Patently-O Bits & Bytes by Lawrence Higgins

IP's contribution to the US economy

  • A recent USPTO whitepaper reports that IP industries contribute $5 trillion and 40 million jobs to the US economy. Some of the report major findings are:
    • The entire US economy relies on some form of IP, because virtually every industry either produces or uses it.
    • IP-intensive industries directly accounted for 27.1 million American jobs, or 18.8% of all employment in the economy, in 2010.
    • Jobs in IP-intensive industries pay well compared to other jobs. Average weekly wages for IP-intensive industries were 42% higher than the average weekly wages in non IP-intensive industries.
    • Growth in copyright-intensive industries (2.4%), patent-intensive industries (2.3%), and trademark-intensive industries (1.1%) all outpaced gains in non-IP intensive industries.

    Report

Rights of the dead

  • At Coachella 2012 Tupac Shakur appeared on stage and as if he was actually alive and performing. What rights does the family of Tupac or other deceased entertainers have when it comes to situations like this?
  • California Civil code Section 3344.1 (a)(1) reads in part:
    • Any person who uses a deceased personality's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods, or services, without prior consent from the person or persons specified… shall be liable for any damages…

    Section (a) (2) reads:

    • For purposes of this subdivision, a play, book, magazine, newspaper, musical composition, audiovisual work, radio or television program, single and original work of art… shall not be considered a product, article of merchandise, good, or service if it is fictional or nonfictional entertainment, or a dramatic, literary, or musical work.

    Having a dead celebrity performing electronically on stage seems like it falls into the audiovisual work exception under section (a) (2). I have yet to see anyone attempt to file a business-method patent on the dead touring, but I assume that someone may attempt to monopolize the business. [Link]

Patent Jobs:

  • Edell, Shapiro & Finnan is seeking an experienced EE patent attorney with an advanced degree in EE or physics. The firm is also seeking an associate/agent/tech writer with an EE or computer science degree to work at their Rockville, MD office. [Link]
  • Amgen is searching for Sr. Counsel with 4 years of patent or IP practice to work at their California location. [Link]
  • North Star IP is looking for a patent associate with 3 to 4+ years of prosecution experience and a background in EE, computer engineering, or computer science to work at their DC office. [Link]
  • Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox is seeking experienced electrical IP attorneys with a degree in EE or computer engineering to work at their DC office. [Link]
  • Cantor Colburn is searching for an associate ME/EE patent attorney with 3-5 years of experience. [Link]
  • Cantor Colburn is looking for IP litigation associates with 2-4 years of litigation experience. [Link]
  • The Kohler Company is seeking an IP attorney with 2+ years of experience to work at their Kohler, Wisconsin location. [Link]
  • Rutan & Tucker is searching for a patent associate/agent with 3-4 years of experience to work at their California office. [Link]
  • Rathe Lindenbaum is looking for a patent attorney/agent with experience in mechanical, electromechanical or chemical engineering and 3+ years of experience to work at their Milwaukee office. [Link]
  • NONY is looking for a US patent attorney/agent or UK patent attorney to work at their Paris, France office. [Link]

Upcoming Events:

