Law and Innovation

Fresh and interesting article posted on  IPWatchdog.com  about the valuation of intellectual property as a strategic business asset in the hands of Unicorns, a startup with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Happy reading!   "It seems that not a day goes by without a commentary about Unicorns, a Silicon Valley-coined term used to describe a startup (pre-exit) with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. The number of Unicorns, the vast majority of which are US software companies, has recently crossed the 150 mark, according to the TechCrunch Unicorn leaderboard . Topping the US Unicorn list are high flyers like Uber at $51 billion and Airbnb at $25.5 billion, followed by companies that are mostly concentrated in three industries: Consumer Internet, E-commerce and Software. Unicorns have captured the attention of investors, analysts and other market observers who are trying to understand the factors driving the formidable valuations commanded by these mythical ventures...

Fresh and interesting article posted by WIPR  concerning a European patent for a "device for preparing a drink extracted from a capsule", owned by Ethical Coffee Company (ECC). As you all know, Nespresso machines brew espresso from coffee capsules, a type of pre-apportioned single-use container of ground coffee and flavorings. In the case at hand, ECC, a Swiss Company, also creating capsules compatible with Nespresso machines, is suing Nestlé, in Paris, for alleged patent infringement. In other words, ECC is not happy with the way Nestlé modified the Nespresso machines back in 2010, keeping competitors’ capsules out of them and, more importantly, violating the patented "harpoon mechanism". Happy reading! "The man who oversaw  Nestlé’s Nespresso brand of coffee machines  has sued his former employer for alleged patent infringement.   Ethical Coffee Company , which makes coffee capsules that can be used in the Nespresso machine, has claimed that...

Fresh and interesting article posted on IPWatchdog about the history of Apple iDevices. Happy reading!  " Early on in his career with Apple, Steve Jobs conceived the idea of a personal computing device that a person could keep with them and use to connect wirelessly to other computer services. Almost 25 years later, Apple and Jobs would upend the world of personal computing by launching the iPhone smartphone, and a few years later a tablet computer counterpart, the iPad. According to the most recent sales figures available from Apple corporate analysis website AAPLinvestors.net,   the iPhone has achieved lifetime sales of 590.5 million units ; Apple has also sold 237.2 million iPads in just over three years since the release of that product. The iPhone has retained mass appeal despite the presence of the iPad and   Apple has even reverted to soft launches for new iPad products , evidence of the incredible hold that the iPhone still maintains over Apple’s core consum...

Fresh and interesting article posted on TechCrunch about Facebook attempt to legally clone the features and technology of Snapchat. However, Facebook may be violating Snapchat's patent(s).  Happy reading! "Facebook released Slingshot , its second attempt at an impermanent sharing app, last Tuesday. The app borrows heavily, in concept and features, from Snapchat, as well as smaller startups like Frontback and Look. Slingshot and Facebook Messenger feature the same photo and video recording interface–a very user friendly mechanism where you tap the main button to take a picture, and hold that button to record a video. There’s just one problem: Facebook may be violating Snapchat’s patent , “Single mode visual media capture”  that was approved over a year ago. Representatives from both Facebook and Snapchat declined to comment for this story, but the patent appears to describe the way both companies’ apps record media: “An...

Fresh and interesting article from the famous IP Blog The IPKat  concerning historic patents in the winter Olympic Games. I also recommend you the Gizmodo article (see here ) and the USPTO Twitter account if you want to have a full coverage of these patents mixing new and old technologies. Happy reading! "As Kat readers are well-aware, the 2014 Winter Olympics is in full swing. It may surprising, however, that efforts have been made to link the Winter Olympics to patents. In that connection, and thanks to the Patent Analytics group on LinkedIn, this Kat came across an item on gizmodo.com entitled “17 historic patents that made winter Olympic sports possible”,  here . The article notes that the United States Patent and Trademark Office “is releasing historic patents that reveal how winter sports emerged.“ On the basis of this list, as well as additional digging by the author of further relevant patents, the article identifies the following patents: 1....

Fresh and interesting  article from the famous IPWatchdog website  about the meaning of 'patent trolls'; who can be considered as one, and how should we stop them. "With the enormous media focus on the so-called problem of patent trolls one might start to think that any patent owner can easily stand up to and take on industry giants to obtain lottery like winnings. Not so fast! The great irony is that if you want a larger entity to fold like a cheap suit and settle quickly you would be better off filing a frivolous patent infringement lawsuit using a dubious patent. You see, the great irony is this: Only when large entities get sued on completely frivolous patent claims do they settle right away. Now I’m not advocating that course of action, rather just observing the truth of the matter asserted.   On the other hand, if you have a strong patent that covers real technology, perhaps pioneering technology, and there are substantial damages, the tech giants ...

Fresh and interesting article from Health Issues India about the next fighting front in the war over intellectual property: Hepatitis C in India: "In recent weeks, the international non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced that it supports the ‘patent opposition’ which has been filed recently at India’s Patent Office by the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK). The application aims to prevent US pharma company Gilead/Pharmasset from gaining a patent in India on sofosbuvir, a drug for hepatitis C, which will be launched here soon. Sofosbuvir is the first of several oral hepatitis C drugs expected to come to market in the coming year. It cures hepatitis C in a much shorter time period than today’s available treatment. Gilead is expected to charge around $80,000 for one treatment course of sofosbuvir in the US. As mentioned in this article in the Times of India, even if offered at a fraction of this price in dev...