Posted by ipeg on April 10th, 2012
It was widely reported yesterday that AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) on Monday agreed to sell more than 800 patents and related products to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for $1.056 billion. It was also written that the struggling online services provider was under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, holder of 5.2% of AOL’s shares. AOL shares were up 43% for the day.
Experts caution the $1.3M paid per patent for the portfolio, among the highest on record, should not be the focus of this transaction or its meaning. Two experienced...
Posted by ipeg on December 17th, 2010
The United States Supreme Court’s recent grant of certiorari in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. raises the issue of whether patent law requires clear and convincing evidence of invalidity to invalidate a patent. The clear and convincing evidence standard of proof was intended to occupy a midway position between the preponderance and reasonable doubt standards. Outside of the patent context it has been applied sparingly in civil litigation. See Nishikawa v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 129 (1958) (denaturalization); Woodby v. Immigration and...
Posted by ipeg on September 1st, 2010
We blogged earlier on the 12 may 2010 G3/08 opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) on the referral of 22 October 2008 by the President of the EPO on the patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions (CIIs). The Enlarged Board confirmed the requirement that the claimed CII must have a ‘further technical effect’, as introduced by T1173/97 Computer program product/IBM, and refers to the ‘elaborate system for assessment of inventive step as laid down in T154/04 Estimating sales activity/Duns...
European IP Case Law (IPPT)