Happy New Year! 

As of January 1, 2012 the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is now permitting international PCT applicants who are interested in licensing their inventions to request that the International Bureau to make this information publicly available. 

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., in which Mayo petitioned the Court to determine whether claims of Prometheus' patent directed to optimizing dosage levels of thiopurine for the treatment of various autoimmune disorders is patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101.  More specifically, the claims call for "administering" a certain amount of thiopurine to a patient and "determining" from the resulting metabolite level whether or not to increase or decrease the dosage.

Although the sunrise period has passed for brand owners from outside the adult entertainment industry to pay a one-time fee to block the registration of “.xxx” domain names matching their federally registered trademarks, many companies are now considering whether to directly purchase their .xxx domain name, and perhaps variations thereof, for “defensive” purposes. 

In a precedential opinion issued this past Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected arguments that an accused device merely needs to be "capable" of being configured or programmed to perform a claimed function in order for patent infringement to occur.

Most of our clients have secured the “.com” domain name corresponding to their trademarks, but there are other top level domains such as “.net, “.org,” and “.biz.” While we usually do not recommend securing every possible domain, there is a new “.xxx” extension that is causing concern among trademark owners. From now until October 28, 2011 brand owners from outside the adult entertainment industry have the opportunity to pay a one-time fee to block the registration of “.xxx” domain names matching their federally registered trademarks. Generally, the names can remain blocked for at least the next 10 years. Of course, many technicalities and conditions apply in this blocking process, so please consider this to be general information only. For more information on how to proceed directly with approved registrars, visit the .xxx registry’s website, http://www.icmregistry.com/. If you would like our assistance, our estimated fees to assist with this domain blocking process would be $625.