The Dirty Details of Disclosure: Navigating the Fine Line Between Prior Art and Public Good in British Patent Law

Mekhala Chaubal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On 27 July 2011, Mr. Justice Arnold of the Patents Court Division of the High Court of England and Wales, by refusing to grant a summary judgment to the plaintiffs in LG Electronics v Sony Europe Ltd & Others (“LG Electronics”) opened the door […]

Wikipedia references increase in U.S. patents

George Nathanael is a JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that is open for editing to the general public, with its 14 million articles in over 260 languages, continues to be a life-saver for students around the world. It seems like not so long ago when the dominant mentality […]

Standard of Proof in Determining Accessibility of Online Prior Art

Alex Gloor is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School A recent decision regarding a UK patent application by Ranger Services Ltd raised an interesting issue regarding the accessibility of online documents for prior art searches. As was first discussed on the IPKat blog, the specific question for discussion is the appropriate standard of […]

Digital Books for Patent Prosecution?

Although copyright issues have consumed the spotlight when it comes to Google Books, a recent thread has suggested that this feature may be of great use when it comes to patent prosecution. More specifically, the suggestion has been that Google Books has potential to become useful for prior art searching undertaken during preparation of a patent […]