Patent Shorts

USPTO Gets Funding Increase - the PTO has received a budget increase of about 9 percent for the government's 2008 fiscal year. The Office received the president's full funding request of $1.9 billion in a budget bill passed by the U.S. Congress in mid-December and signed by president Bush the day after Christmas. If you thought PTO fee diversion is dead, think again - currently there is nothing preventing Congress from diverting fees as 2008 progresses (link).

Summary Judgment Motions Filed in Tafas/Glaxo v. Dudas - in addition to 31 amicus briefs filed in support of Tafas/Galxo, and 16 amicii filed supporting the PTO, all parties have submitted their briefs for summary judgment. View Glaxo's brief (link), Tafas brief (link), and the PTO brief (link). Read more at the PLI blog (link).

A "Long-Felt, Unmet Need" Gem - Johnson v. Forty-Second Street, Manhattanville & St. Nicholas Ave. R. Co., 33 F. 499, 501 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1888):

It would be as irrational to charge an author who has produced a sentence of surpassing power and beauty with plagiarism, because the words which he employes have long been found in the lexicon, as to over-throw a patent for a new and useful combination upon the ground that its separate elements are old. By an ingenious assembling of known appliances this inventor solved the problem the solution of which had been sought for in vain through a long series of years. Although the goal was frequently in sight, it had never been reached; always some necessary requisite to success was lacking. The practical disentanglement of the difficulty was left to Newman. He made that a success which before had been tentative and rudimentary.

Courtesy of the Fire of Genius blog (link)

Viewing Patent Searches Visually - Check out PatentScrounger.com (link)