Apple v. Samsung: The Inside Tweets

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Here’s a fun one: we report all the time on the steady stream of Silicon Valley legal imbroglios, but rarely does one get to be a fly on the wall of the courtroom. Here’s an insider look at the latest throwdown, Samsung vs. Apple, courtesy of selected tweets from the peanut gallery:

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Feisty start in patent case, Samsung lawyer clashes with Judge Koh over evidence it wants to submit. “We need to move fwd” says Koh sternly

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John Quinn, Samsung lawyer: “Your honor, I’ve been practicing law for 36 years and I’ve never begged the court. I’m begging the court now.”

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Samsung atty Charles Quinn trying to get judge to rehear an issue, and she just blasts him..”I want you to sit down, please!”

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Judge Koh threatens to sanction Samsung lawyer John Quinn in a heated exchange over exhibits.

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25 years covering courts, and haven’t seen big name law firm partner eviscerated in court like that….i think i see an intestine on the…

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Opening statements have started. Apple lawyer Harold J. McElhinny of law firm Morrison Foerster (which calls itself MoFo) is talking to jury

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Apple lawyer arguing that it is “hard to remember what phones looked” like before the iPhone launched in 2007

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How did Samsung get from its 2006 phones to its 2010 phones? Apple witnesses will say it’s all about iPhone introduction, Apple atty says.

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”Less than 10 miles form this courthouse, that is what this team put together,” says Apple playing to the home advantage

 

And that’s just the first day… get the rest at Mashable.

Patent Pros at Work in Universities

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We take pride in noting that patent agents have a wealth of career opportunities—with law firms, the USPTO, and within corporations’ intellectual property divisions, but we haven’t yet mentioned those in our own backyard—universities eager to commercialize the technologies they’ve developed.

Take this quote from a recent article on Inc.com: “One source of new technologies is our national labs and universities that get federal funding. Their mission is to find commercial partners to bring inventions out of the lab and turn them into real products.”

Most universities now have distinct departments devoted to facilitating this process. At Notre Dame, it’s the Office of Technology Transfer. Among their functions:

  • To secure legal protection (patents) for ND technologies,
  • To market those technologies to companies that are well positioned to bring them to the marketplace,
  • To negotiate and execute licenses transferring rights in ND technologies to such companies

 

Just a brief look at the current technologies put forth by the university and you can see the win-win opportunity that patent licensing makes possible, for startup companies and universities alike.

Not to mention the opportunity for the facilitator! Consider it: a job in which you are on the forefront of every advancement that comes out of a university, where you’re the bridge between the academy and the business world, making new technologies available for public benefit. Interested? Contact the Masters Program in Patent Law to learn how our degree is your first step forward.

Coastal Opportunities for Patent Agents

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Job prospects for patent professionals are about to get a lot more… coastal.

Plans for the Silicon Valley office of the USPTO have begun to firm up. Last week, acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank told city officials that the office will open within “12 to 18 months,” employ 125 people, and be “the biggest modernization of the patent office we’ve ever seen.”

The news comes just in time, considering that Silicon Valley is ground zero for high-profile patent lawsuits. Apparently in the world of computer software and hardware, with engineers playing musical chairs between companies, it’s all too easy to step on each others’ toes and infringe on intellectual property.

But the new satellite offices should help curb that. Says Rebecca Blank, “these new offices give us the ability to do higher-quality patents, and could mean fewer legal challenges.”

And not to mention less plane tickets for patent agents headed to to Virginia, home to the original USPTO. It’s fair to say the Patent Office has been all a-flutter about the new offices, which in addition to Silicon Valley, are slated to open in Denver, Dallas, and Detroit, which will be the first to open and was actually dedicated just last week!

Highlighting Notre Dame alumnus Matt Connors

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Not only have Notre Dame alums helped to establish a relationship between the Master of Science in Patent Law and IP-powerhouse General Electric, Domers at prestigious legal firms are excited to help patent law flourish on the Notre Dame campus.

