14th March , 2010

AstraZeneca ties up with India's Torrent

AstraZeneca Plc. has signed an agreement with the Indian drugmaker, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to brand and market 18 of Torrent Pharmaceuticals medicines in nine emerging economies.

This agreement is the U.K. drugmaker’s first generic-drug partnership. According to the terms of the alliance, the London-based AstraZeneca may purchase additional product licenses and enter new markets with Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. based in Ahmedabad.

AstraZeneca is expanding in so-called branded generics as it seeks to increase sales in emerging markets by marketing widely used medicines that no longer have patent protection. The names of the products or which regions where they will be sold are not declared for competitive reasons.

Self-Charging Phone Patent for Nokia?
           
Nokia, the mobile phone maker has developed a self-charging phone. The devise is designed to use the kinetic energy created when a person moves around. The patent application was filed with the USPTO. The new device could power a phone; however this technology could be used in any portable electronic device like a music player, medical equipment or games console etc., leading to a world devoid of batteries and chargers altogether.

The proposed machine would use piezoelectric crystals which create an electric current when bent or compressed. In Nokia's design the radio aerial and battery, the phone’s heavier machinery are supported on a strong frame that can move alongside two sets of rails. Strips of piezoelectric crystals at the end of each rail would create an electric current when hit and compressed by the frame. So a person would create electricity when he gets up or walks or moves the phone and this energy would charge up a capacitor that would charge up a battery.

Such a self-charging mobile would indeed be a great asset for this electricity-dependent world.

Apple, RIM, AT&T, Motorola, LG, Samsung and Sanyo hit by patent infringement suits

Apple, Research in Motion, AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung and Sanyo have been hit with a wide-ranging patent infringement suit by SmartPhone Technologies, a Texas-based software technology provider.

The suit alleges that these mobile and electronics manufactures including Insight Enterprises and Pantech Wireless violate one or more of seven mobile phone–related patents including ones for Bluetooth connectivity, syncing and background processing.
Six of the seven patents were originally granted to PalmSource, provider of Palm OS, a leading operating system powering next generation mobile devices and smartphones. All of the seven patents were filed between 2000 and 2004 and granted between 2004 and 2009.

The suit was filed in the District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. The judge assigned to the case is Leonard Davis, who has recently closed hundreds of patent infringement cases, including the recent decision that banned Microsoft Word.

Actos patent litigation settled by Watson Pharmaceuticals

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. has reached an agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America to settle patent litigation related to Watson's generic counterpart of Actos® (Pioglitazone Hydrochloride) 15mg, 30mg and 45mg tablets. 

Takeda granted a non-exclusive royalty free license to its U.S. patents covering Actos® to Watson Pharmaceuticals under terms of the agreement. After the deal Watson is now allowed to launch its generic version of Actos® on August 17, 2012, or earlier under certain circumstances.

Actos® is a once-daily oral medication for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and belongs to the thiazolidinedione class of drugs. It is known as an “insulin sensitizer” because it directly targets insulin resistance, a condition in which the body does not effectively use the insulin it produces. Actos® had approximately $3.4 billion in brand sales last financial year. Actos® is a registered trademark of Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. and used under license by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.

Hewlett-Packard Co files patent lawsuit against MicroJet

Hewlett-Packard Co. has initiated a legal action against MicroJet Technology Co. and three other companies alleging infringement of its patents.

The California-based company has alleged that the Taiwanese manufacturer of printer ink cartridges, and the other companies, have exploited Hewlett-Packard Co.’s  own patents in their HP-compatible color ink cartridges.

The three other companies named in the lawsuit including MicroJet are Mipo and Mipo unit in Miami, PTC Holdings Ltd. and SinoTime Technologies Inc.

The lawsuit filed in the District Court, Northern District of California. reveals that these companies changed nearly 300,000 authentic HP printheads in Asia and sold them as products of Mipo Technology Ltd.

Facebook and Google Buzz sued for social networking patent infringement

A Long Island based company Wireless Ink Corp. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google and Facebook. Wireless Ink alleges that Facebook’s social network and Google’s Gmail and Buzz and their mobile websites infringe upon Wireless Ink’s patent that was granted in 2009 for a process of “management of information content for enhanced accessibility over wireless communication networks.”

Wireless Ink operates a service called Winksite which facilitates social networking over a mobile device and has more than 75,000 users.

Mobile social networking is important to the growth of both companys’ social business plans. A counter attack to invalidate the patent might be on the way from the search engine giant Google and the social networking site, Facebook.

Amazon 1-Click patent survives USPTO reexamination

Amazon's patent on one-click shopping has been scrutinized by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO declared its intent to issue a reexamination certificate confirming the validity of Amazon's amended version of the patent.

The patent, filed in 1997, describes a method of enabling consumers to purchase goods without providing credit card and shipping information during every shopping session.. The patentability of one-click Internet shopping is mostly disputed. Peter Calveley, an actor and patent law enthusiast from New Zealand had initiated a campaign against the one-click patent in 2006 and filed for a reexamination. A year later, the USPTO issued a decision rejecting 21 of the patent's 26 claims, due to well-documented prior art. Amazon then amended the patent in order to deal with some issues raised during the reexamination.

The amended edition has to some extent a smaller scope, limiting the patent's coverage to online shopping cart systems rather than all one-click e-commerce. The USPTO has declared the new version of the patent to be valid, even though there is no efficient difference from the original version.

New Copyright Law for China with effect from April 1

The Standing Committee of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) has approved the amendment of Chinese Copyright Law on February 26. The Chinese President Hu Jintao signed the Chairman’s Decree.

The new Copyright law will be in force from April 1, 2010.

Prominent amendments to the existing law include:

Article 4: Copyright owners’ exercise of their copyright, shall not violate the Constitution, laws or prejudice the public interests, the state shall perform supervision over publication or distribution of works as prescribed by laws;
Article 26, a new provision: Using copyright as pledge, the pledger and pledgee should register the pledge in the copyright administration of the State Council.