The Open COVID Coalition, comprising an international group of scientists and attorneys, has published the Open COVID Pledge, which calls upon organizations worldwide to make their patents and copyrights freely available to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The steering committee of the Open COVID Coalition includes such legal luminaries as Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School and Diane Peters of Creative Commons.
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USPTO Permitting Patent Applicants to Extend Certain Deadlines Due to COVID-19
On March 31, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it is permitting patent applicants to request extensions of the time allowed to file certain documents and to pay certain fees due to the ongoing COVID-19 emergency in the United States. In doing so, USPTO director Andrei Iancu is exercising temporary authority granted to him under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) signed into law on March 27.
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Limited Relief for Patent and Trademark Applicants Affected by COVID-19
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is offering limited relief to patent and trademark applicants affected by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by waiving the fee for filing a petition to revive an abandoned patent or trademark application. Under an official notice issued by the USPTO, the office is considering the effects of the coronavirus to be “an extraordinary situation” justifying the waiver of fees. Deadlines and other requirements set by statute remain in force, but the USPTO is lowering the financial costs for reviving a patent or trademark application that went abandoned when a deadline was missed. Additionally, the USPTO is waiving the requirement for an original handwritten signature in the few instances where the office requires one.
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High Court Takes on Laches and Patents
As published by The Daily Journal on May 11, 2016.
Businesses dread getting letters that make claims of patent infringement. Such letters often raise complex questions of patent law that require specialized advice and demand a license fee that eats into company profits.
Sometimes, however, the patent owner fails to follow up on the letter, and years pass. Other times, the patent owner starts a dialogue, only to let it trail off without resolution. Occasionally, a second letter (or a patent lawsuit) comes many years after the patent owner first learned of its potential claim for patent infringement. Does the passage of time mean that the accused infringer is safe?Continue Reading High Court Takes on Laches and Patents