Matthew Connors, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1985 with a degree in Electrical Engineering, is just one such benefactor of the program. A former patent examiner with the USPTO, Matt joined a small patent law firm in Boston in 1991 and made partner in 1996. Gauthier & Connors recently merged with Boston legal practice Gesmer Updegrove, LLP. (Matt’s in the ND sweater, holding the patent.)

Matt has generously financed two scholarships for our first class of Patent Law students, and has also created a summer internship at his firm for a student from the first class—an essential foot-in-the-door for any legal graduate on the job market. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s even offered to mentor a student’s Capstone project—a real-life patent application.

It’s easy to see why Matt has such a continued interest in the University. He has one child, a daughter, who is currently studying at Notre Dame, and his son will be joining the Freshman class this coming Fall — further proof that the ND spirit and legacy runs deep.

Our great thanks to Matt!

Karen in Karen

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During my trip, I stayed at the Holy Cross formation house, which is quite near CUEA, in a neighborhood called Karen (oh, the irony!). The formation house was mostly empty while I was there, which was technically at the start of the southern hemisphere’s winter (although since Kenya is equatorial, their “cool season” is completely unrelated to what I’d think of as winter in Northern Indiana). Pictured below are the residents of the house for the time that I was there.

 

We’re at a restaurant called Carnivore, which is known for serving exotic meats. We had ostrich and crocodile, and of course some local Tusker beer!

On one Saturday during my visit, my CUEA hosts took me to the Nairobi National Wildlife Park. There’s a wildlife park completely surrounded by the city of Nairobi! It was an amazing experience to visit the park with the Chair of the Biology department – he was able to identify all kinds of birds and animals, and tell me all about their life cycles, and what pressures they’re facing due to encroaching human populations. While we didn’t see any lions or cheetahs in the wild, here are a few exciting photos of wild game that we did see.

I also was privileged to visit the Holy Cross mission in Dandora. Dandora is in the eastern part of Nairobi, and, if it is known in the West, it’s for being the site of a huge trash dump in the middle of a large urban population. I attended a Mass that was said in Swahili, which was beautiful; and the choir was absolutely phenomenal! Fr. Tom didn’t warn me about the incense that was very prominent in the service, and I spent a good portion of the Mass trying not to sneeze!
This trip was my first experience in a developing country. I see now, in a way that I could not conceptualize before, what kinds of challenges the people and stakeholders there face. I am looking forward to continuing to work with and get to know the Holy Cross and CUEA friends I’ve made, and hope that I can enable them to create positive change for the people of Kenya.

Nairobi, Kenya

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I recently returned from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya. While I was there, I met with the Law and Science Faculties of the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA), to talk about their idea of creating a Master’s in Intellectual Property. I also had the opportunity to deliver a series of lectures to faculty and students about US and international patent law.
I am really excited about this collaboration, in no small part because of the enthusiasm of the CUEA folks I met. They see that IP, and patents in particular, are critical to growing their developing economy; and want to figure out how to leverage their ideas in a global marketplace. I am excited to see what the CUEA folks develop, and hopeful that I can be a part of it!
I also got some time to be a tourist. More about that in the next post….

The Dean of the Science Faculty and one of her Department Chairs show off their Notre Dame gear.

 

Are Patents Romantic?

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We may typically like to think of our great American inventors as rogue loners toiling away in their humble garages, only to emerge with the next personal computer, or the equally revolutionary light bulb. But apparently that is a myth ready for busting. It may not be romantic, but the real hotbed of invention is in professionally-staffed, fully-funded laboratories.

This misconception is unfortunate, says Eric Issacs at Slate.com, because it “has a real impact on the way this nation views the importance of the knowledge enterprise and the scientific infrastructure that supports it.” And since patent/legal departments fall under this scientific infrastructure, the argument seems a relevant one.

Issacs issues examples from then and now. Even Thomas Edison, arguably the progenitor of the “isolated-genius-inventor” conception, actually headed up the largest scientific laboratory of the times, with a staff of 40 in New Jersey.

