Author: Meredith Martin Addy

Patent Bill H.R.9 Called Innovation Death Trap

Silicon Valley Icon Issues Broadside Against Industry-Backed Troll Bill

July 15, 2015Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

It’s about time. Another voice in the innovation community has risen to counter the repetitive arguments of those favoring legislation to curb the purportedly diabolical actions of patent trolls. I’m looking forward to hearing more such voices.

Bob Pavey, Silicon Valley icon and partner emeritus at venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures, isn’t buying the rhetoric. Check out his sober opinion piece in the San Jose Mercury News on the march toward passing H.R.9, the “anti-troll” bill now out of committee and to be debated on the floor of the House of Representatives. read more

IP Contributes $5 Trillion to GDP, Says USPTO

Initiates Quality Initiative, Citing Effect of IP on Jobs

June 25, 2015Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

According to the World Bank, gross domestic product in the U.S. was almost $16.8 trillion in 2013.

As it prepares to launch its new “quality initiative,” the USPTO claims that IP-intensive industries “support at least 40 million jobs in the U.S. and contribute more than $5 trillion—or nearly 35 percent—to our GDP.” read more

Patents in a Post-Alice World

Thoughts on Reports from IPBC Global in San Francisco

June 17, 2015Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

Intellectual Asset Management is today reporting on its blog on subjects near and dear to all of us: IP value, software patents in our “tricky” new era, legislation that could affect litigation, the environment post-Alice, and more.

Most interesting to me were the reports from Joff Wild, including on what Rockstar Consortium’s John Veschi said about software patents at SCOTUS: read more

Circuit Bored

Or, A Change in Direction

June 1, 2015Meredith Martin Addy 1 Comment

This last year has brought a lot of changes.

In July of 2014, I moved to Katten Muchin Rosenman, to lead its national patent litigation practice. Terrific firm, a great practice group, and lots of room to grow. (I’m here.)

Last month, I finished my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. What a journey that has been! It was truly a pleasure to work with a cohort of smart, highly focused business people and professors. Perspective is everything—and it’s vital for lawyers: I now think quite differently about my work for clients—and about the importance of innovation. read more

Extracting a Toll From a Patent ‘Troll’

November 19, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

Floyd Norris writes a worthwhile business column for The New York Times. He’s done yeoman work exposing corporate fraud, for one thing.

Norris’ article of October of 2013, “Extracting a Toll From a Patent ‘Troll’,” offers a good and detailed summary (as good as it gets in mainstream media) of the issues at stake in Octane, now up for Supreme Court review. read more

Forward-Thinking, Future-Shaping Federal Circuit

October 30, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

In her article on Huffington Post, “The Forward-Thinking, Future-Shaping Federal Circuit,” employment attorney and Wake Forest University law professor Abigail Perdue addresses the unique nature of the Court (where she also clerked for Judge Jimmie A. Reyna):

[T]he Federal Circuit is the only circuit where every judge resides in the same location, generating an unparalleled culture of collegiality and collaboration. It is also the only circuit with nationwide jurisdiction, so its opinions control across America and are not geographically limited like other circuits’ decisions. read more

Lighting Ballast: Continuing Cybor’s Legal Fiction

February 23, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

Really? No underlying facts at all? Never? Is anyone else surprised about the outcome of Lighting Ballast?

I am. I thought there would be some—though maybe negligible—situation where the district court was forced to rely on extrinsic evidence, such as expert testimony. And the district court’s decision with respect to that evidence would be reviewed for clear error. read more

There is a “Right Way” To Steal Ideas

February 22, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

Remember your Mom saying “imitation is the greatest form of flattery”? And thinking as a kid … “Right, Mom.” I do remember, and now I find opportunity to say it to my girls.

But what’s the proper way to imitate something that you like? From a legal perspective, we know to avoid other companies’ intellectual property. We strategize about ways to “design around,” to avoid infringing others’ IP. But can we legitimately imitate? read more

Intellectual Property Drives Our Economy—and Others’

February 21, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

IP drives our economy. And now more than ever, when we send overseas everything we manufacture or sell, we need a strong IP system to protect innovators and their products (and services).

Yet, it seems that at every turn, some governmental entity is trying to weaken our ability to do so. Congress, the President, various states’ attorneys general, etc. Why is that? read more

The Thirty-Nine Steps

Is Bulk Cross-Licensing Moving Towards a Non-Compete?

February 5, 2014Meredith Martin Addy Leave a comment

“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” John Buchan

The war on patent assertion entities continues. Sometimes it’s just rhetoric, sometimes it’s real.

Two days ago the Oregon state legislature introduced a measure to curb the most egregious types of patent trolling: dunning letters threatening legal actions if small businesses don’t pay a licensing fee. It’s the same type of provision—essentially a consumer and business protection law—as has been proposed in Vermont and Nebraska. We’ll keep an eye on what happens. Rampant “demand-letter trolling” deserves to be slammed. read more