Yet another post-Bilski pronouncement: the Federal Circuit has held that patent claims directed to “an investment tool designed to enable property owners to buy and sell properties without incurring tax liability” do…
Read More
Federal district courts have been split, and the courts of appeals thus far silent, on what allegation of “loss” a plaintiff must make to state a case under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. 18 U.S.C. § 10…
Read More
Detroit is excited about the branch office of the United States Patent and Trademark Office opening downtown in July. And with good reason. Moreover, based on the USPTO’s recent job posting for people with comp…
Read More
A California court recently reaffirmed the principle that a restrictive software license is not a “sale” for purposes of the federal copyright laws, and that the license could not be used to assert a defense…
Read More
While this site presents issues mainly of interest to other lawyers, those issues are vitally important to the non-lawyers who work in the information technology industry. Therefore, I am introducing The SWIP Report&…
Read More
Last fall, in Ultramercial, LLC v. Hulu, LLC [1], the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals surprised many people by upholding a patent claim, reproduced in footnote [2], directed to a “method for distribution of produc…
Read More
Regardless of your philosophical leanings on the issue of software patents, if you’re in the software business, you need to worry about them. A lot of people, such as the inventor of modern e-mail, are opposed to…
Read More
Google’s new privacy policy and terms of use are, as I have commented, scary stuff. Two authors at Slate magazine, coming at the issue from the “open technology” perspective, recently explained why th…
Read More
In a case that has been widely publicized, a Texas jury has invalidated claims of two patents that cover much of today’s World Wide Web. I won’t duplicate the detailed treatment that others have already pro…
Read More
The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Bilski v. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218, 3225 (2010), failed to provide a clear test for patentable subject matter. That was over a year-and-a-half ago. Are there now, I wondered…
Read More
