Archive for July, 2007

Both Medical Patents and Medical Patent Infringement Lawsuits Surge

Not surprisingly, yet another article is touting the surge in medical patents in the past few years.  According to an article in Law.com, medical process patents are being issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office at twice the rate they were in the 1980’s.  According to the article: "Many physicians are constantly coming up with new techniques and devices. They... Read More

Patent Litigation at an All-time High

The latest issue of the New York Times carries an article which discusses the inherent value of patents. Other than touching on an age old debate, the article also draws attention to the rising trend of patent litigation – Domestic litigation costs alone, meanwhile, soared to $16 billion in 1999 from $8 billion in 1997. Things have probably become worse since then. For instance, patent litig... Read More

Electronic Patent Application Practice at the U.S.P.T.O.

The patent office is beginning a pilot program of sending electronic office actions and replacing the paper version. USPTO will let a few participants into the program starting from August 31. Not only is this convenient, this would be a step forward in rapidly clearing the bottlenecks in a situation where the patent office is being flooded with patent applications, riding on the wave of the boom ... Read More