The New York Times recently reported on the emerging patent marketplace. The idea is that a market where patents can be bought and sold would reduce the costs of patent litigation and promote innovation. What are the prospects for success of a patent marketplace?
Patents As Commodities?
For a patent marketplace to operate efficiently, it would certainly [...]
Will the smart grid develop through proprietary intellectual or open innovation? To what extent can both contribute to the smart grid’s growth? The answers to these questions will have a huge influence on how the smart grid works and what it ultimately does for energy efficiency. In this post, I offer a few thoughts on [...]
In this post, I continue to examine how small businesses and startups can avoid common misconceptions about intellectual property. This time, I turn to patent issues that small and emerging companies must consider to maximize the value they create and capture from their intellectual property.
As noted in the previous post, these misconceptions come from an [...]
How long should biologics enjoy protection from competition? That hotly debated question in Congress has produced a wide range of opinions, from 5, 7 to 12 years. Some Congresspeople favor a 5 year period, Howard Dean, the National Venture Capital Association, and Senator Edward Kennedy all support 12 or more years of data exclusivity for [...]
In The Prior Art blog, Joe Mullin wrote yesterday about GOOD Magazine’s profile of Erich Spangenberg, a highly successful “patent troll.” Mullin’s main beef with the article is GOOD’s comparison of Spangenberg, and patent trolls more generally, to Robin Hood. Mullin argues that in the case of patents, there is no poor person to whom [...]
The patent troll loses one.
Honeywell’s intellectual property licensing unit, Honeywell Intellectual Property International (HIPI), recently lost a patent infringement suit that it brought against Novatek, a Taiwanese LCD panel manufacturer. What’s notable is that Honeywell sued seven other defendants for infringing the same patent, and all of those defendants settled. Novatek refused to pay Honeywell [...]
Centocor Ortho Biotech, a business unit of Johnson & Johnson, today won a $1.67 billion award for Abbott Labs’ infringement of its patent on Remicade. Centocor’s Remicade and Abbott’s Humira are competitors in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Humira is Abbott’s best-selling pharmaceutical. Abbott’s success has relied on Humira. Humira has gained FDA approvals [...]