Patent Industry News

Anything you feel may be worthy of notice on the industry news board please let us know via email - jobs@supreme.net.au

18th November 2008

3rd Pan-European Intellectual Property Summit

Premier Cercle, in association with The Wall Street Journal Europe, European Voice and Managing Intellectual Property, is introducing the third pan-European Intellectual Property Summit at the Sheraton Brussels on December 4-5, 2008.

3rd pan-European Intellectual Property Summit in Brussels on December 4-5, 2008, is the largest IP-related event in Europe. Beyond integrated aims to feed the debate on future reforms and provide the most significant best practices through selected case studies, we will assist the IP community in researching appropriated answers to the different questions.

Venue Detail:

Sheraton Brussels
Hotel & Towers, Place Rogier, 3
B-1210 Brussels, Belgium
Tel.: +32 (0) 2 224 31 11

11th November 2008

Some 200 participants, including government representatives from fifty nations, joined World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry at a ceremony in Lisbon on October 31, 2008 marking the 50^th anniversary of the adoption of an international agreement that facilitates the international protection of appellations of origin.

Mr. Gurry noted the importance of geographical indications as a means of differentiating products within an increasingly globalized and ever-more standardized market place. He further underlined the enormous potential that geographical indications offer, in particular to developing countries, in terms of allowing them to reap the benefits of added value based on unique characteristics of certain products originating in these countries, including products derived from traditional knowledge. Mr. Gurry urged member states to demonstrate the same pioneering spirit and determination as that of the great Portuguese explorers in advancing the future development of the Lisbon System.

The Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, adopted in Lisbon on October 31, 1958, provides an international legal framework with a large degree of flexibility for its implementation by member states without impinging on the effectiveness of protection accorded to geographical indications registered internationally.

7th November 2008

Brussels IP2008 Summit. 4th - 5th December 2008, for details or register go to: www.ipsummit.info

Note: There is no association between the Patent Attorney Job Board and this event

9th September 2008

The Bar Council of India on Monday told a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice B N Aggarwal that it has decided to let advocates advertise on the internet.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by an advocate, V B Joshi, challenging Rule 36, Section IV of the BCI rules which prohibits the legal fraternity from advertising their services.
Bringing an amendment to the said rule, the BCI resolved that advocates could furnish the information on their chosen website. The amendment allows advocates to mention in their chosen websites their names, telephone numbers, e-mail IDs and professional and educational qualifications. Justice S H Kapadia, who was part of the bench perusing the amended notification, suggested that advocates may also state their areas of specialisation and years of experience.
The BCI had earlier contended that the legal profession was not a trade and hence, advocates could not be permitted to advertise their services.
However, the BCI submitted that such advertisements can be issued only within the parameters fixed by it under the amended regulations and any breach of the same would invite disciplinary action and would constitute professional misconduct.
The regulatory body had earlier taken the view that unlike western countries where lawyers were permitted to advertise their services, the same cannot be permitted in India as it "cherished different ethos, social values and ethical norms."
Perusing it, the court directed the petitioner to file his response to the amended rule of the BCI and adjourned the matter.

10th August 2008

Did you hear the one about the company which patented an animal? Perhaps it wasn't a joke after all.

Australian patent law has developed in line with some other jurisdictions, such that isolated forms of living organisms, including microorganisms, plants, fungi, animals and genetically modified organisms are patentable in Australia, subject to the usual criteria for novelty and non-obviousness. However, the Patents Act specifically prohibits the patenting of human beings and methods for their generation. Inventions that are contrary to law are also not patentable and on that basis, any invention that is contrary to legislation governing cloning, for example, would also not be entitled to patent protection.

Recent clarification by IP Australia and the courts as to the types of inventions that fall within the patentable and non-patentable categories has been helpful to practitioners but many grey areas still remain in this technologically, legally and ethically complex area.

16th July 2008

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced it will extend the duration, increase the maximum number of applications, and expand the scope of applications eligible to participate in the Peer Review Pilot. The pilot, launched in June 2007, encourages the public to review volunteered published patent applications and submit technical references and comments on what they believe to be the best prior art to consider during the examination. The expansion and extension of the pilot is effective today.
The pilot was initially restricted to patent applications in the computer-related arts (those classified in Technology Center 2100). The scope of the program is now expanded to include applications in the automated business data processing technologies, or business methods, class 705. Technical experts in the computer and business methods-related arts registering with the peertopatent.org Web site will review and submit information for up to 400 published patent applications, up from 250 as originally announced. No more than 25 separate applications will be allowed from any one person or organization, up from 15 in the original announcement.
"The USPTO continues to support the Peer Review Pilot to help it fulfill its promise as a way to help get the best prior art expeditiously before the examiner,” noted Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Jon Dudas. “Extending and expanding the pilot to include business method patent applications will add more participants to the pilot and help us and the public better assess the effectiveness of Peer Review.”

