Top IP Management Mistakes: Saving Money on Maintenance Fees

By: Fernando Torres, MSc Challenges of IP Management Managing an organization’s IP portfolio is full of challenges in the context of global competition, which turn particularly acute in the current economic dynamics of the turnaround from the financial crisis. There are a few good information sources on the Best Practices for IP management. The International [...]

The 25% Rule is legally inadequate — CAFC

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) issued a precedential ruling to the effect that, among other issues in the Uniloc v. Microsoft case, as a matter of Federal Circuit law the 25 percent rule of thumb is a fundamentally flawed tool for determining a baseline royalty rate in a hypothetical negotiation. Evidence relying on the 25 percent rule of thumb is thus inadmissible under Daubert and the Federal Rules of Evidence, because it fails to tie a reasonable royalty base to the facts of the case at issue.

PETA accused of copyright infringement

Victor Schonfeld has threatened to sue animal rights group PETA over the copyright infringement his copyrights in the film ‘The Animals Film’.

Software Copyright Litigation Issues

Software commercialization began to accrue significance in the early 1960s and it presented a challenge to the U.S. Copyright office when the first registrations were submitted in 1964. Since that time, until the 1976 Copyright Act, the required registrations of software were accepted under the general assimilation of software as a “how to” book. The [...]

Trademark Damages After Mattel v MGA

An often overlooked aspect of trademark damages calculations, apportionment, is a key point in the recent Appeals Court opinion.

Patent value of business methods and software at the SCOTUS

The future of software and business method patents still hangs in the balance, after oral arguments were heard by a Supreme Court with significant unknown factors as far as Intellectual Property law is concerned.
At the hearing held Monday, most Justices expressed signs of skepticism about the patentability of pure business methods like those claimed by the Bilski patents on financial hedging strategies. Significant uncertainties remain, however, over the leanings of most justices regarding the status of software patents.

Top Three Lessons From The Woody Allen Lawsuit

Woody Allen wins the largest amount ever paid under the New York Right to Privacy Act from American Apparel. What lessons can be drawn from the $5 million settlement?

Patent Valuation Update

On May 2, 2007, I had an opportunity to talk on the subject of patent valuation and the difficulties of identifying patent values in generally accepted financial information. This is the powerpoint presentation (for full screen click to see it in SlideShare):