Welcome to weekly patent news, a show that provides quick updates on the recent activity in the patent world every week.
Acacia ‘s Credit Card Fraud Control Corporation subsidiary entered into a settlement and patent license agreement with TCSP. The agreement resolves litigation that was pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
DuPont and Monsanto have agreed to settle and dismiss their patent infringement lawsuits . Terms of the settlement are not being released. Monsanto had argued DuPont had infringed on some of it’s seed chipping patents. DuPont had claimed Monsanto had infringed on some of it’s seed processing patents.
The legal wrangling between two international seed and chemical companies is over – for now.
A forbes article published this week proposes radical changes be considered to reform the US patent system. The proposals include:
1 Shorten patent terms to five years from the date of issuance.
2 Increase maintenance fees by 10 times.
3 Use it or lose it: Patent owners, like trademark owners today, should be required to show evidence that they have actually productized their patented invention
4 Tighten up on novelty: Require a clear statement in every patent application from the Patent Examiner explaining exactly why the patent is being issued.
5 Require acquired patents to be put to use: Allow patents to be sold, but only if the buyer can demonstrate plans to actually use the IP in question.
6 Unite against patent assertion entities
Apple has patented Smart Camera lighting.
When a user tries to click a photo, there is often uneven illumination, unwanted shadows and colored ambient light, which produce low quality images. The most important reason is lack of control over ambient light, which is available in photo studios.
Apple’s technology use ambient light sensors to determine light conditions of a scene to be photographed. Based on the ambient conditions, the scene is illuminated. Light is focused to remove shadows. Colored light is used to remove the effect of colored ambient light in the scene.
Hope this makes it to iPhones soon.
Lets move to the Courtroom section
US International Trade Commission to Investigate Samsung’s Patent Infringement Case Against Nvidia related to semiconductor-related patents and for making false claims about its products.
Chief Administrative Officer at Nvidia, David Shannon said “This is typical legal ping pong” . Earlier, Nvidia had accused the South Korean giant and rival Qualcomm of infringing patents on its graphics-processing unit.
Here are statistics for patent litigations filed last week.
Now Lets move on to International news
Chinese authorities have asked Qualcomm to collect lower patent fees from smartphone manufacturers that deploy its technology, following an antitrust investigation that began an year ago.
China also wants the company to unbundle its licensing agreements.
China also has launched various investigations against other foreign companies over security concerns, including Microsoft, Kaspersky, and Symantec. The government has been ramping up efforts to remove foreign technology, especially those used in banks, the military, state-owned enterprise and government agencies, and replace them with home-grown alternatives.
The net stock value of Intellectual property products (IPPs), which accounted for 2 percent of the South Korea’s GDP in 1970, soared to 18.3 percent of GDP, or US$ 229.9 billion, in 2012, according to new report compiled by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Statistics Korea. The contribution rate of IPPs to growth is likely to increase.
Foreign pharma companies won 77% of all patents in last 10 years in India.
In recent times, multi-national companies in sectors includes pharmaceutical have alleged that Indian intellectual property rights (IPR) laws are weak.The Large portion of patents going to foreign companies clearly Indicates that the Indian patent regime is non-discriminatory and strong.
Access to medicines in India may be under threat.
Indian patent laws have safeguards that make the price of medicines affordable. This has made India an important supplier of low-priced medicines to treat diseases such as TB, malaria, cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular disease to around 200 developing countries all over the world.
The US, which houses most of the big multinational drug companies, is putting increased pressure on the Indian government to amend the Indian Patent Act as it is becoming a hurdle in their profit making business. The Indian government seems to be bending down to accommodate to the needs of the US drug companies, which will result in reduced access to some essential medicines.
Indian government is mulling a new utility model law to provide exclusive protection for small inventions. The suggestion was made in the six-member group’s first draft of the National Policy on IPR.
Several experts have argued for some form of IP protection for what is commonly known as ‘jugaad innovation’ that takes place across sectors in India.
India has a large number of inventions that may not satisfy the criteria of patentability, but are novel, utilitarian and inventive.
IT IS TIME FOR THIS DAY IN PATENT HISTORY
On December 28, 1976 Patent # 4,000,000 was issued in to Robert Mendenhall for a process for recycling asphalt compositions.
On December 29, 1823 Charles Macintosh , the Scottish inventor, was born. Macintosh patented the first water-proof material. The mackintosh raincoat was named after him.
On December 31, 1935 a patent for the game ” Monopoly ” was granted to Charles Darrow.
On January 2, 1975 “U.S. Patent Office” was renamed ” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “.
