Google Places a bid on Nortel Patents
- Google has placed a $900 million cash offer bid for the rights to Nortel patents. Google’s bid is just the starting point, against which others bid prior to the auction that will take place in June. Nortel has about 6,000 patents and patent applications, which cover many areas of technologies including wireless, internet search, computer science, and online social networking. Nortel was once a telecom powerhouse, but filed for bankruptcy in 2009. As part of the bankruptcy, Nortel must auction off all patents that they hold. It has been reported that Google wants to purchase the Nortel patents as a defensive tactic, to decrease the amount of lawsuits filed against them. [link]
New Patent Blog!
- Written Description is a blog that reviews recent scholarship on patent law, IP theory, and innovation. The blog is intended to provide useful content for law professors, law students, practitioners, and anyone else interested in patent law. The blog is written by Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, who has a Physics Ph.D. from Cornell and is a current 3L at Yale Law School.
Apple Doesn’t Have to Pay $625.5 Million in Patent Case
- Apple was sued in 2008 by Mirror Worlds LLC; Mirror Worlds was founded by Yale University Professor David Gelernter. [Complaint] Mirror Worlds claimed that Apple’s Mac computers infringed its patents relating to the way documents are displayed on a computer. The main focus of the trial was Apple’s Spotlight and Time Machine technology. The case was decided in Mirror Worlds favor in October, and the jury award $625.5 million in damages. However, Apple appealed and a federal judge in Texas agreed with Apple and stated that, Apple did not infringe any patent owned by Mirror Worlds LLC and closed the case. [Link]
John Duffy to Join Virginia Law School
- IP scholar John Duffy will be at the University of Virginia next fall, currently Duffy is a Professor at George Washington School of Law. Duffy has been named as one of the 25 most influential people in the field of IP by the American Lawyer. Duffy was co-counsel in the important Supreme Court case KSR v. Teleflex, which was the first Supreme Court Case in decades on the standard of nonobviousness. [Link]
Patent Jobs:
- Muir Patent Consulting is seeking to hire a patent attorney with a degree in electrical engineering and 2-5 years experience. [Link]
- Mannava & Kang is searching for a patent attorney or patent agent with a degree in electrical engineering and at least 3 years in preparing and prosecuting patent applications. [Link]
- Roberts Mlotkowski Safran & Cole is looking for a patent attorney with 2-4 years experience and a chemical degree. [Link]
- Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz is searching for a patent attorney or patent agent with a PhD and 1-4 years patent experience. [Link]
Upcoming Events:
- The 2nd Annual John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law Symposium will be held on April 15th. The symposium will discuss biotechnology and health-related issues in IP law. Guest speakers include Peter Yu, Lawrence Pope, and the keynote speaker Ananda Chakrabarty. [Link]
- AIPLA Spring Meeting will be held May 12-14 in San Francisco. [Link]
- San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association (SFIPLA) will be hosting its spring seminar June 3-5 in Yountville, California. This event will discuss various topics, such as Copyright and the Cloud, Patent Year in Review, and Patent Litigation to name a few. Guest speakers include Peter Menell, Marc Greenberg, Madhavi Sunder, and David Franklyn. [Link]
Contact Lawrence.Higgins@patentlyo.com with leads for future Bits and Bytes.