Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Via Greg Aharonian’s Internet Patent News Service.

Apparent the USPTO issued a Notice of Missing Parts for an underpaid filing fee - in the staggering amount of about $1.25 million USD (or about $1.5 million CAD)! This fee was for filing a total of 13,305 claims in a biotech patent application entitled Electrical […]

Via Rob Hyndman, who provides a link to a publication of the American Intellectual Property Association entitled How to Protect and Benefit From Your Ideas which is intended to assist the independent or novice inventor in protecting, evaluating and commercializing new ideas.

The publication is not a “do-it-yourself” book, but instead provides the reader with […]

This week’s Trade-marks Journal had quite a number of amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

HOT TO TROT - 1,117,109, by WMS Gaming Inc. in relation to slot machines and gaming machines;

ALWAYS OUR LOWEST RATES - 1,207,533, by Dollar Rent A Car, Inc. in relation to vehicle renting and leasing services. Now if it had been ALWAYS […]

Today, Kevin Evans, in a Globe & Mail - Web Exclusive Comment argues that MP3 players, or any blank media for that matter, should not be subject to the copyright levy. Mr. Evans is co-chair of the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access. CCFDA members include companies such as Apple Canada, Future […]

The Ottawa Citizen today reports that “Greenpeace squeals at plan to patent a bigger, better pig”.

In particular, the article notes that Monsanto has filed patent applications for both a pig breeding process and gene markers that indicate pigs with better meat characteristics. Now Greenpeace says it really is trying to patent the pigs themselves.

In Canada, […]

The CBC just reported that Apple Canada intends to give the levy back to iPod owners in light of the Supreme Court of Canada’s refusal to hear the Canadian Private Copying Collective case.

This means a small refund for all of you who purchased a Canadian iPod between about December 2003 (when the Copyright Board […]

The Toronto Star yesterday, in a letter to the editor entitled Recording industry won’t target true fans, quoted CRIA President, Graham Henderson, as promising not to sue Canadian consumers who “legally acquire music”.

What kind of promise, pledge or authorization is that? It’s like saying “We won’t sue you because what you’ve done is legal” […]

Little article today in the Globe and Mail giving a first-person account of the impact of copy proctection on CD’s. It looks like the recording industry is starting to put out more and more CD’s with copy control technology, such as that described in US patent 6,718,501. This technology prevents one from “ripping” […]