting and other events is available here.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Chisum Patent Academy will hold one seminar in 2020, in Boston, Massachusetts on October 1-2, 2020. More information available here.

For more information about any of the patent topics mentioned consult Patent Application Practice. Trademark topics are discussed in Trademark Registration Practice. Both are published by West and updated twice a year. For patent prosecution or litigation questions, contact Fred Douglas at 949/293-0442 or by email at fdouglas@cox.net.