I'd like to share 10 IP related blog posts that caught my eye in the previous week.

Patents

1. Dennis Crouch, in his blog "PatentlyO", writes about one of the suggested changes mentioned in the Senate report on patent reform and in particular to the elimination of “the antiquated notion that it is the inventor who files the application, not the company-assignee.”

(Direct link: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/01/patent-reform-a.html)

2. Timothy J. Maier, in his blog "Post-Grant", summarized decision by the Federal Circuit in Baldwin Graphic Systems, Inc. v. Siebert, Inc. The decision confirms the meaning of indefinite articles in patent claims.

(Direct link: http://www.postgrant.com/2008/01/federal_circuit_confirms_meani.html)

3. The Troll Tracker published his survey's results regarding the categorization and influence of the term "patent troll" (as well as some questions regarding his blog).

(Direct link: http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2008/01/survey-results.html)

Trademarks

4. John L. Welch, in his blog "The TTablog", has published "The Top Ten TTAB Decisions of 2007®". John chose his 10 most important decisions out of 600 decisions issued by the USPTO TTAB. And the winners are:

1. Hurley Int'l LLC v. Volta; 2. Intel Corp. v. Emeny; 3. In re Joint-Stock Company "Baik"; 4. In re IP Carrier Consulting Group; 5. New York State Dept. of Economic Development v. Stewart; 6. Bose Corp. v. Hexawave, Inc.; 7. CNL Tampa Int'l Hotel Partnership, LP v. Palazzolo; 8. Hormel Foods Corp. v. Spam Arrest, LLC; 9. In re Valenite Inc. and 10. Paris Glove of Canada, Ltd. v. SBC/Sporto Corp.

(Direct link: http://thettablog.blogspot.com/2008/01/top-ten-ttab-decisions-of-2007-part-1.html)

5. Another post by John is a complete review of the 66 Precedential Decisions issued by the TTAB in 2007.

(Direct link: http://thettablog.blogspot.com/2008/01/ttab-issues-65-precedential-decisions.html)

6. Ron Coleman, in his blog "Likelihood of Confusion", mention BigTimOBrien that mentioned the EFF that reports self-proclaimed cyberlawyer, Eric Menhart, has decided to trademark use of the term “cyberlaw” and is threatening other lawyers with legal action over the term.

(Direct link: http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/?p=1338)

7. Nicholas Weston, in his blog "Australian Trademarks Law Blog", reports a recent decision in the US (Rosenruist-Gestao E Servicos LDA, v. Virgin Enterprises Ltd.):

"Which held that a foreign company that has no US employees, locations, or business activities must produce a designee to testify at a deposition in the Eastern District of Virginia just because it filed a trademark application with the USPTO, which is located there".

8. Class 46, an experimental blog by friends and supporters of MARQUES, continued their report on ICANN fight against "domain name tasting", a problem we hear to much of.

(Direct link: http://class46.blogspot.com/2008/01/icann-to-fight-domain-name-tasting.html)

9. Alex, of the IMPACT® blog, reports on the UK IPO that has launched a consultation on reforming the exemptions given under the Copyright Designs & Patent Act 1988.

(Direct link: http://impact.freethcartwright.com/2008/01/uk-gov-launches.html)

10. Ilanah Simon Fhima, of the IPKat blog, lists 66 questions in regard to the above mentioned consultation.

(Direct link: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2008/01/major-consulation-on-copyright.html).