  • The University of Colorado School of Law will hold a conference on April 24th. The conference, Patents on the Range or Wild Frontier, will discuss the future of patent policy. Guest speakers include: David Kappos, Don Rosenberg, John Thorne, Paul Ohm, Bernard Chao, and many others. [Link]
  • ACI will hold its 6th Annual Paragraph IV Disputes conference on April 24-25 in New York City. The conference will cover topics such as: the impact of the AIA on Hatch-Waxman litigation, claim construction, prior art obviousness and obvious-type double patenting, and many other topics. (Patently-O readers register with PO 200 for a discount). [Link]
  • The DC Bar IP Law Section 2012 Annual Spring Reception will be held April 25th. The D.C. Bar Intellectual Property Law Section awards the 2012 "Champion of Intellectual Property" Award to the late Paul J. Luckern, Chief Judge of the International Trade Commission. Guest include Chief Judge Randall R. Rader of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Judge Theodore R. Essex of the ITC, and Lynn I. Levine, Director of the ITC's Office of Unfair Import Investigations. [Link]
  • Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery, LLP will present a free one-hour CLE webinar, "Trademark Protection Strategies in Social Media," on April 25, 2012 at 12 noon EST. The proliferation of social media outlets frequented by millions of users have created untold opportunities for trademark exposure and potential infringement. Joseph T. Nabor will discuss strategies to protect trademarks in the social media arena, including monitoring and enforcement against infringement, creating social media policies, related ethics issues, and using social media in litigation support. [Link]
  • LES 2012 Spring Meeting – "Licensing to Solve the Innovation Gap" will be held May 15-17, Boston, MA. Speakers from GE Healthcare, Harvard, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, MIT, Pfizer, Stanford and more will share their expertise on licensing to solve the innovation gap. (Patently-O readers save $100 by using promo code PO12 when registering) [Link]
  • The World Research Group is holding its 4th Annual Corporate IP Counsel Forum on May 16-17 in NYC. The Corporate IP Counsel Forum will address key issues and uncover latest developments related to IP in the form of case studies and panel discussions. Some of the topics include, but are not limited to: The America Invents Act and its impact on patent litigation and prosecution, IP monetization strategies for small and mid-size companies, Patent valuation, The top 10 most influential court cases in IP this year, Patent eligibility, Invention mining, Divided infringement, Best practices for combating non-practicing entities, Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Copyright infringement. [Link]
  • The Annual DRI Business Litigation and Intellectual Property Seminar will be held May 16-18, 2012, in New York City. Attendees will learn trial and appellate advocacy skills in business litigation get up-to-date on the last trends in intellectual property and business litigation, and network with in-house counsel, business and intellectual property trial lawyers and experts from across the country. Speakers include: Former ABA President, Dennis W. Archer, Dennis Archer PLLC, and David Leitch, VP and General Counsel of Ford Motor Company. [Link]
  • The San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association is hosting its annual seminar in Healdsburg, the center of one of California's best wine regions, from June 1-3. Speakers include Hon. Margaret A. (Peggy) Focarino, USPTO Commissioner of Patents, Hon. Robert Stoll, former USPTO Commissioner of Patents, Hon. Gerard F. Rogers, Chief Administrative Trademark Judge of the TTAB, Hon. Randall R. Rader, Chief Judge of Federal Circuit, Hon. Susan Illston, Judge of N.D.CA, Hon. Edward J. Davila, Judge of N.D.CA, as well as professors and leading practitioners. [Link]
  • On May 21-22 Ronald Slusky will hold a seminar in Chicago, the seminar teaches a comprehensive approach to analyzing inventions and capturing them in a sophisticated set of patent claims. The seminar is based on Ronald's book, Invention Analysis and Claiming: Patent Lawyer's Guide. [Link]
  • ACI will hold a Biosimilars conference May 22-23 in New York, NY. The conference will focus on the legal, regulatory, and commercial realities of biosimilars. [Link]
  • The ACI 3rd annual Hatch-Waxman Boot Camp will be held June 25-26 in San Diego. Topics to be covered include: the organization, jurisdiction of the FDA and the PTO and their interplay in the patenting of drugs and biologics, how the approval process for drugs and biologics is connected to the patenting of these products, how the Hatch-Waxman Act established the paradigm for market entry of generic small molecule drugs – and how biosimilar and many others. [Link]

Contact Lawrence.Higgins@patentlyo.com with leads for future Bits and Bytes.

17 thoughts on “Patently-O Bits & Bytes by Lawrence Higgins

  1. 17

    The same as it is for any sector: the market value of the products/services they provided; as measured by their gross revenues, I believe.

  2. 16

    link to guardian.co.uk

    Double-dip recession: fall in financial services output confounds economists

    The surprise fall in output at financial and business services firms in the City of London and beyond has wrongfooted a raft of economists who had been expecting the most powerful part of the UK economy to have expanded sufficiently in the first three months of the year to stave off a return to recession.

    Not only did business and financial services output fall by 0.1%, but, within that performance, the vast financial services subsector – including banks, building societies and insurance firms – “made the largest negative contribution”, according to preliminary estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

    LOL – what is the “output”?

  3. 14

    •The Kohler Company is seeking an IP attorney with 2+ years of experience to work at their Kohler, Wisconsin location

    Is JD still lurking around these parts? Might be the perfect fit.

  4. 12

    @bad joke ahead: Hmm. Is the rate of innovation higher now that 200 years ago? Don’t think so.

    You need to allow for the human population level. For example, it took humans a long time to get from stone tools to bronze because the world population and hence the size of the economy were tiny. Assuming the rate of innovation was the same as now, they might get one Steve Jobs every million years, so it would take correspondingly longer to get anywhere.

