5 Patent Things You Need to Read This Week

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January 9, 2013
Patent System Innovation

This week, we’re reading about what patent industry leaders are wishing for in 2013, why patent litigation coverage is all about the players and less about the issues, caseload statistics at the Federal Circuit, how Chinese patents may not be as valuable that those in America or Europe, and the EPO and USTPO’s unified patent classification system. Let us know if we’ve missed anything worth mentioning, and join us on Twitter to continue the conversation using the hashta #PatentTruth.

1.Industry insiders say that better understanding of the system is needed outside of the patent community: With the arrival of the New Year, IP Watchdog’s Gene Quinn conducted a number of short interviews with several leaders from the patent and innovation community to find that the main theme was that the American public take a more “balanced view of the patent system” and that “patent bashing” needed to stop: Link To Story

2. Patent litigation coverage is mostly about the players in the battle, not so much the issues: Dan Pierron of Zies Widerman & Malek says that a recent patent infringement case involving Carnegie Mellon University and Marvell received far less media coverage when compared to the trial between tech giants Apple and Samsung. Pierron believes that despite the jury awarding $1.1 billion to CMU – similar to the amount awarded to Apple – and the potential impact on consumers being larger, because people feel so close to their smart devices, more attention will be paid to cases that involve consumer electronics companies: Link To Story

3. Caseload at the Federal Circuit remains well below peak levels: Patently-O reports that while the number of appeals filed with the court rose this year, it is still much lower than the figures during the period between 2002 and 2007.  According to the court, 471 patent infringement appeals from the U.S. District Courts were filed in FY 2012, up from 426 in FY 2011: Link To Story

4. China’s patents may be less valuable that those from U.S. and Europe: The Economist says that while China has overtaken America in terms of patent applications, this does not necessarily mean that it has suddenly become more innovative. An analysis of the data from the UN’s World Intellectual Property Office suggests that fewer than 5% of Chinese patents were sought again abroad while in the US, the figure was 27% and in Europe, more than 40% :  Link To Story

5. The European and United States Patent Offices have launched the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system: In development since 2010, the two offices are joining their classification systems to promote international compatibility for patent publications. This effort will allow those conducting patent searches to access a unified patent document collection. Link To Story

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