The pilot is being conducted in cooperation with the Peer-to-Patent Project, organized by the New York Law School’s Institute for Information Law and Policy. The pilot is extended for an additional 12 months and will end on June 15, 2009.

To date, companies participating in the Peer Review Pilot have included IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Intel, GE, Red Hat, Cisco, Yahoo!, and others. With the expansion of the pilot, Goldman Sachs has volunteered to join as a participant.

So far, the pilot’s first 31 applications have been examined. More than half of the examiners who examined an application in the Peer Review Pilot so far thought the prior art submitted by the peers was helpful during examination. More than one-third of the examiners used peer-supplied prior art in the first action on the merits. Nearly 75 percent of the participating examiners said they believed the program would be useful if it were incorporated into regular Office practice.

For this pilot, applications are assigned to an examiner for examination as soon as a submission is received from the peertopatent.org Web site. This shortens considerably the time it normally takes from filing an application to a first action on the merits in the areas where the pilot is occurring.

10th June 2008
The 5th International Congress of Nano-Bio & Clean Tech will be held on October 27-30 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel.
The event will feature more than 100 distinguished speakers from 25 countries discussing the latest scientific advancement, state-of-the art product development and business opportunities in nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and clean tech.

More information about the event will be available in the coming weeks at http://www.ianano.org.

If you are interested in a speaking opportunity or presenting a poster at the Congress please complete an online speaker form: http://www.nanotechcongress.com/speaking.htm

14th May 2008

Heads of intellectual property (IP) academies and training and research institutes from across the globe meeting in Beijing under the umbrella of the Global Network on Intellectual Property Academies (GNIPA) on May 8 and 9, 2008, agreed to intensify efforts to strengthen collaboration between participating institutes, to promote the development of effective IP training programs for diverse target groups and to galvanize support for the Network. The Symposium, hosted by the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) discussed, a number of key issues relating to IP education, training and research. The first such Symposium was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in March 2007 and the next Symposium will be hosted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2009.

Discussions centered on the challenges and opportunities arising from the recent growth and development of IP academies across the world. Particular attention was paid to exploring responses to the challenges confronting newly established IP academies. Participants also examined ways to strengthen cooperation and improve coordination between IP offices and IP academies and further considered strategies and methodologies for designing IP education and training programs for diverse target groups. The Symposium also explored strategies for mobilizing human and financial resources from the public and private sectors and academic institutions and underscored the crucial need for closer collaboration and the pooling of human and financial resources.

The Symposium agreed to establish a GNIPA website to be administered by the WIPO Academy to include information such as the results of an international survey of key statistical information and facts relating to IP education, training, research and collaborative educational materials and documents. It further requested the WIPO Academy, in cooperation with GNIPA partners to examine the feasibility of establishing an International Journal on Intellectual Property Education Training and Research.

Participants of the Symposium represented the following institutions: Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA), National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Brazil, State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), China Intellectual Property Training Center (CIPTC), State Intellectual Property Office of Croatia (SIPO), Industrial Property Office of Cuba (OCPI), National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training (INPIT) of Japan, Intellectual Property Research and Training Institute of the Philippines (IPRTI), International Intellectual Property Training Institute (IIPTI), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) of the Republic of Korea, Turkish Patent Institute (IPI), IP Academy of the University of Khartoum, Sudan, Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) of the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam, together with representatives of international and regional organizations, WIPO Academy, African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), and the European Patent Academy (EPA).

21st February 2008
Unprecedented Number of International Patent Filings in 2007
In a year that saw a record number of filings under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the cornerstone of the international patent system, inventors from the Republic of Korea (4^th place) and China (7^th) consolidated their top ten position in 2007, along with the United States of America (1^st) , Japan (2^nd), Germany (3^rd), France (5^th), United Kingdom (6^th), Netherlands (8^th), Switzerland (9^th) and Sweden (10^th).
In total, a record 156,100 applications were filed in 2007, representing a 4.7% rate of growth over the previous year. For the fourth year running, the most notable growth rates came from countries in north east Asia which accounted for over a quarter (25.8%) of all international applications under the PCT.