    Has the rate of innovation kept up with innovation over the last 200 years? We have a lot of cool toys, but 1812 was the middle of the Industrial Revolution, so I don’t think that anyone could seriously claim that the rate of innovation – per person – is, today, anywhere close to what it was back then.

  5. 11

    “All the IP does is redistribute the market share and add a layer of cost that supports the Bavarian auto industry.”

    Well we also get vaguely worded disclosures.

  6. 10

    “It happened thousands of years before lawyers and will still be happening after lawyers are forgotten. The only real difference, right now, is that we have made a fetish of “new stuff” and called it IP. ”

    You mean fetish/religion.

  7. 9

    Yeah that’s funny that you should note that is about drawings. My dad had been dabbling in painting for the last few years (he’s been to art school and done a lot of painting over the years though he had a “real job” during the day). He’s been making some paintings that are, to be quite honest, very nice paintings. It isn’t like he’s Michelangelo or anything but they’re very good, especially for an ol’ rural area where he lives. But he hasn’t sold any of them as he’s asking prices that the market simply will not bear. Although he wasn’t really counting on them selling he was hoping to sell at least a few.

    It also reminds me of the local art market in alexandria, they have some great stuff, and I nearly bought a painting myself, which just so happened to be 60% off. Even so it was going to be 400$. 400$ is quite a lot of money, even for the big money people in Alexandria.

    I was fortunate enough however to get one of my dad’s paintings for christmas since he offered it. Dude it is a pretty pimpin’ painting. Almost as good of a painting as you see in “Archer” above Archer’s bed.

  8. 8

    So the rate of innovation hasn’t increased over the last 200 years?

    That’s ridiculous.

  9. 7

    The only real difference, right now, is that we have made a fetish of “new stuff” and called it IP.

    It’s not even that. Almost all of the jobs, wealth, and growth are from trademark-intensive industries. Patents don’t even have one industry in the top ten.

    Consumer staples/non-cyclicals are the big “IP-intensive” job-creators because everybody in those industries has a trademark. Guess why those industries are outperforming at the moment.

    It’s not like people would buy fewer groceries if they had to go to unbranded grocery stores instead of IP-intensive ones and buy unbranded prepared foods instead of IP-intensive ones. People still need to eat. All the IP does is redistribute the market share and add a layer of cost that supports the Bavarian auto industry.

  10. 6

    Human history has always been about change. Stone tools get replaced by bronze, then iron, then steel. Horse carts get replaced by cars and so on.

    This change *always* happens by some new industry (bronze tools) growing faster than some old industry (stone tools), because otherwise how would the new tech replace the old?

    It happened thousands of years before lawyers and will still be happening after lawyers are forgotten. The only real difference, right now, is that we have made a fetish of “new stuff” and called it IP.

    So, the observation that IP-rich industries grow faster? That’s just a description of the same old change that’s been happening for thousands of years – and not a justification of special legal treatment for particular business models.

  11. 5

    Anyone else watch the show “Shark Tank”? I love the first question: “Do you have a patent on that?”

    How do you value IP when most new companies are based on IP? Because if there is no IP, there is no investment and no new company?

  12. 4

    Closer to home, the vocal minority posting on this blog exemplify the same “worth” of their comments.

  13. 3

    It could be, perhaps, what Chicago economics Professor Buccafusco talks about. There is a gap between what creator/innovators think their work product is worth…..and what others are willing to pay to get access to it.

    In one experiment (if I remember it right) he roped in 50 students and told them there was a 100 dollar prize going, to the owner of the best drawing. 50 other students were set up with the opportunity to choose one of the created drawings and buy it before the prize-giving ceremony. Guess what, each creator on average thought his drawing worth not less than 70 dollars while buyers were on average only willing to pay 20 dollars. There were no changes of ownership before the winner was awarded her 100 dollars.

    That’s a pretty large gap, I would say.

  14. 2

    “IP’s contribution to the US economy”

    That which is seen, and that which is not seen. Bastiat.

  15. 1

    “LES 2012 Spring Meeting – “Licensing to Solve the Innovation Gap” will be held May 15-17, Boston, MA. Speakers from GE Healthcare, Harvard, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, MIT, Pfizer, Stanford and more will share their expertise on licensing to solve the innovation gap. ”

    Can someone tell me what “the innovation gap” is? Is that a euphemism for a person’s private parts?

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