Word: patent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...deeper reason behind the Supreme Court Justices' choosing to hear this case has to do with the nuances of the decision at a lower court. After the U.S. patent office denied their patent in 2006, the Bilski-Warsaw duo took their appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The panel of 12 judges heard the case, and came to the conclusion that the patent office was justified in its dismissal...
...started in 1997 when a little-known company wanted to patent a method for letting customers of utility companies pay a fixed, predictable sum each month. The patent office rejected their application on the grounds that it was "an abstract idea that simply solves a mathematical problem...
...later, the two men behind the case, Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw, had their day in the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 9. Most legal experts though, agreed that the duo had no chance of victory. "I don't think anyone other than Bilski thinks that Bilski deserves a patent," says Mark Lemley, a professor of law at Stanford University. (See the 50 best inventions...
...majority opinion issued in October 2008, the judges wrote that in addition to being something novel and nonobvious, such a patent should be something that "is tied to a particular machine or apparatus" or "transforms a particular article into a different state or thing." This has since been known as the "machine-or-transformation test" and has sent shockwaves through the information-technology industry. (See the Tech Buyer's Guide...
...Patents significantly increase the price of drugs in these nations due to the lack of competition from producers of the similar product, he said. Without a patent, the generic drug is likely to become more affordable...