June 30, 2010

The Federal Circuit has affirmed an International Trade Commission (ITC) decision finding two asserted patents invalid because they did not satisfy the best mode requirement of 35 U.S.C. §112. The two patents relate to improved methods of producing L-lysine using…

June 30, 2010

A pilot program of the Trilateral Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”)-Patent Prosecution Highway began January 29, 2010, and is planned to run for two years. The program fast-tracks patent examinations in the European Patent Office (“EPO”), the Japan Patent Office (“JPO”)…

June 30, 2010

At long last, the Supreme Court has issued its opinion in Bilski v. Kappos. As widely expected, the Court affirmed the unpatentability of Bilski’s risk-management method. With a majority opinion authored by Justice Kennedy and concurring opinions offered by Justices…

June 10, 2010

Occasionally, a patent practitioner will become aware of a prior art reference after the issue fee has been paid, and the question becomes—will the examiner consider the reference at this late stage? The short answer is “yes”.  But as you…

March 30, 2010

Congratulations to Woodard Emhardt partner Chuck Schmal for being selected as a judge for the Enterprise 8 Business Plan Tournament. The Enterprise 8 is a business plan tournament for entrepreneurs hosted by Ball State University’s Entrepreneurship Center. It attracts students from…

March 17, 2010

Join us in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the 30th Annual Indianapolis St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Wednesday, March 17, 2010.  Woodard, Emhardt partner Jack Moriarty co-founded and ran the Parade for its first few years, and continues to be…

March 2, 2010

Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 27th, as Woodard, Emhardt partner Chuck Schmal will be one of the featured speakers reviewing interesting case law and other developments in the past year in the areas of patent, trademark, copyright and internet law.  The seminar…

February 12, 2010

The Copyright Office increased its fees for certain types of filings effective August 1, 2009.  The new fee schedule can be found at http://www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html#ftn.  Under the new fee schedule, the fee for online registration for a basic claim would remain…

February 12, 2010

ICANN (the body responsible for regulating domain names) is expanding the domain name system to better reach an international audience.  Domain names consisting of non-latin characters, including Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew, are now permitted.  The program enables countries and territories…

February 8, 2010

February 11th is National Inventors’ Day in the United States.  It is celebrated on the birthday of one of the best inventors in the history of the United States: Thomas Alva Edison.  Edison has over 1,000 U.S. patents issued in…

November 24, 2009

The Midwest Intellectual Property Symposium was held November 19 & 20 at the University Hotel and Conference Center in Indianapolis, IN.  The event was sponsored by the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Foundation and featured presentations by speakers in a variety…

November 12, 2009

Patent searching is typically the first step in determining whether to pursue patent protection for an invention.  On November 11, 2009, Woodard, Emhardt attorneys Chuck Schmal and Doug Gallagher presented a class on techniques for conducting patent searches using the…