According to a message to USPTO Employees from Director David Kappos, the Track One expedited patent examination program (discussed in this earlier post), scheduled to go into effect on May 4, 2011, is postponed until further notice. As reported in Hal Wegner’s newsletter, the cancellation is due to budgetary cuts and whether and when prioritized … Continue Reading
Archaeologists excavating 2400 year old tombs at a site in Turkey are adding something new to the tools of the trade. According to a recent article highly specialized powders consisting of nanoparticles will be applied to the rock surfaces in square-centimeter doses. The nanoparticles will be specially designed to be chemically compatible with the … Continue Reading
Beginning May 4, 2011, a US patent applicant can request prioritized or "fast track" examination at the USPTO under the newly promulgated "Track 1" procedure of 37 C.F.R. 1.102(e). To obtain the Track 1 prioritized examination, the following conditions must be met when the application is filed: (1) the application must be an original utility or … Continue Reading
The NanoSafety Consortium for Carbon just submitted a proposed toxicity testing agreement to EPA under Section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act covering a range of nanoscale materials including multi-walled carbon nanotubes, double-walled carbon nanotubes, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and graphene. Key elements for the curious: The chemical substances to be tested … Continue Reading
There was much excitement when the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed (95–5) the America Invents Act (formerly titled the Patent Reform Act of 2011) (S.23 or AIA), on March 8, 2011. The America Invents Act This legislation represents a major patent reform initiative that has been under congressional debate for at least six years and is … Continue Reading
The 2011 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Conference will be held on March 23-24 2011 at George Washington University’s Jacob Burns Moot Court Room. The subject of the conference, "Environmental Governance at the Leading Edge of Technology", will explore the need for the possible structure of anticipatory governance systems that are capable of protecting … Continue Reading
On March 21, 2011, Porter Wright partner John C. Monica, Jr. will participate as a presenter at the annual conference of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The conference, entitled "The Biggest Issues for the Smallest Stuff: Regulation and Risk Management of … Continue Reading
When Starbucks recently announced a change to their iconic logo, I took interest not only as an attorney specializing in trademark and advertising law, but also as a fairly regular consumer of Starbucks coffee (and, I confess, a Starbucks "Gold Level" card holder). This article discusses issues pertinent to both and addresses some interesting theories … Continue Reading
In the Federal Register for February 15, 2011, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office announced it would hold a workshop on March 10 & 11 2011 to provide an open forum and engage in an active scientific discussion about environmental health and safety questions for nanomaterials and nanotechnology-enabled products, to encourage joint US-EU programs of work that … Continue Reading
As has been widely reported, there has been an influx of false marking cases hitting the courts over the past year based on 34 U.S.C. Section 292, the False Marking Statute. That statute, loosely translated, makes it an offense to mark a product or use in advertising a patent number or the words "patent," "patent … Continue Reading
If you’re near Monash University on Friday March 11, you might want to stop by the Monash University Law Chambers (at 472 Bourke Street in Melbourne) to attend the launching party for "International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies" published by Edward Elgar Publishing – wonder if that means there’ll be some "Pomp and CIrcumstance" ? The International … Continue Reading
In case you missed the OCR announcement late yesterday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was imposing a civil money penalty of $4.3 million dollars against Cignet Health for various violations of HIPAA. These penalties were based upon the violation categories and increased penalty amounts authorized by the HITECH Act; … Continue Reading
On February 17 2011, the EPA, in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), announced the awarding of $12 million ($5.5 million from the EPA, $500,000 from CPSC, and $6 million from NERC) to three consortia to fund research aimed at providing a greater understanding of potential … Continue Reading
According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report, there was a 28% drop in the number of victims of identity fraud in 2010. Additionally, the number of reported data breaches dropped significantly (404 reported breaches in 2010, down from 604 in 2009). Finally, the report states that "only" 26 million records … Continue Reading
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Capital Club – 41 South High Street, 7th Floor Columbus, Ohio One needs only to visit a site such as http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach to learn the extent data breach incidents occur. This workshop will help you learn how to respond to data breach intrusions, … Continue Reading
"Nanotechnology Law and Policy Cases and Materials" "Carolina Academic Press" " Victoria Sutton" "Texas Tech" "Texas Tech University School of Law" "Paul Whitfield Horn Professor" "Regulation" "Litigation"… Continue Reading
“The New Steel? Enabling the Carbon Nanomaterials Revolution: Markets, Metrology, Safety, and Scale-up” is a workshop to be held on February 28th and March 1st, 2011, at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland facility. NIST has assembled an outstanding roster of speakers from industry, academia and government to address the full spectrum of issues, including a special panel on … Continue Reading
This post falls into the category of shameless self-promotion . . . Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP is pleased to announce that John Monica has recently signed a contract with Law Journal Press, a division of ALM Media, Inc. to publish his new book "State and Local Regulation of Nanotechnology" — a full length treatise surveying the … Continue Reading
Presenting what looks to be a very interesting line-up of top-rate speakers, the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-to-Know Committee) is presenting a webinar on January 27, 2011: Nano Governance: The Current State of Federal, State, and International Regulation Here is a summary of the webinar from … Continue Reading
On 01/13/2011, the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a notice in the Federal Register extending the time for filing comments for the Draft NNI Strategy for Nanotechnology Related Environmental, Health and Safety Research to 01/21/2011. The 2011 Draft Strategy is designed to replace and update the 2008 Strategy and is the product of a series … Continue Reading
At the request of Linda S. Adams, California’s Secretary for Environmental Protection, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has postponed implementation of the controversial Safer Consumer Product Alternatives Regulations. The regulations, the result of legislation passed by the California State Assembly in 2008 (Chapter 559, Acts of 2008), were designed to to establish a … Continue Reading
Please join us for this informative series focused on the technical, enforcement, and practical aspects of experiencing and responding to a data security incident. For the complete invitation and details on registration please click here. IDENTITY THEFT, CORPORATE DATA SECURITY BREACHES AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: SHOULD I CALL THE COPS? Learn How to Effectively Utilize Law … Continue Reading
UNIDYM ANNOUNCES ALLIANCE WITH SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Sunnyvale, CA – December 8, 2010 – Unidym, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research Corporation (NASDAQ: ARWR), announced today that it has completed IP cooperation and license agreements with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. ("Samsung"). Under the agreements: 1. Unidym licensed to Samsung patents covering CNT materials, including … Continue Reading
This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Over the past few years, USEPA’s California office has levied fines against manufacturers of products incorporating nanoscale materials when the companies have made unsubstantiated claims that their products kill germs, mold, bacteria, and other household … Continue Reading
