On an email list I posted the following:
It seems to me that many small/medium companies live in fear of a big patent lawsuit. Even if they had their own IP, I suspect many companies would gladly give up forever their right to sue for patent infringement, in exchange for some kind of immunity from patent liability–at least, if they could eliminate the threat of an injunction, so that the worst penalty they might face is some kind of mandatory royalty. Surely IBM et al. would not take this deal, but I bet a lot of other companies would. What do you think?
Second, in view of this, does this mean there is some kind of market for a service that would let a bunch of companies get together and “pool” their IP and have some kind of agreement (a) never to sue each other; (b) to have access to this pool of patents to countersue any company that sues any of the members.
This post drew some interest so I am doing a simple webpoll. I think the results might be interesting.
The following is a collection of sources of updates on patent law/patent cases. Please email me any suggestions; will be later added to my IP Links Page. (Stephen Nipper provided me with many of these links.)
Email distribution lists and Blogs (blogs can be subscribed to via aggregators such as Sharpreader; most also offer email subscription)
- Patterson Belknap’s Federal Circuit Patent Review newsletter (by email; summarizes the previous week’s patent and other decisions by the CAFC; one of my primary weekly readings)
- Pierce Law IP News Blog
- FindLaw Intellectual Property Case Summaries (email list)
- Willamette Law’s IP case summaries (email list)
- I/P Updates blog: “News and Information for Intellectual Property Practitioners” (William “Bill” Heinze)
- IP Law Server (Intelproplaw forums)
- The Invent Blog–Necessity’s Progeny–Nipper’s Patent Law Blog (Stephen Nipper)
- Patently-O: Patent Law Blog (Dennis Crouch) (caselaw focus)
- IP Counsel Blog (Todd Lewis Mayover–)
- KinsellaLaw blog (Stephan Kinsella)
- PatNews (email list)
- Philip Brooks’ Patent Infringement Updates
- Internet Law Update (Martin H. Sampson) (email list)
- The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) blog: Marc Adler, president of the IPO, has started a blog with the goal of providing a discussion forum for the IP community.
- Richmond IP Blog: The IP Institute at the University of Richmond Law School; focused primarily on tech-copyright issues.
- Daily Dose of IP: by Mark Reichel, an associate at Ice Miller.
- Promote the Progress (J. Matthew Buchanan’s patent blog that covers patent legislation)
- Rethink(IP) (Buchanan/Nipper/Sorocco’s blog where they complain about how IP law should be changed)
- PHOSITA® IP law blog (Douglas Sorocco)
- Rethink(IP) “RSS Mojo” feeds (Patent Office News and Notices, Patent Lawsuit Filings/updates, etc scraped together and E-mailed to you)
- “Just a Patent Examiner” blog (written by a patent examiner; gives insight into how the USPTO works)
- Anything Under the Sun patent blog (Russ Krajec)
- Peter Zura’s two-seventy-one Patent Blog (“Providing insight and analysis on patent law, patent portfolio management and patent litigation in the fields of electronics, software and computers”)
- The Patent Prospector (an “Open Forum of Patent Information & Opinion”)
- Patent Baristas
Email discussion/news lists/discussion fora
- PatentLawPractice YahooGroup (run by Stephan Kinsella)
- Various WashLaw email discussion lists, such as PatentPractice-L–Patent Legal Practice Discussion List and Patent-L–Patent Law
- EFS [PTO electronic filing system] Users Discussion Group
- rethink(IP) discussion forum (in progress)
Other
- KinsellaLaw: IP Law Links and Sources
- IP Menu: Billed as “The Home of IP on the Internet”. By Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick
IP Podcasts
- There are/were some, but I have not been able to find any I like yet or that are regularly updated.
Recent endorsements of my latest book, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide (Oxford/Oceana 2005), co-authored with Noah Rubins (available at http://www.oceanalaw.com/main_product_details.asp?ID=391):
“The book is a tour de force. Rubins & Kinsella have written a first-rate study of one of the most vital areas of international law today. Notwithstanding its subtitle (“A Practitioner’s Guide”), scholars as well as practicing attorneys will find this an invaluable guide to understanding the multifaceted adjudicatory regime for cross-border investment disputes.”
—William W. Park, R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law and Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law; General Editor, Arbitration International; Counsel to Ropes & Gray; former Vice-President, London Court of International Arbitration; publications include the casebook International Commercial Arbitration; International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration (3rd ed.); International Forum Selection; Income Tax Treaty Arbitration; and Arbitration of International Business Disputes: Studies in Law and Practice.
“This book is comprehensive, well-written, and balanced. An admirable mixture of learned commentary and primary documents, it is portable, authoritative, and up-to-date. It is a distinctive and well-organized addition to exisiting reference works and will be of great value to practioners and academics who seek a dependable, balanced treatment of a range of legal and practical questions affecting foreign direct investment and dispute resolution.”
—Jack J. Coe, Jr., Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law; author, Protecting Against the Expropriation Risk in Investing Aboard (Matthew Bender 1993); International Commercial Arbitration–American Principles and Practice (1997); NAFTA Chapter 11 Reports (with Brower and Dodge); vice-chairman, International Commercial Arbitration Committee, ABA International Law Section.
“This book provides an excellent account of how legal techniques can be used to provide significant protections to foreign investment. Its comprehensive coverage, clarity of expression, and useful appendices will prove invaluable to the busy lawyer. It is one of those rare books that is valuable not only for practice but also for the law classroom.”
—Dan Sarooshi, Herbert Smith Associate Professor of International Law, University of Oxford; Barrister, London; author of International Organizations And Their Exercise Of Sovereign Powers and The United Nations and the Development of Collective Security: The Delegation by the UN Security Council of Its Chapter VII Powers.
Neat free website that emails you reminders for birthdays and other events: ShootMeAnEmail.com. Anyone know of any others, send ’em on.
In the September 2005 issue of Corporate Legal Times, a piece called “Bidding Wars” profiles GE’s recent move to reduce the number of outside law firms it uses from 500 down to 94. The first cut was based on quality; this reduced the number of law firms to 200. Then they cut based on RFPs and references from other clients, leaving them with 142 firms. Then they cut down to 94 firms based on cost–they made the law firms place bids in an auction type process. The reaction from the law firms was a bit amusing:
“An auction is a great way to buy pencils,” says John Marzulli, a partner at Shearman & Sterling, one of GE’s preferred M&A; counsel. “It doesn’t seem to me to be the best way to select your counsel for a complex multibillion-dollar acquisition. We like being part of their network, but we didn’t enjoy the selection process.”
I bet not.
As I previously noted on the LewRockwell.com blog, an emerging nickname for Baton Rouge is “New Rouge,” because of the huge number of New Orleans residents moving there in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. See, e.g., Capital city struggling with inflow (Sept. 3, 2005, Houston Chronicle). I’ve just registered www.newrouge.org and am temporarily pointing it to www.kinsellalaw.com/newrouge.
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Also–as noted here, Houston–currently home of an estimated 150,000 of Katrina evacuees–stands to gain big from the hit felt by New Orleans.
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