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21st August, 2009 A US District Court has granted an injunction against Microsoft, preventing it from selling copies of Word, its word-processing software. The court has ruled that Microsoft must stop selling Word in the United States, after finding the software giant guilty of copyright infringement. The company has been accused of infringing patents owned by another company, i4i, based in Toronto, Canada. i4i has claimed that Microsoft "willingly violated" a patent granted in 1998 concerning methods for reading XML, a kind of programming language, which allows users to customise the format of word-processing documents, enabling them to be read by various word-processing programs. A Judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that Microsoft had infringed i4i's patent, and ordered the software giant to pay $290 million (£176 million) in damages, which included $40 million (£25 million) for the willful infringement of the patent, $37 million (£23 million) in pre-judgement interest, and a further $21,102 (£13,000) per day until a final judgement is reached. An injunction was also granted banning Microsoft from selling Microsoft Word in the United States, or importing the software in to the country. The ruling covers all Microsoft Word products that can open XML files or DOCX and DOCM documents. Microsoft has been given 60 days to comply with the injunction.
Danny Boyle Director of the Oscar winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire has been sued. According to the suit, Nepali says his father Gopal Singh Nepali, a poet, wrote the song and that the filmmakers – Danny Boyle and Celador Films Ltd – have violated the author’s rights and caused loss of reputation to his father who is the original writer of the song. Nepali has claimed Rs 5 crore as damages, with added interest at 21 per cent per annum from the date of filing the suit until realisation. He has also sought the Courts intervention to prohibit the filmmakers from presenting in any form the portion of the movie that says that Surdas is the author of the song.
KAPPOS SWORN IN AS USPTO DIRECTOR David J. Kappos was sworn in as Director of the USPTO on 13th Aug. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke had administered the oath of office. Kappos has pledged to concentrate on improving the USPTO’s internal operations. He said he would minimize overseas travel, and focus domestic travel on listening to the U.S. innovation community. Kappos will give his attention to reducing the backlog of unexamined patent applications, maintaining high quality standards, and putting the USPTO on a sustainable financial footing. Secretary Locke said the agency will have an extremely aggressive goal for patent applications “of taking the average first office action time down to 10 months.”
A federal court in Michigan has invalidated Eli Lilly & Co.’s method of use patent for its cancer drug Gemzar. The lawsuit was filed by generic drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The invalidated patent was set to expire in 2013 and deals with methods of use for Gemzar, This decision however has no bearing on Lilly’s compound patent for Gemzar, a medicine for lung, breast, pancreatic and ovarian cancer Sun Pharmaceutical has sued Lilly & Co. in 2007 claiming its method of use patent for Gemzar is invalid. Sun Pharmaceutical is seeking to market a generic version of the drug before Lilly’s patent expires. Lilly & Co. had claimed that Sun’s generics infringe on its Gemzar patents. InterDigital Inc., a wireless-technology developer filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission in 2007, alleging Nokia engaged in unfair trade practices by selling certain 3G components that infringe on four of InterDigital's U.S. patents. An administrative law judge found no violation by Nokia. InterDigital's quest to collect royalties from Nokia Corp suffered a setback and its shares tumbled 24% on the news. InterDigital Chief Executive William Merritt said that the company strongly disagreed with the judge's finding, and that they will exercise their right to petition to the Commission for a review of the initial determination. Nokia, meanwhile, said the "initial determination by the ITC combined with earlier U.K. court decisions indicate that the asserted value of InterDigital's 3G patent portfolio may have been overestimated." In January this year, Samsung Electronics Co. had agreed to pay royalties to InterDigital to license its 2G and 3G mobile technology. The deal made before a judge, ended nearly two years of litigation between the companies. It would be difficult for Nokia and other handset makers to claim they don't use InterDigital patents when Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. and others admit they use the patents and are paying royaltie to use them.
Shares of Canadian drugmakers Biovail Corp and Labopharm Inc dropped on Monday after a U.S. court ruling for a popular painkiller, variations of which are produced by these two companies. Labopharm shares fell 11.7 percent, while Biovail shares were down 1.7 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange. A court in Delaware ruled in favor of Par Pharmaceuticals Inc., U.S.based generic drugmaker, in a patent-infringement case against Purdue Pharma related to tramadol hydrochloride extended-release painkiller tablets. Purdue is patent holder of the drug in question. Biovail sells a generic version of the drug under the name Ultram ER, while Labopharm manufactures its own once-daily tramadol product Ryzolt, marketed in the US by Purdue. The court's decision, coupled with U.S. approval for Par's version of the drug, bring Par close to launching its own generic product, which will compete with Biovail and Labopharm's in the existing market.
