The Reexamination Center posts regular round-ups of patent reexamination related news from respected intellectual property blogs and online news sources.  The period from December 11 – 31, 2009, saw the following news:

On December 13, the Spicy IP blog posted a guest post from from Professor Michael Carrier, a renowned thought leader in IP and competition policy that discussed patent reexamination.  You can read the full post here: http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/2009/12/guest-post-innovation-for-21st-century.html.

Dennis Crouch wrote about the interplay between reexaminations, preliminary injunctions and stays of litigation on the Patently-O Blog on December 16th.  He specifically addressed the nonprecedential Federal Circuit decision in Automated Merchandising Systems (AMS) v. Crane Co (read The Reexamination Center analysis of this case here).  Read the full post here: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/12/the-interplay-between-reexaminations-preliminary-injunctions-and-stays-of-litigation.html.

On December 17, Reuters reported on the news that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed that the patent on Merck & Co’s $4.5 billion-a-year Singulair asthma drug is valid and enforceable.  Read the full story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEN770820091217.

The Chicago IP Litigation Blog featured a guest post on December 18th from Scott McKeown of Oblon Spivak titled “Patent Reexamination & Litigation in the Northern District of Illinois — Avoiding Malpractice Claims.”  Read the full post here: http://www.chicagoiplitigation.com/2009/12/articles/local-rules/patent-reexamination-litigation-in-the-northern-district-of-illinois-avoiding-malpractice-claims/.  Scott also contributed a guest post to the IPWatchdog blog on December 20th that discusses patent reexamination.  That post, titled “What the Board of Patent Appeals Can Learn from the NFL,” can be found here: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/12/20/what-the-board-of-patent-appeals-can-learn-from-the-nfl/id=7941/.