Blackboard Patent Suit Stirs Up Academic and Open Source Hornet’s Nests–Blackboard v. Desire2Learn
By John Ottaviani Blackboard, Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc., No. 9:06-cv-00155-RHC (complaint filed July 26, 2006) Although this story does not seem to have hit the mainstream press yet, there has been a firestorm in the academic and open source communities…
Employee Blogging Risks
By Eric Goldman A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at the North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology’s symposium called “Attack of the Blog: Legal Horrors in the Workplace.” (I definitely did not pick the name!) In the morning,…
Animal-Related Patent Trends
By Eric Goldman Wired runs an article on Patently Silly, one of the blogs tracking goofy patents. The article notes the implicit contradiction in the trends for patenting pet pampering products and patenting new and more effective ways of producing…
Top Cyberspace IP Cases of 2005
By John Ottaviani (with help from Eric) Cyberspace continues to present fascinating and novel intellectual property issues. What follows is our attempt at identifying some of the more significant “Cyberspace Intellectual Property” decisions of 2005. Once again, it was quite…
Wheel PTO Examiner Profiled
By Eric Goldman Washington Post runs an amusing but surprisingly insightful story about the PTO’s chief examiner of wheel and axle patents, Russell Stormer. One would think that after 5,500 years, there would be few new inventions in the world…
Madison on Drafting Local Court Rules for Patent Cases
By Eric Goldman Michael Madison gives an interesting account of his experiences drafting local court rules for patent cases. While the idea of creating some incentives for parties to engage in forum-shopping may sound good in theory, I wonder how…
Can Congress Provide Copyright Protection to Software?
Aharonian v. Gonzales, No. 04-05190-MHP (N.D. Ca.). This case got some press when it was first filed. The plaintiff’s basic contention is that it is unconstitutional for Congress to provide copyright protection for software. This is a pretty wacky claim,…
Patent Reform Act of 2005–July 26 Draft
A new draft of the Patent Reform Act of 2005 (HR 2795) has been circulated. Among other noteworthy aspects, this draft drops the limitations on injunctive relief–perhaps expedient to move the bill forward, but a disappointing omission IMO nonetheless. At…
Patent Reform Act of 2005 Introduced
The Patent Reform Act of 2005 has been introduced. The bill itself is fairly complicated. Rep. Lamar Smith’s press release summarizes the key features: “· Provides that the right to a patent will be awarded to the first inventor to…
Patent Act of 2005 Proposed Draft
The “Committee print” version of the proposal is available here. Prior comments here.