Friday Shorts

• IEEE Scandal Leads to 802.20 Overhaul: IEEE ordered the complete reorganization of the 802.20 Working Group, when it was discovered that the chairman of the group was a paid consultant of one of the members, and steered adoption of certain standards towards patented technologies.
• Software Patents Hit Record High: Real Geek blog reports that US Patent and Trademark Office made a new record for the number of software patents awarded in a single year. The agency issued 893 new patents yesterday, pushing the total to 30,232 in this year.
• Are "IP Specialists" or "Supreme Court Specialists" Better? Law.com (free subscription) reports on the upcoming oral arguments for KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., and notes that non-IP litigators versed in Supreme Court practice have traditionally been chosen as lead counsel over IP litigators. Patent litigator James Dabney, who will represent KSR before the Supreme Court, claims that IP litigators are the way to go.
• Asian Patents are on the Rise in the U.S. : the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) is reporting that the proportion of patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that originated from Asia grew from 23 percent in 1995 to 30 percent last year. China and India led the pack with the fastest growing number of registered patents.