12:01 Tuesday

Expiration Challenge II

Today Symbol Technologies -- the company that revived the doctrine of prosecution laches to bring down Lemelson's patents -- received U.S. Patent No. 7,738,865.  On the surface, it appears that this patent, like a few of the Army's described in earlier posts, expired long before it issued.  But did it?

You tell me.  When does/did this patent expire?

Hint #1: you will probably have to argue your position using case law.

Winner gets the bottle of Costco ibuprofen sitting in my desk drawer, expired 1/06. (And to you pharma folks -- is there really a harm in my still taking them?)

A more complete discussion will follow.

Stanley

Though I'm a lifelong fan of the Detroit Red Wings, I'm sure I will get some chills looking down and seeing the Stanley Cup parade past my office building in about an hour. In its honor, here are two design patents inspired by the Grail. Unsurprisingly, both relate to drinking.  Bottoms up!

D461,367 "Drinking Mug"

 
D434,313 "Stanley Cup Shaped Can" 

Godot; Guffman; Bilski: USPTO Postpones Business Methods Meeting

Seems like we're not the only ones waiting for a decision. This morning I received the following e-mail from Jeff Smith, a supervisory examiner in the 3600 TC and coordinator of the annual Business Methods Partnership Meeting:

From: "Smith, Jeffrey A. (AU3625)" Date: June 11, 2010 6:37:36 AM CDT Subject: Notification of Postponement of the 2010 Business Methods Partnership Meeting Greetings, You were recently invited to attend this year's annual Business Method's Partnership Meeting to be held on July 15, 2010.  Regretfully, we must postpone this event.  We recognize and appreciate our community's profound interest in Bilski v. Kappos currently before the United States Supreme Court, and inasmuch as we still await a decision in this case, we find it best to postpone this meeting to a future time when more guidance will be in place for this decision. We apologize for any inconvenience the postponement of this meeting may have caused. We will provide notice to you once we determine the best possible date for the rescheduling of this event. Sincerely, Jeff Smith Supervisory Patent Examiner A.U. 3625 Knox, Rm 5D05

On the positive side, if you were planning on making the trip from out-of-town, you are now spared one dose of D.C. humidity this summer.

Posted on June 11, 2010 at 08:43 AM in Bilski | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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Seems like we're not the only ones waiting for a decision. This morning I received the following e-mail from Jeff Smith, a supervisory examiner in the 3600 TC and coordinator of the annual Business Methods Partnership Meeting:

From: "Smith, Jeffrey A. (AU3625)" Date: June 11, 2010 6:37:36 AM CDT Subject: Notification of Postponement of the 2010 Business Methods Partnership Meeting Greetings, You were recently invited to attend this year's annual Business Method's Partnership Meeting to be held on July 15, 2010.  Regretfully, we must postpone this event.  We recognize and appreciate our community's profound interest in Bilski v. Kappos currently before the United States Supreme Court, and inasmuch as we still await a decision in this case, we find it best to postpone this meeting to a future time when more guidance will be in place for this decision. We apologize for any inconvenience the postponement of this meeting may have caused. We will provide notice to you once we determine the best possible date for the rescheduling of this event. Sincerely, Jeff Smith Supervisory Patent Examiner A.U. 3625 Knox, Rm 5D05

On the positive side, if you were planning on making the trip from out-of-town, you are now spared one dose of D.C. humidity this summer.