Recent Articles

Number of Patents Issued to Marylanders Continues Downward Trend

Brian Wm. Higgins

January 03, 2009 10:00

     U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) records show that for 2008, the PTO granted 1,942 patents naming at least one Maryland resident as an inventor or joint inventor (based on residence addresses supplied by patent applicants to the PTO). That is a 1% decline...

Maryland's Silynx and Norway's Nacre Forge Ahead on Patent Case

Brian Wm. Higgins

January 03, 2009 10:00

Nacre AS v. Silynx Communications, Inc., matter, No. 07-cv-02676, filed Oct. 2, 2007; assigned to J. Williams For those of you following the Nacre AS v. Silynx Communications, Inc., matter (and many of you are, based on traffic on this website), the parties jointly filed a stipulated schedule...

Federal Trademark Trends in Maryland: 2008 Summary

Brian Wm. Higgins

January 02, 2009 10:00

     U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) records show that in 2008, the PTO received 68 trademark applications from Maryland resident or entities (based on a search of "owner address" records using Trademark Electronic Search System, TESS, database). That...

Upcoming Conference Targets Bio/Pharma Industry

Brian Wm. Higgins

December 20, 2008 03:03

     Hat tip to Philip Brooks for noting the upcoming Bio/Pharmaceutical Summit on Intellectual Asset Management Strategies to be held in Baltimore, MD, on January 20-21, 2009.  The Summit's organizer, The Center for Business Intelligence (CBI), plans a two-day,...

Copyright Reform?, House IP Committee Nixed, Patent Terms Extended

Brian Wm. Higgins

November 15, 2008 22:00

  Calling for Copyright Reform "Given where we are on the patent reform debate, is it time to move patent reform off the table and work on copyright reform?" That is the question posed by Kristie Prinz at the Silicon Valley IP Licensing Law Blog. No More Committee on...

Patent Reform Act of 2008: News, Commentary, and Analysis

Brian Wm. Higgins

November 14, 2008 01:39

     Seven weeks after Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) introduced S.3600, the Patent Reform Act of 2008, on September 25, 2008 (source: GovTracks), the reaction has been predictable, with stakeholders on the pro- and anti-reform sides making their views known. The Advanced...

Court Clarifies Patent Eligibility Standard for Inventions Involving Process Steps

Brian Wm. Higgins

November 01, 2008 02:29

In Re Bilski (Fed. Cir.; October 30, 2008)      In In Re Bilski, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, sitting en banc, considered the issue of whether certain so-called business methods and other “processes” are eligible for patent...

Copyright News: PRO-IP law, RIAA setback, DMCA rulemaking

Brian Wm. Higgins

October 22, 2008 14:27

Copyright On October 13, 2008, President Bush signed into law P.L. 110-403, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008 (also known as the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act or PRO-IP Act). The law creates a cabinet-level position entitled...

MD IP Law Blog Joins Top-Ranked Blawgs

Brian Wm. Higgins

September 28, 2008 17:24

     The top 20 law blogs focusing on intellectual property issues, based on “weekly” rankings compiled by Blawgsearch (Justia.com), are shown below. The Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog is ranked 11th (out of a total 183 blogs in the IP category).   ...

Man & Machine, Inc. v. Apple, Inc.

Brian Wm. Higgins

September 22, 2008 02:20

Man & Machine, Inc. v. Apple, Inc., No. 8:2008cv02453 (D. Md filed Sep. 18, 2008); assigned to J. Williams      Man & Machine, Inc. (M&M), a Maryland company based in Landover, MD, owns the federally registered MIGHTY MOUSE trademark, which,...