The 4 worst patents of 2015; Washington Post, 12/14/15

Larry Downes, Washington Post; The 4 worst patents of 2015:

"This was another depressing year for patent law, which long ago lost sight of its constitutional moorings as a balanced and limited source of incentives for innovators. Though Congress, the courts and the Patent and Trademark Office each tried in their own way to rein in a system widely-regarded as out of control, in the end nobody made much progress...

The polite name for such companies is “non-practicing entities,” but most of us know them as patent trolls. And according to the Consumer Technology Association, these parasites have drained over $150 billion from the U.S. economy since 2013, at a pace that is accelerating.

Beyond the trolls, there’s a more fundamental problem. The mismatch between expanding patent coverage and the quickening pace of disruptive change has become one of the greatest sources of danger to the innovation economy.

That’s especially true of patents granted for basic software and abstract business methods — categories that have only recently been recognized in the first place."

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ lines up trademarks for ‘Star Wars’ mayonnaise, wind chimes, baby blankets and pretty much everything else; New York Daily News, 12/17/15

Gersh Kuntzman and Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News; ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ lines up trademarks for ‘Star Wars’ mayonnaise, wind chimes, baby blankets and pretty much everything else:

"The new sci-fi epic opens on Friday — but “Star Wars” corn chips, diaper bags, marshmallows, cork screws, dry erase writing boards and a host of other mundane products may be hitting stores soon after.

And you can thank the moviemakers’ legion of lawyers, which has been hard at work for months locking down trademarks on pretty much everything in the film that moves...

“They need to be aggressive about protecting the franchise’s new characters right out of the gate,” says New York lawyer Kenneth Falcon (no relation to Millennium), who focuses on copyright and trademark litigation. “People will try to rip off the ‘Star Wars’ brand forever because it’s so lucrative.”

The company began securing the rights to all products back in 2014, Patent and Trademark Office documents show. Some other trademarks were sought earlier this year, as plotlines and characters were being finalized."

Heirs of Abbott and Costello Lose Copyright Claim Over ‘Who’s on First’; Associated Press via New York Times, 12/17/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Heirs of Abbott and Costello Lose Copyright Claim Over ‘Who’s on First’ :

"A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Abbott and Costello’s heirs had failed to get past first base with copyright claims against the producers of the Broadway play “Hand to God,” in which a character uses a sock puppet to perform part of the comedians’ “Who’s on First” routine...

Judge George Daniels of United States District Court in Manhattan tossed out the lawsuit on Thursday, saying the play transformed the original routine enough that it did not violate copyrights."

Jeff Koons sued for appropriating 1980s gin ad in art work sold for millions; Guardian, 12/15/15

Guardian; Jeff Koons sued for appropriating 1980s gin ad in art work sold for millions:

"Jeff Koons, a US pop artist whose works can fetch millions, is facing allegations he used a New York photographer’s commercial photo from the 1980s in a painting without permission or compensation, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The photographer, Mitchel Gray, said in the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that Koons reproduced his photo, which depicts a man sitting beside a woman painting on a beach with an easel, “nearly unchanged and in its entirety”.

Gray is also suing New York-based auction house Phillips Auctioneers and an as-yet-unnamed former owner of the Koons print, which sold for $2.04m in London in 2008...

There is a three-year statute of limitations on copyright actions, but “the clock doesn’t start ticking until the plaintiff learns of the infringement”, his lawyer, Jordan Fletcher, of the law firm Kushnirsky Gerber, said in an interview."

Samsung’s Patent Loss to Apple Is Appealed to Supreme Court; New York Times, 12/14/15

Steve Lohr, New York Times; Samsung’s Patent Loss to Apple Is Appealed to Supreme Court:

"The case, if heard, could have far-reaching implications for design patents, which cover how a product looks, and the sort of financial penalties allowed under the law. Design patents are far less common than utility patents, which cover how a product functions.

The legal framework for design patents, according to Samsung, some other major technology companies and legal experts, is largely shaped by a 19th-century law intended to protect the designs of carpets, fireplace grates and ornamental spoons.

Back then, the design was the heart of such products, so seizing most or all of the gains of a copycat — known as the “total profit rule” — was justified. But today, a complex product like a modern smartphone is a dense bundle of intellectual property with more than 100,000 patents conceivably laying claim to some small aspect of the phone...

Beyond this case, design patents will probably get more legal attention in the future, said David J. Kappos, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. As high-tech products become increasingly complex, the skill that yields a competitive advantage is making products easy to use. “And usability comes down to design,” said Mr. Kappos, a former director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office."

Congressman troubled by Taylor Swift's attempt to copyright '1989'; CNN, 12/14/15

Deena Zaru, CNN; Congressman troubled by Taylor Swift's attempt to copyright '1989' :

"Rep. Justin Amash and pop star Taylor Swift may not quite have bad blood just yet, but efforts by the musician to trademark certain common words, phrases and dates might have him seeing red.

The Michigan Republican's sour note followed reports that Taylor Swift's rights-management company has filed for trademark requests on use of -- among other words -- the number "1989," which is the year of her birth and the name of her fifth studio release."

Pitt among medical research groups cited for failure to report findings; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/15/15

Kris B. Mamula, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt among medical research groups cited for failure to report findings:

"The University of Pittsburgh was among top research institutions that did not report clinical research findings to a public government database, violating a federal law that was intended to advance medicine and help doctors and patients make treatment decisions.

Pitt along with drugmakers, hospitals, federal agencies and other universities nationwide failed to report results of trials involving human volunteers to a public database operated by the federal government, according to Stat News, a Boston-based startup media outlet that is affiliated with the Boston Globe newspaper. Federal law requires these findings to be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov, a website operated by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md...

“These laws get put on the books, but no one is there to enforce them,” he said. “The level of enforcement is extremely poor.”"