Intellectual Property Expert Group
Intellectual Property Expert Group
One of the “hot” issues in the electronics industry (and earlier on in the semiconductor business) is the relationship between standards and patents. Recent examples of clever standard setting policies and the enforcement of patents that come to mind are…
Japan today has the toughest patent system in the world in terms of the odds of a patentee winning a patent trial against an accused infringer. Japanese trial courts hold against patentees in nearly 90 % of all cases, according…
The common opinion is that the WTO Doha negotiations have failed to accelerate global free trade. However, it is also clear that the commitments accepted by WTO members will ultimately reduce traditional trade barriers such as import duties, quota etc.…
Biotech is R&D intensive, so research tools are a crucial element in this industry. It is not surprising that inventors who have found a new tool to do the expensive research are looking for ways to expand the reach of…
When the United States enacted their first Patent Act in 1790, they made the issuance a matter of the highest importance. There was no patent office. The president himself (George Washington) with assistance of a committee of three (Thomas Jefferson,…
Simmons & Simmons led the way in securing a victory for Kraft Foods on 30 August against Sara Lee vs. Douwe Egberts at the European Patent Office (“EPO”) in Munich, see my earlier post “Sara Lee’s Patent for Coffee Pads…
During the upcoming AIPPI Congress 2006 in Gothenburg one of the more interesting subjects to be discussed is the question related to assignments of IP rights (Dutch Group). IP rights are frequently used as security to enable financing of business…
On 13 July 2006, the long awaited decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) were given in the cases of GAT v LuK and Roche v Primus. To the disappointment of some, the ECJ appears to have prohibited cross-border…
Corporate America celebrated when the international agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) went into effect Jan. 1, 1995. Many companies believed TRIPS would go a long way toward protecting their IP rights overseas. Patent owners were especially…
An interesting development in the US courts. Audio MPEG (Sisvel’s US affiliate) sued Creative Labs earlier this year, over the same patents we’ve been threatened with. Last week, the District Court found that Audio MPEG lacked standing by itself to…
More mp3 Apart from companies that decided, for different reasons, to take a license from Sisvel (some of them not because they really believed they needed one, but to avoid further harassment by Sisvel) other big names in the mp3…
You want to tap into the vast market for mp3, right? Intoxicated by the success of Apple’s iTunes and the irresistible iPod, your company either produces or sells mp3 decoding audio equipment. Then be aware! You must have encountered Sisvel…