And the garage of William Hewlett and David Packard in Palo Alto? The one that now has a plaque that says “Birthplace of Silicon Valley?” Who knows if that honor could have been bestowed if not for the duo’s access to the electrical engineering resources of Stanford University?

The problem, says Issacs, is that if the public doesn’t recognize the role that institutions play in nurturing ideas and facilitating experimentation, support for those institutions may falter and the real engine of innovation (the un-romantic) could be undermined.

Can we say the same for the patent process? Patents do provide inventors with exclusive rights to market their inventions, though in a similar manner to the inventor-myth above, the “inventors” who own the patents are often corporate conglomerates. Still, it’s the revenue from that period of exclusivity that fund further large-scale laboratory research, and profits that pay the men and women researching behind the scenes—regardless of whether they have a garage or not.

Patent Litigation Abuzz in Silicon Valley

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It is no exaggeration to say that what’s stirring the pot in Silicon Valley right now isn’t the latest i-Gadget—it’s tech patents. Licensing intellectual property is a big money-maker out there, where something as intangible as an algorithm is often the hottest commodity. Protection of IP is the sign of the technological times—consider that a majority of the half-million patents applied for each year are tech-related.

And a behemoth tech-company like Google, which has quickly become a part of our everyday lives, (and profits very well from that fact), is not surprisingly taking the lion’s share of patent-related lawsuits.  Fresh from litigation with Oracle, a software company that claimed Android devices infringed on its Java programming, Google is now back in court with IP Engine, concerning the very web search algorithm that made Google, well, Google.

Because the 14-year history of this particular algorithm is perhaps more complex than how it works, here’s the IP Engine/Google fiasco in a nutshell according to Fast Company: in 1998 engineers Andrew Lang and Donald Kosak patented an algorithm that allowed search engines to scour the web and filter the results. While the patent was bought and sold since, it is now owned by IP Engine, who claims Google and other companies like AOL have used the algorithm and therefore owe a royalty. Given that Google alone makes 38 billion annually, a mere fraction of that would be a tidy sum.

As is common with many patent lawsuits, the devil is in the details, or in this case, the definitions. “Scanning” is the term in question—whether it refers to the traditional hand-visor surveying to pick out a particular thing, or the more technical method of “spidering” that is the M.O. of many a search engine.

This is, of course, just the groundwork being laid out as the case goes to trial. We’ll have more for you as the drama unfolds.

Steve Jobs Patent Exhibit at Smithsonian

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Though the exhibit was at the USPTO offices for some time, The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World has made it’s way to the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian and will be there for about a month longer, ending July 8th.

If a wall of patents doesn’t seem like museum material, consider the impact those inventions had on culture around the world, and the fact that the objects of those patents earned Apple assets that eclipse the national treasury.

And of course, Jobs was known for his artistry as well as his ingenuity. According to NPR, the now seemingly-antiquated design for the first flat-screened iMac, that seems to hover over it’s rounded base was inspired by sunflowers his wife grew in their Palo Alto garden.

And if you can’t get to D.C., here’s a fascinating interactive look at Jobs’ patents at the New York Times, everything from Apple packaging to product prototypes that never made it to the showroom floor.

The Value of American Ideas

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What comes to mind when you think of American exports? Cadillacs? Doritos? Those are easy, but you may not consider services like finance and education, and you probably don’t think of American ideas either. But as shown on the chart below, intellectual property falls under the “Royalties and Licensing” bubble, and makes up a big chunk of American GDP.

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

According to NPR’s Planet Money, American ideas bring in about $105.6 billion from overseas. And as illustrated in the next breakdown, the lion’s share of these monies comes from “Software” and “Industrial Processes”—both of which depend on patent protection to ensure the intellectual property is not being abused, and the developer is getting their fair share of compensation from use.

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

“Industrial processes” comprise anything from medicine and drug formulas to trade secrets and technology in manufacturing. It all goes to show that intellectual property, while it may be as intangible as a thought, idea, or simple moment of inspiration, is a big, global business—a business that needs individuals like you to be a part of!