bite (noun): More meaty news to clench your teeth.
bark (noun): Ambient noise that needs attention.
In other barks of the week: The Senate Judiciary Committee passed two bills aimed at cutting drug prices and anti-competitive practices by drug companies. USPTO begins nomination period for prestigious technology awards. The U.S. Copyright Office has told the district court that it acted reasonably in dismissing Stephen Thaler’s AI-created artwork. Also, the US Chamber of Commerce has published a study on the impact of mergers on innovation and patent filings.
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Drug Price Cut Bill Passes Senate Judiciary Committee
On Thursday, February 9, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a voice vote on five bills aimed at lowering drug prices and tackling anti-competitive practices among pharmaceutical companies. These bills include the Maintaining Access to Affordable Generic and Biosimilars Act, the Stop Stall Act, the Interagency Patent Reconciliation and Improvement Act of 2023, the National Prescription Drug Pricing Act of 2023, and the It’s called the Patient Affordable Prescription Drugs Act of 2023.
The Maintain Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act curbs “pay-for-delay” deals that allow drug companies to pay brand-name companies to delay the release of generic substitutes. The Stop Stall Act restricts companies from submitting “fake” petitions to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to block approval of similar drugs. The committee also discussed the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023, which limits the ability of pharmaceutical companies to use patents to deter generic competition. The bill has not yet passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Eleventh Circuit Finds Intellectual Property Was Not Merged in L3Harris
On Wednesday, February 8, the 11th Circuit Court ruled that L3 Technologies and Harris Corporation’s reverse triangular merger counsel did not combine intellectual property held by Harris at the time. Thus, the Circuit Court upheld an earlier decision of the Florida Court in which he ruled in favor of L3 Harris Technologies in an intellectual property litigation with GSE Consulting. GSE Consulting sued the tech company after the merger sent L3Harris his $4 million bill and then failed to pay intellectual property fees as part of the consulting deal . However, the Circuit Court ruled that “the GSE’s separate argument is invalid” because of the way the contract was written.
Dismissed Metalogogue Litigation
On Monday, February 6, Meta and the Dfinity Foundation, a blockchain nonprofit, jointly filed a dismissal in California District Court, ending the nonprofit’s trademark lawsuit. Dfinity sued Meta over its “infinite loop” logo last year, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying he disliked the two logos. Dfinity then filed an amended complaint, which has now been dismissed by both parties.
Burks
CAFC Upholds PTAB Decision in Ideahub Case
On Friday, February 10, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a non-precedent judgment upholding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision finding Ideahub’s patent unpatentable. In the PTAB’s final written decision, the Board said the patent was clearly unpatentable, giving the victory to Unified Patents, which took legal action.
Bank of America Announces Record-Breaking Patent Year
On Thursday, February 9, Bank of America announced in a press release that 2022 will be a record year for patents granted to banks. Patents granted he increased by 19%, with a total of 608 patents granted, adding to his overall portfolio of 5,837 active patents. The bank said the patents cover various areas including “artificial intelligence, machine learning, information security, data analytics, mobile banking and payments.”
Increase in merger activity not causing decline in patent filings, study finds
On Tuesday, February 7, the US Chamber of Commerce released a study evaluating the impact of mergers on innovation and patent filings. The study found that during the period of increased merger activity from 2008 to 2020, R&D spending and patent filings increased significantly at the expense of competitiveness and innovation.
USPTO Begins Nomination Period for National Medal of Technology and Innovation
On Tuesday, February 7, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began the nomination period for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. Medals are awarded to individuals, teams or companies that have contributed to the country through the development of technological products. Applicants have until May 26th to submit their nominations.
U.S. Copyright Office Asks District Court to Dismiss AI-Generated Art Copyright Lawsuit
On Tuesday, February 7, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) filed Cross Motion seeking summary judgment in a lawsuit between the Office and Stephen Thaler, a software engineer at AI-Generated Art Software. Thaler has previously argued that AI-created art should be protected under copyright law, but USCO has said machine-created art is not. USCO wrote that it acted “reasonably and consistently with the law when refusing to extend copyright protection” for AI-generated artwork.
wall street this week
Yahoo announces layoffs
On Thursday, February 9th, Yahoo announced plans to lay off more than 20% of its workforce in a restructuring move. Up to half of ad tech employees will be laid off. Yahoo argued that the move wasn’t just financial, it was also a strategic consideration to stop catching up to giants like Google.
Google Announces ChatGPT Competitors
On Monday, February 6th, Google announced Bard, ChatGPT’s AI competitor, in a blog post. According to Bard, Bard is an experimental conversational AI service that will be rolled out to testers in the coming weeks. Google also highlighted new AI service utilities for innovators.
Quarterly results – The following companies, identified among the top 300 patentees of 2022 for IPO, will release their quarterly earnings next week (2022 rank in brackets):
- Monday: Palantir (234)
- Tuesday: Ecolab (298)
- Wednesday: Cisco (46), Analog Devices (187)
- Thursday: Applied Materials (52)
- Friday: Deere & Company (96)
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Author: Zetwe
