AIA

Patent trolls have been in the spotlight of national attention in the past year, as President Obama addressed the problem in his Fireside Hangout and a White House report attempted to quantify the impact of abusive litigation. Officially known as Patent Assertion Entities, or PAEs, these companies purchase patents and bring patent infringement claims as a ...

Amidst current discussions on the “problem” posed by software patents, David Kappos, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), recently delivered a speech defending the existence of such patents. Kappos argued that innovations in the software industry are no less worthy of patent protection compared to other inventions, and ...

Under the recently passed Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”), generic drug manufacturers will be able to use post grant review (“PGR”) to effectively invalidate or constrain pharmaceutical patents. The efficiency of PGR and the lower burden of proof for the PGR process in comparison to patent litigation makes PGR an attractive new tool for generic drug manufacturers. Furthermore, ...

On September 16th, 2011, President Obama signed the (Leahy-Smith) America Invents Act. The official White House Press Release and countless blogs describe the Act as “the most significant reform of the Patent Act since 1952.” One of the stated objectives of the Act is to let American companies and inventors ...