14th February , 2010

Bayer Pharmaceutical Company’s latest appeal rejected in India

The Delhi High Court has rejected a recent appeal filed by Bayer Corporation against an earlier court order which had rejected the implementation of a drug regulatory system which linked the registration of medicines to their patent status. The same Court had rejected a petition in August 2009, by which Bayer Corporation was seeking to stop the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) from granting marketing approval to a generic version of a cancer drug patented by Bayer.

The German pharmaceutical company was trying to ensure that the Indian drug regulatory authorities would not be allowed to start the registration process of a drug if the medicine was covered by a patent. Bayer was planning to prevent generic manufacturers from producing any patented medicine until after the patent expires, by interrupting the registration.

The Indian court has made sure that public health safeguards like compulsory licensing can be used to start generic production of life-saving medicines for millions in India and else where, by rejecting Bayer’s attempt to initiate patent connection. This important Indian Court decision would give impetus to access to medicines for all.

Sharp and Samsung settle all LCD-related patent disputes

Sharp and Samsung have made an agreement which will put an end to a long dispute over LCD panel and module patents. The deal would close all ongoing patent infringement disputes between the two companies. Though the details of the contract were not disclosed, Sharp seems to be in a favorable position.

The dispute between them began in August 2007 when Sharp filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Samsung alleging that its LCD modules and LCD TVs, computer monitors and mobile phones that integrate the modules infringed on five of Sharp’s U.S. patents. Sharp extended the lawsuit to South Korea in December 2007, followed by a counter suit by Samsung in Japan and the U.S. The conflict was later taken to Europe and also to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Two recent rulings against both the companies must have forced them to settle. A court in The Hague ruled that Samsung had infringed on Sharp patents and ordered a close down on imports of infringing products in December 2009 and in January the U.S. ITC began blocking some Samsung products.

The settlement includes a patent cross-licensing agreement, allowing each company to use the patents of the other in their products.

U.S patent for treating chronic insomnia

Northeast Ohio-based Consolidated Research of Richmond, Inc. (CRI) has been granted a patent for a novel and drug-free system for treating people with persistent or chronic Insomnia.

An estimated 10-20% of the world’s adult population suffers from moderate to severe chronic insomnia. Products based on Consolidated Research's patented technologies will deal with this most common sleep disorder among adults.

Consolidated Research of Richmond, Inc. is a privately held engineering research and development firm and had been focusing on the development of unique technologies for the sleep and intra-operative monitoring markets. CRI’s innovative technology includes a new class of highly effective and easy-to-use devices for the treatment of chronic insomnia.

Google files four web-app patent applications

Google has filed four patent applications for technology to be incorporated into its Chrome browser to make the web a more powerful foundation for applications.

Three of its patent applications cover Google's Native Client, a technology which allows downloaded software modules to run directly on a processor rather than more slowly through decoding. The fourth patent application involves O3D, a technology which permits the browser applications to take help of 3D acceleration of graphics hardware. Google looks forward to standardize the technology so that all browsers can make use of it.

In 2009 China seized 36m Illegal Audio, Video Products

China seized 36.13 million illegal audio and video products during its last year's nationwide campaign against piracy, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture. The campaign had given stress on intellectual property right (IPR) protection, the rights and interests of minors and national security The Law enforcement department across the country had revoked 6,632 licenses and imposed 180 million Yuan ($26.4 million) in fines.

The department had also reinforced its supervision of the Internet, as the market for online games, music and films had developed rapidly. China has banned 219 illegal Internet games with rude, vulgar and violent content and has blocked access to illegal games' websites more than 87 million times since the beginning of 2009.

DTL Patent Licensed to Pantech

General Patent Corporation, a patent licensing and enforcement firm, has licensed Digital Technology Licensing LLC (DTL)’s cellular communications patent to Pantech Co. Ltd. and Pantech & Curitel Communications, Inc. of Seoul, Korea. Digital Technology Licensing LLC (DTL) is a subsidiary of General Patent Corporation.

Digital Technology Licensing owns the U.S. Patent No. 5,051,799 titled 'Digital Output Transducer'. The technology covered by the patent concentrates on Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) codec and other cellular communication standards, assuring backward compatibility of cell phone handsets and base stations. The patent also has applications in Bluetooth and other wireless devices.

Panasonic Corp. led International patent applications in '09: WIPO

Panasonic Corporation, the Japanese electronics giant has submitted the most number of international patent applications in 2009, according to preliminary results released by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Panasonic Corp. filed 1,891 international patent applications, leaving behind the Chinese telecommunications equipment producer Huawei Technologies Co., which was the leader in 2008. Huawei Technologies Co. had filed 1, 847 applications in 2009.
Four Japanese firms were in the top 10 for 2009. NEC Corp. was in eighth place with 1,069 applications, followed by Toyota Motor Corp. with 1,068 applications and Sharp Corp. with 997 applications. The total number of applications filed fell 4.5 per cent to 155,900, a decline in the filing for the first time ever since the introduction of the agenda for international applications in 1978. Applications from the U.S. and European firms also have shown a decrease due to the financial and economic crisis.
However Japanese firms filed 3.6 per cent more applications in comparison to the previous year. The number of applications submitted by Chinese firms also showed an increase of 29.7 per cent, filing a total of 7,946 international patent applications and ranking 5th in the world.

Symantec sued over antivirus subscription renewal

Symantec, the security software company was sued by Mr. Kenneth Elan last month over an unwanted subscription renewal. This case, which was asked to be granted class action status, comes seven months after Symantec and McAfee had agreed to pay $375,000 to settle with the New York attorney general over allegations that they were repeatedly renewing subscriptions without their customers' permission.

The two security software companies had declared that they would provide electronic notification to consumers before and after renewal of the subscription. According to Elan's lawsuit filed in a New York court, he was charged $76.03 for the renewal of his Norton Antivirus subscription although he didn't agree to it and he was not notified before the money was taken from his credit card. Mr. Elan is accusing Symantec, the security company of deceptive business practices and is asking for a full refund.