It was announced last week that gaming company Konami and trading card manufacturer Upper Deck have settled their dispute regarding counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Last year Konami sued Upper Deck after learning that Upper Deck had been manufacturing and distributing hundreds of thousands of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards without permission by the holder of Yu-Gi-Oh! rights, Konami. As noted within the recent BloggingStocks article (link HERE), Konami was seeking $50 to $150 million in damages from Upper Deck. According to the New York Post (article link HERE), Upper Deck CEO Richard McWilliams took the Fifth during trial, but as part of his company’s settlement with Konami, Upper Deck has admitted that it willfully counterfeited the trading cards. According to Wikipedia, Yu-Gi-Oh! originated as a manga cartoon back in 1996, and has grown to several spin-off television series, comic books, movies, and games, as well as trading cards (website link HERE) spanning several dozen series.

On Monday, David Kappos announced President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request for the USPTO of just over $2.3 billion. According to the USPTO announcement (available HERE), this budget request will support a new five-year plan to achieve certain USPTO objectives, including reducing pendency periods and the current patent application backlog, improving patent quality, enhancing IP protection and enforcement, global IP policy leadership, and a boost in its IT infrastructure. Kappos, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director USPTO, stated that "[i]ntellectual property is America’s competitive advantage in the 21st Century global economy and will play a central role in our long-term economic growth," and that "[w]e will continue to take steps to make the USPTO more efficient, and drive to reduce the unacceptably long pendency periods that hinder the creation of new businesses and new jobs." An interim increase for certain patent fees is also contemplated, which will raise an additional fee amount of $224 million above the projected almost $2.1 billion in fee collections during FY 2001.

It was recently announced that China received more than 976,000 patent applications last year, representing a nearly 18% increase in the number of applications received by the State Intellectual Property Office of the Peoples Republic of China (SIPO) in 2008. As referenced in the China Daily news article (link HERE), that total represents a combination of patent rights of invention, utility model, and design patent applications, and represents a net increase of the 22% increase in Chinese domestic applications (approximately 90% of all applications filed) and nearly a 11% decrease in foreign applications (the other 10% of applications filed). For those interested in statistics relating to Chinese applications and patents, the SIPO offers a detailed Statistics webpage (link HERE) containing monthly statistics for the last four years.

On Thursday, the USPTO announced an interim procedure for certain patentees to request a patent term adjustment (PTA) calculation in view of the recent Federal Circuit decision in Wyeth v. Kappos. This announcement (press release available HERE and formal interim procedure notice available HERE) provides patentees who have received their patents within 180 days from submission of USPTO Form PTO/SB/131 (available HERE in .pdf form from the USPTO) with the opportunity to request a free PTA calculation without the need to pay the typical fee involved with the same. This request window will end on March 2, 2010, as the USPTO expects that its software used to calculate PTA will be updated by then. As noted within the USPTO press release, "[a]n applicant is entitled, subject to certain conditions and limitations, to patent term adjustment if (1) the USPTO fails to take certain actions during the examination and issue process within specified time frames; (2) if the USPTO fails to issue a patent within three years of the actual filing date of the application; and (3) for delays due to interference, secrecy order, or successful appellate review." Form PTO/SB/131 is literally one page long (excluding instructions and privacy notices), and requires only the basic patent information to be included therein. If you decide to use this procedure, please share some feedback via comment to this blog post.

The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") and the International Telecommunications Union ("ITU") will jointly be hosting an Accessibility Workshop this week with an objective to "promote awareness on accessibility and encourage webmasters within the United Nations system and other International Organizations to implement accessibility in their daily work." This Workshop (details available HERE on WIPO’s website) will include discussions on accessibility from companies such as Yahoo and Adobe, as well as training sessions on testing for accessibility and training on understanding and using the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification. A list of presenters is available HERE, and a program for the four days (February 2-5, 2010) is available online HERE.

