Top U.S. Utility Patent Grantee Universities List

The National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association has released their top 100 U.S. utility patent grantee universities list.  Topping the list is the University of California.  The top ten include:

1 University of California, The Regents of.....589 [Important to remember is that the University of California has essentially 10 campuses, 6 academic health centers and 3 National Laboratories. I think that makes MIT's numbers very impressive.]

2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology....335

3 The University of Texas .....203

4 King Abdulaziz University....187

5 Stanford University....181

6 Purdue Research Foundation / Purdue University ....169

7 Harvard college, President and Fellows...167

8 Arizona State University....153

9 California Institute of Technology ....146

9 Tsinghua university....146

Around 62 of the top 100 are U.S. based institutions.  Around 14 are based in China.  Around two in Europe.  Around 9 in South Korea and Japan.  Around 8 in the Middle East region. 

A Presumption of Irreparable Harm for Injunctions for Trademark Matters?

The American Intellectual Property Law Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the International Trademark Association have sent a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee concerning the availability of a presumption of irreparable harm related to injunctions in trademark infringement and dilution.  The letter points to the erosion of the presumption by some courts following the U.S. Supreme Court eBay case concerning patent injunctions.  The letter states:

Injury in most Lanham Act violations is typically not readily or immediately quantifiable. Injunctive relief (which requires the claimant to meet a four-part test, including a showing of irreparable harm) most often is the only effective remedy to prevent harm to consumers and protect the trademark owner's reputation. For this reason, historically, U.S. federal courts, when considering a claim under the Lanham Act, almost uniformly applied a rebuttable presumption of irreparable harm upon a finding of liability or, in the context of a preliminary injunction, when liability was found to be probable. A rebuttable presumption of irreparable harm is an important avenue to adequate relief, given the difficulty of quantifying this type of injury.  . . .

Legislation reestablishing a presumption of irreparable harm under the Lanham Act would provide clarity for the courts and litigants alike. It would provide injunctive relief to trademark owners who prevail on the merits of their claim or who, in preliminary injunction proceedings, demonstrate that they are likely to prevail on the merits, and allow them to appropriately protect their brands and reputations. This will also protect consumers from harm arising from confusion about the source of products or services.

Hat tip to Professor Dennis Crouch of the Patently Obvious Blog. 

Intellectual Property Owners Association Adopts Resolution to Amend Patent Eligible Subject Matter

The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) board of directors has adopted a resolution which advocates for amending section 101 of the Patent Act in the U.S. to essentially overturn Mayo v. Prometheus and Alice v. CLS Bank.  The reason for the resolution is the development of inconsistent application of the so-called Alice/Mayo test.  Indeed, there have been a number of relatively recent decisions attempting to clarify Alice/Mayo which find patent eligible subject matter satisfied, including DDR, Enfish, McRO, Amdocs, and Cellz Direct.  How does this happen: the development of panel splits at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Notably, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has worked extremely hard in attempting to provide guidance to patentees and arguably is doing quite a good job.  I think the USPTO deserves a lot of credit for attempting to bring clarity and predictability to the field.  My personal opinion (shared by others) is that section 102 and 103 could provide a better gatekeeper than section 101 even though early resolution may be difficult.  I do think that the USPTO’s attempt to place certain claims in a “streamlined” analysis seems to be a good idea.  Claims drafting gamesmanship and looking at the claim as a whole will always raise issues though (that pesky Diamond v. Diehr!).  Here is the proposed language amending section 101:

101(a) ELIGIBLE SUBJECT MATTER
Whoever invents or discovers, and claims as an invention, any useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or any useful improvement thereto, shall be entitled to a patent for a claimed invention thereof, subject only to the exceptions, conditions, and requirements set forth in this Title.

101(b) SOLE EXCEPTION TO SUBJECT MATTER ELIGIBILITY
A claimed invention is ineligible under subsection (a) if and only if the claimed invention as a whole, as understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains, exists in nature independently of and prior to any human activity, or exists solely in the human mind.

101(c) SOLE ELIGIBILITY STANDARD
The eligibility of a claimed invention under subsections (a) and (b) shall be determined without regard as to the requirements or conditions of sections 102, 103, and 112 of this Title, the manner in which the claimed invention was made or discovered, or the claimed invention’s inventive concept.