In this episode we have the chance to interview James Bikoff, who is frequently litgating trademarks of the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and other large sports associations. The we also talk about a podcasting patent that was recently cancelled. And in the end, we tell you about decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office regarding the patentability of plants.

 

 

IP FRIDAYS

Co-Presenters:

Rolf Claessen and Kenneth Suzan

Episode 26 – April 17, 2015

RC = Rolf Claessen

KS = Kenneth Suzan

JB = James Bikoff

Hi. This is Mark Lemley from Stanford Law School and you are listening to IP Fridays.

KS: Hello and welcome to this episode of IP Fridays. Our names are Ken Suzan and Rolf Claessen and this is THE podcast dedicated to Intellectual Property. It does not matter where you are from, in-house or private practice, novice or expert, we will help you stay up-to-date with current topics in the fields of trademarks, patents, design and copyright, discover useful tools and much more.

RC: Welcome to the 26th episode of IP Fridays. Today we have a very prominent guest, Jim Bikoff, who is litigating trademarks for the International Olympic Committee as well as FIFA and other popular sports associations and we will also tell you about a podcasting patent that has been partly revoked and the European Patent Office issued two important decisions of enlarged boards of appeal regarding the protection of essentially biological processes and products resulting thereof. But before we jump into all this, I want to say that we are very proud to be hosting our own little reception, or Meet-Up, during the INTA meeting in San Diego for the IP Fridays Podcast so if you want to be on board and meet us personally, you can see everything you need to know in the show notes of this episode or simply go to www.ipfridays.com/inta. We are also proud to be co-hosting the Meet the Bloggers Event during the INTA meeting in San Diego and you can find out more at www.meet-the-bloggers.com.

So first I want to tell you about a podcasting patent that has been partly cancelled. Patent 8,112,504 had been issued to Personal Audio LLC and this patent basically covered podcasting in its broadest claims and this patent became interesting to the news when the owner of the patent started to sue both comedians, like Adam Carolla, who had a podcast and also three major television networks so on October 30, 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with the help of pro bono attorneys filed a petition requesting the inter partes review of this patent and, in particular, claims 1 – 35 were relevant to podcasting. It was actually not so easy to find prior art since the patent dates back to a filing date in 1996. They were able to find a publication by CNN on their Website in the year of 1994 which was the CNN Newsroom Video Magazine and the USPTO agreed that this publication actually made the relevant claims obvious over the prior art. If you want to read the full story, you can go to www.ipfridays.com/podcastingpatent.

Ken Suzan had the chance to interview Jim Bikoff who is litigating the trademarks for the International Olympic Committee and here is what he had to say…

KEN SUZAN’S INTERVIEW WITH JAMES BIKOFF:

KS: Thank you Rolf. Today we are speaking with James Bikoff, a partner in the intellectual property practice of Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP.

Jim works out of the firm’s Washington DC office and his practice focuses on formulating and implementing worldwide trademark and copyright protection and enforcement programs for clients in the consumer and industrial product sectors, as well as non-profits, and service providers such as banks and insurance companies. He also engages in Internet and domain name counseling and enforcement actions.

Mr. Bikoff has been active for over 30 years directing worldwide trademark and cop...