In Patent Wars, one of America's leading patent scholars provides an accessible overview of U.S. patent law; the arguments for and against patents; and the ongoing debates over topics including the patentability of genes, software, and business methods, the impact of patents on drug prices, "patent trolls," and the smartphone wars.
The United States patent system has become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress. Such is the premise behind this provocative and timely book by two of the nation's leading experts on patents and economic innovation. Innovation and Its Discontents tells the story of how recent changes in patenting--an institutional process that was created to nurture innovation--have wreaked havoc on innovators, businesses, and economic productivity. Jaffe and Lerner, who have spent the past two decades studying the patent system, show how legal changes initiated in the 1980s converted the system from a stimulator of innovation to a creator of litigation and uncertainty that threatens the innovation process itself. In one telling vignette, Jaffe and Lerner cite a patent litigation campaign brought by a a semi-conductor chip designer that claims control of an entire category of computer memory chips. The firm's claims are based on a modest 15-year old invention, whose scope and influenced were broadened by secretly manipulating an industry-wide cooperative standard-setting body. Such cases are largely the result of two changes in the patent climate, Jaffe and Lerner contend. First, new laws have made it easier for businesses and inventors to secure patents on products of all kinds, and second, the laws have tilted the table to favor patent holders, no matter how tenuous their claims. After analyzing the economic incentives created by the current policies, Jaffe and Lerner suggest a three-pronged solution for restoring the patent system: create incentives to motivate parties who have information about the novelty of a patent; provide multiple levels of patent review; and replace juries with judges and special masters to preside over certain aspects of infringement cases. Well-argued and engagingly written, Innovation and Its Discontents offers a fresh approach for enhancing both the nation's creativity and its economic growth.
This Guide aims to assist users in searching for technology information using patent documents, a rich source of technical, legal and business information presented in a generally standardized format and often not reproduced anywhere else. Though the Guide focuses on patent information, many of the search techniques described here can also be applied in searching other non-patent sources of technology information.
This book features 15 country reports on the patent enforcement practice of the world's most litigated countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Litigation strategies for both right owners and alleged infringers are explained against the background of case law on: types of action, standing to sue, jurisdiction, obtaining evidence, provisional and final measures, trial practice, types of infringement, remedies and counterclaims, costs and issues of retrial, threats and wrongful enforcement. Special chapters cover the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement provisions on enforcement, enforcement issues in the European Community, international cross-border litigation and border measures. The reports are written by patent practitioners or academic experts in the field, and the homogenous structure of the country reports allows for an easy identification of best practices and strategic considerations on the choice of jurisdiction.
International law has made the traditional processes of understanding and using law related to patents and trademarks more difficult to interpret. Updated to include expanded coverage of computerware and biotechnology, this text walks the reader through the patent, trademark and intellectual property maze.
When a party develops a ‘second medical use’ for a known substance or compound, special issues of patentability arise. Jurisdictions around the world vary significantly in their treatment of such claims. This detailed country-by-country analysis provides clarity, insight, and guidance on the legal issues and practical implications of second medical use claims in nineteen jurisdictions worldwide as well as the European Union. The authors of the country chapters have been carefully selected based on a broad basis of experience and in-depth knowledge about medical patents in their respective jurisdictions. Each chapter considers such issues and topics as the following: • availability of protection; • validity of claims; • scope of protection; • enforcement; and • infringement. A general chapter about the practice of the European Patent Office (EPO) addresses in particular the latest changes in the format of second medical use claims from the “Swiss-type claims” to the “EPC 2000 claims”. Specific issues and national peculiarities which deviate from the EPO practice are explained in the various national European chapters, while chapters on jurisdictions outside Europe cover both prosecution and enforcement of patents with second medical use claims. As a comparative law study and a collection of contributions from around the world on an important and controversial field, this book will prove of tremendous practical interest for the industry involved and for the public. Applicants for pharmaceutical patents, third parties, and interested legal practitioners will benefit greatly from its thorough comparative analysis and guidance. This book is the second volume in the AIPPI Law Series which has been established together with the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).