TechRadium, a Texas-based player in the emergency mass-notification field, has decided to sue Twitter based in San Francisco for patent infringement. Twitter has to respond to TechRadium’s complaint by this month’s end. Two weeks ago, Article One Partners of New York, an online community of lawyers, scholars, scientists and others, began searching for evidence that TechRadium’s intellectual property was not as unique as the Texas company claims. TechRadium’s patents concern its emergency notification system, the Immediate Response Information System (IRIS), which has many paying clients. The system, simultaneously delivers uniform, reliable and verifiable emergency messages to an unlimited number of contacts within seconds, across all means and devices of communication. Its customers include the U.S. Army, Littleton Police Department, QWest Communications, Lincoln University, San Antonio School District, American Red Cross and others. Twitter infringes the patents, because its messaging system also is carried across various “means and devices of communication” – including texting, websites, cellphones and RSS feeds. There are similarities between IRIS and Twitter as each allow a messenger to send a single message to a select group via multiple technological platforms. It was novel when TechRadium began applying for its patents ahead of its first one granted in 2006. The patents also describe the chosen device sending a response back automatically to the sender to confirm that a message was received. Staples, TechRadium’s lawyer, countered that the company must prove that one of the elements in its patents apply to Twitter. “Every claim in a patent stands on its own. To infringe the patent, you only have to infringe one claim.” HTC has applied for a patent according to WMPowerUser that will allow working on a capacitive screen with a stylus. This has several advantages as a stylus is the best method for text entry compared to a finger and there are programs such as a graphical program that can benefit from the finer control a stylus gives. HTC is trying to bring together the best of both capacitive and resistive worlds. To provide to the user's operation mode of using a finger, icons displayed on a screen must be configured in an appropriate size to prevent the user from miss touching the icons. A part of the screen is often shielded by finger of the user when the capacitive touch panel is used. A conventional stylus has a small head, so that a user can click small icons conveniently, but the conventional stylus is only applicable to resistive touch panels, and not applicable to capacitive touch panels. 
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA FILES 'LAUGH DETECTOR' PATENT Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a patent that would track users' laughter and emotional output when playing a video game or watching other types of media. Published in the European Patent Office on August 6, this patent is for a "laugh detector and system and method for tracking an emotional response to a media presentation." The system would collect a user's emotional output such as laughter, a smile, or a yawn via a microphone and/or a camera and the feedback would then be tied to metadata in order to track the kind of response a player or viewer would bring forth at a specific point in a presentation. The patent mentions the system could implement a 3D camera system, specifically naming the ZCam by 3DV. A 3D camera in the emotion tracking system would recognize the shape of an individual's head and use that as a reference point for detecting facial expressions. Though the patent's title indicates that the invention is a laugh detector, the invention would be able to sense other emotions, such as sadness, excitement, anger, boredom, and so on. Cleveland BioLabs Inc. has been approved for patent protection related to its radiation-treatment drug by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a method of protecting mammals from radiation using protein derivatives such as Protectan CBLB502, Cleveland Lab's signature compound. The drug has established the capacity to reduce injury from acute stresses, such as radiation and chemotherapy in animal models. It is being developed under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's animal efficacy rule to treat acute radiation syndrome (ARS) or radiation poisoning from exposure to radiation such as a nuclear or radiological weapon, or from a nuclear accident. The company's COO, Yakov Kogan, said the company continues to pursue additional claims on this and other patent applications both in the United States and internationally. The patent has already been granted by nine member countries of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) and two additional countries. The company has 14 sets of patent applications in the works in the U.S. and internationally.
PAR PHARMACEUTICAL WINS IN ULTRAM ER LITIGATION The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has ruled in favor of Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. in its challenge of Purdue's patents relating to extended-release tramadol, which are listed in the Orange Book for Ortho-McNeil's Ultram(R) ER product. Par had earlier announced that it had filed an ANDA seeking marketing approval for generic extended-release tramadol, and that it was the first-filed ANDA with respect to the Ultram ER product. Par currently has tentative approval on two of the three strengths (100mg and 200mg) of tramadol ER. Par intends to review its options with respect to its tramadol ER ANDA.
EMG Technology sued Microsoft, Scottrade Inc and Southwest Airlines over infringement of its patents relating to the ability to view web sites on cellphones and other small devices. The patents in question are 7,441,196 - Apparatus and Method of Manipulating a Region on a Wireless Device Screen and 7,020,845 called Navigating Internet Content on a Television using a Simplified Interface and a Remote Control. EMG alleges that Microsoft breaches the patents in operating system software including Windows CE and Windows Mobile. While Scottrade is alleged to have breached the patent by providing financial and stock market information on mobile devices, Southwest, allegedly breaches the patents by allowing customers to book travel and cargo services reformatted for a small screen. EMG wants a court case and wants damages to be paid. ALIGN TECHNOLOGY SETTLES PATENT LITIGATION WITH ORMCO Align Technology, Inc. has reached a settlement with Ormco Corporation (Ormco), a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation to end all pending litigation between them Align will pay approximately $13 million to Ormco and issue approximately 7.6 million shares of Align's Common Stock to Danaher Corporation, that will be equal to approximately ten percent ownership interest in Align. The issuance of a portion of the shares is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended. Align and Ormco have also agreed upon an exclusive collaboration over the next seven years to develop and market an orthodontic product that combines the Invisalign® system with Ormco's Insignia® orthodontic brackets and arch wires system to treat the most complex cases. Each party retaining ownership of its pre-existing intellectual property, and each party will be granted IP licenses in their respective field for jointly-developed combination products.
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