At 10:00AM pacific time, Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, will host a conference call today to discuss the importance of intellectual property in the Seattle-Tacoma area. According to the USPTO press release (link below), the discussion will include “U.S. government efforts to curb theft of intellectual property, the importance of intellectual property protection in a global market, as well as to the Seattle-Tacoma economy, and the creation of new jobs in Washington and the entire United States.” Call-in information for reporters (phone number, passcode, and the call leader’s name) is also available at the link below. Dudas will also engage in a question and answer session at the end of his presentation.

As you may know, intellectual property in Washington state has been the news recently, as the Washington Research Foundation (WRF) recently filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle against the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Japan), Samsung Electronics Co. (South Korea), and Nokia Corp., alleging that the defendants incorporated Bluetooth technology developed at the University of Washington into a number of cellular phone products. This lawsuit, filed on December 20th, references four issued patents and two pending patent applications and seeks unspecified damages and an injunction on further sales of allegedly infringing products. According to the Seattle Times news article (link below), Broadcom Corporation was not included in this lawsuit as it previously licensed the technology from WRF.

USPTO Press Release: LINK
WRF Complaint: LINK
Seattle Times News Article: LINK
Yahoo! News Article (Bluetooth lawsuit): LINK