18 November 2009

Microsoft found liable of infringing chinese patent

I bet that President Obama did not like this message during his visit in the People’s Republic.
According to the news reporting, Obama has again been pressing China to enforce its law on intellectual property more vigorously. And so did the chinese judicature – this time against one of the world’s largest beneficiaries in terms of intellectual property protection.
Indeed, this merits to be referred to as

“Legal Infotainment”

According to the facts, a Beijing based company, Zhongyi Electronic Ltd, claimed that Microsoft had exceeded the scope of a previous agreement to use and sell fonts, patented by Zhongyi, in Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft Had Thus Infringed

Zhongyi’s exclusive rights under patent law, so Zhongyi’s claim.

Beijing’s Intermediate People’s Court No.1 followed claimant’s argument and

Ruled Against Microsoft

The court’s ruling now prevents Microsoft from importing and distributing above mentioned software products in China, but does not appear to affect Microsoft’s latest operating systems, including Windows 7, which went on sale last month.

Needless to say that Microsoft will go on appeal which – from my perspective – could make the story even funnier. I will keep an eye on that!

28 September 2009

What to avoid for your successfull patenting of a method for playing golf

Yes, this article regards the story of a US case decision. Frankly, where else the Patent and Trademark Office, but also several courts would spend time and effort to examine the application for a method of playing games – a subject matter clearly excluded under the European Patent Convention and its underlying jurisdictions.

In Re Lister, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s outlines the funny story of a

Clinical Psychologist Having Become Tired

of  “the horrendously slow pace of a game of golf” and willing to seek intellectual property protection for a method increasing both, game’s speed and players’ scores.

In a proceeding without professional help, the applicant first obtained a registration from the US Copyright Office. This very fact almost deprived him from patent grant…

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