Earlier this month, the Financial Services Commission ("FSC") of the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") announced its plan to revise its existing intellectual property laws. As noted in a recent Mondaq article (available HERE), the BVI has become increasing popular with global trade and investment, and in attempt to assist its more than 60,000 new companies per year facilitate business innovation, the FSC will establish a specific focus group to address the BVI’s current Intellectual and Industrial Property ("IIP") laws. According to the FSC’s January 5, 2010 press release (available HERE in .pdf format), the focus group will review "all current IIP Law and treaties, considering the operation of modern IIP laws in other jurisdictions and preparing new and or revised legislation for the consideration of the Commission," making specific reference to BVI’s Patents Act, registration of United Kingdom Trade Marks, the United Kingdom Designs (Protection) Act, and the Merchandise Marks Act. The focus group will likely be inaugurated next month and will have a goal of completing its review by the end of 2010.

On Wednesday, Apple Inc. launched its anticipated iPad handheld device, which appears to have the functionality of an iPhone and more with nearly a ten inch screen. The day before, however, is also notable as U.S. Patent No. 7,653,883, entitled "Proximity detector in handheld device," was issued to Apple by the USPTO. According to the patent, the invention relates to an I/O platform having an I/O surface with I/O devices, including "a proximity detection system configured to detect when a finger is in close proximity to but not contacting the I/O surface," and in another embodiment, the invention relates to a portable computing device having such a proximity detection system. As noted by a recent PC Magazine article (available HERE through Yahoo! News), "the patent in question…doesn’t cover the tablet itself, but a means of data entry within it." If you have an interest in following Apple’s new patents, Jack Purcher’s Patently Apple blog (available HERE) may be of interest to you.

Last week, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office ("CIPO") announced that it is now offering an e-mail subscription service to its Trade-mark News offering. As noted within the CIPO’s What’s New webpage (link available HERE, with this particular offering under the January 18, 2010 heading), the CIPO’s Trade-marks Branch and Trade-marks Opposition Board will provide information in connection with updates to the CIPO’s Wares and Services Manual (available online HERE), new trade-marks consultations and practice notices, and the "What’s New" announcements relating to trademarks available on the CIPO’s website. E-mail registration is available at this LINK. If you decide to subscribe, please feel free to provide feedback via comment to this blog article.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has recently announced that it is launching a new follow-up survey to determine how the public does, or does not, use available patent information. As noted within the EPO’s announcement (link HERE), the last survey was performed in 2002-03, and identified that 70% of surveyed companies in Europe actually didn’t even use patent information. This new survey will be carried out in all of the current EPO member states (current list available HERE) plus the United States. According to the EPO, "Our target group is the innovation sector at large - including industry, public sector research, and academia. We are not especially focusing on patent applicants or patent attorneys, although some may get into the study because of the randomized sampling procedure." The private surveyor plans to conduct all surveys via telephone, which will be available in 25 different languages.

On January 20, 2010, the USPTO moderated a public roundtable discussion to obtain public comments on the proposed rules modifications in connection with ex parte appeals before the USPTO’s Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI). As noted in a recent USPTO release (link HERE), the USPTO has a goal of reducing the pendency of its ex parte appeals, noting that the time from when a patent applicant files a notice of appeal until the time the BPAI renders its decision now averages nearly 2 and a half years (29.3 months), an increase from the 27.5 month pendency calculated at the end of FY2009. Sharon Barner, the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Deputy Director of the USPTO, and moderator of the roundtable, stated that "[t]his roundtable was an important step to gather valuable insight from the public on these proposed modifications and to work together with stakeholders toward a more efficient appeal process and more timely Board decisions."

The proposed rules were published in the December 22, 2009 Federal Register (excerpt link HERE). As noted within the USPTO press release, the proposed rule change objectives are "to provide clarity so that appellants know exactly what the rules require, and so that examiners know what they need to do; to streamline the process so that cases move from notice of appeal to decision in a more efficient and timely manner; to allow appellants and examiners an opportunity to fully respond to each other’s positions; and to ensure the appeal process allows for issues to be crystallized so that the Board receives fully-developed issues to be decided." A list of roundtable participants is available HERE, noting that Dennis Crouch, a fellow blogger and University of Missouri School of Law faculty member, was among the participants. If you are interested, you can review the PowerPoint slides used with the roundtable by clicking HERE.