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Axel H. Horns

Axel H. Horns

Recent Articles

U.S. PTO Allowance Rate Dramatically Going Down.

Jon Katz
January 02, 2009 18:26

I just have seen this chart (plotting the allowance rate of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over a time axis) on a Blog named Inventive Step operated by Mr Matthew R. Osenga:Mr Osenga writes: The PTO insists that there is no mandate to lower the allowance rate; they are...

Playing Around With Google Trends.

Jon Katz
January 01, 2009 17:39

From time to time I find it interesting to play around with Google Trends where one can obtain a rough quantitative estimate of the search volume produced by the users of Google.com for certain keywords. Below find the chart for patent:Google Trends chart for "patent"Without doubt there...

The EU Community Patent Project Has Failed Again.

Jon Katz
January 01, 2009 15:26

Back in November 2007, I had reported on a very interesting presentation by Dr. Jens Gaster of GD Internal Market, EU Commission, Brussels, which had been hosted by the Bavarian chapter of Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht (GRUR) on November 05, 2007, in the ...

EPN About to be Implemented Soon?

Jon Katz
December 09, 2008 19:48

Some time ago I had reported on this Blog about a favourite pet project of various Governments of EU Member States - the so-called European Patent Network (EPN). The European Patent Network was set up as a result of the strategy debate (June 2004 - June 2006) on co-operation between the EPO and...

Pharmaceutical Sector: EC Competition Rules ./. Patent System?

Jon Katz
November 28, 2008 12:30

In January 2008, the European Commission had launched a sector inquiry into EU pharmaceuticals markets under the EC competition rules (Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty) because information relating to innovative and generic medicines suggested that competition may be restricted or distorted....