- BTLJ Student Writing Competition. The Berkeley Technology Law Journal is hosting its own writing competition for law student (JD) papers focused on some topic near the intersection of law & technology. $2,000 prize and likely publication in the journal. Deadline is February 26, 2010. [Rules].
- Recent Jobs Posted to Patently-O Jobs:
- Baker & Hostetler LLP in Cincinnati Ohio is looking for Experienced Associates for Patent Prosecution and Patent Litigation.
- Pittsburgh Pennsylvania start-up is looking for a patent prosecution specialist for an in-house position.
- Gen-Probe in San Diego California seeks an experienced patent prosecutor.
- Morrison Foerster’s LA Office seeks an experienced patent litigator (3–4 years experience) with a preferred technical expertise in computer science or electrical engineering.
- Marsh Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP in Denver seeks a patent attorney/agent with an electrical engineering background and 2–5 years experience prosecuting patents.
- A Middletown Connecticut Firm is looking to hire a patent attorney with an engineering background and at least three years experience.
- Ryan Swarts runs the job board. Please feel free to contact him with questions. (ryan.swarts@patentlyo.com).
- Patent Damages Handbook: A committee of patent professionals and judges formed at the behest of Chief Judge Michel recently released their “Patent Damages Handbook.” The 34 page handbook is intended as a “resource for judges and lawyers” in understanding the damages phase of patent litigation “under current law.” Download it for free.
wo posted a link to it,thanks for sharing!
This is for all my good friends out there in Patently-O land:
link to coolestone.com
Perplexified
Last year (or maybe the year before) the British courts revoked a patent that had already expired, the patent having previously been revoked and then reinstated on appeal in a completely different litigation.
The validity of an expired patent can still be relevant to alleged infringements that took place before expiry.
Good to see some jobs other than in LA and DC.
I’m kind of surprised that the patent offices don’t take the opportunity to get rid of extra work with the very sensible excuse that that particular application/ patent is now worthless to the applicant.
Don’t assume that an expired patent is worthless. It might still entitle the patentee to a royalty for infringement of the published claims while the application was pending. The applicant might want to pad its lifetime stats of patents granted for whatever reason, or someone at the company might have a bonus riding on whether the patent issues. And hey, 25 years of “patent pending” 🙂
(Kind of on the topic of damages)–I have seen two cases recently (one U.S. and one EP) where the respective patent office continued examination of an application (or the opposition and appeal proceedings, in the EP case) for several years after the patent term was already up. This seems wasteful on the part of the patent offices (since the patent if issued/granted would have already expired), but I guess it provides a public benefit in that it might affect the prosecution or validity of related applications. For example, if an EP patent was granted with narrow claims following an opposition, I would think that would be useful in negotiating any license (or not taking a license) to the corresponding U.S. case. So I guess it makes sense, but still I’m kind of surprised that the patent offices don’t take the opportunity to get rid of extra work with the very sensible excuse that that particular application/ patent is now worthless to the applicant. Thoughts on this, anyone?
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