For quite some time, the phrase “computer-readable media” in software claims has been a buzzword Examiners have latched onto for 101 rejections.  Yesterday, the USPTO released a guidance memo that provides specific language suggested for overcoming or avoiding these rejections.  Interestingly, addition of this suggested language to overcome rejection will not be considered new matter, regardless of whether the language is in the original specification.  One wonders if the USPTO will release more of these “preferred language” memos in the future to save additional 101 amendment time.

Judge Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered a final judgement against Microsoft today, following a jury verdict issued on May 20, 2009.

The suit originated in 2007, when Canadian software firm i4i Ltd sued Microsoft for infringing their U.S. Patent 5,787,499.  The suit alleged that Microsoft knowingly infringed on this patent in its Word application and its Vista operating system.

The judgement entered today includes a permanent injunction prohibiting Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products capable of opening .XML, .DOCX, or DOCM files containing custom XML.  Microsoft must comply with the injunction within sixty days.  Microsoft is also required to pay total damages and interest of more than $290 million to i4i Ltd.

Interesting article on why this shouldn’t worry Word users here.

Update: Good blogpost here that breaks down the injunction terms, infringed claims, and more

A Texas-based company called TechRadium filed suit against Twitter Tuesday, August 4, 2009, in the Southern District of Texas, alleging patent infringement.  TechRadium is a technology company that makes mass notification systems which provide a platform where one message can be sent to multiple recipients over various types of devices.

The complaint alleges that Twitter infringes on three TechRadium patents: 7,130,389 (issued October 31, 2006), 7,496,183 (issued February 4, 2009), and 7,519,165 (issued April 14, 2009).  TechRadium is not just looking for a payout here, but has requested punitive damages and a permanent injunction.  Effectively, TechRadium wants to shut Twitter down and clean them out.

This lawsuit probably does not come as a surprise to Twitter.  Actually, in some ways it was expected by the company, although the plaintiff may have been the unknown variable.  Mistakenly leaked internal Twitter documents from a February 2009 strategy meeting were posted last month by TechCrunch.com, in which the expectation of legal action were discussed.  Specifically, the documents reveal that Twitter expected to be “sued for patent infringement, repeatedly and often.”  The same memo queried “should we get a great patent attorney to proactively go after these patents?”  I hope they followed up on that question!

This will be one to watch . . . and tweet about while we can.

August 18, 2009 - Update: Free outside counsel scouring TechRadium patents to aid Twitter in legal battle, read more here.

Microsoft managed to land a patent grant for emotiflags this past week despite well-known prior usage.  The IP team member at Microsoft who received the Notice of Allowance sent a blast email including a  :)

Lotus notes users, however, responded to the news with a  :(

Although it sounds like a parody of the likes of Despair.com, this patent news is actually a real occurrence.  One can’t be sure what the USTPO was emoting at the time of allowance.

Read more here.

Breaking report from ZatzNotFunny! reveals the recent filing by TiVo seeking $1 billion in contempt sanctions from DISH/EchoStar in the patent dispute involving DVR technology.  Last fall, EchoStar announced they were finally going to pay up the $104 million jury award to TiVo since the Supreme Court denied their petition for certiorari.  The contempt sanctions now sought stem from the injunction granted against EchoStar and the infringing DVRs.  Think EchoStar wants to hit rewind?