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In an article posted on their law firm’s web site, patent attorneys Stephen D. Harper, PhD, and Stephen J. Weed in the Valley Forge, PA, office of RatnerPrestia consider the U.S. Supreme Court’s current deliberation of the Federal Circuit’s decision on business methods in In re Bilski and possible patent protection strategies during this “period of flux.” The Supreme Court is reviewing whether the Federal Circuit erred by finding that a process must be tied to a particular machine or apparatus – or transform a particular article into a different state or thing (the machine-or-transformation test) — and whether the Federal Circuit’s M-or-T test contradicts Congressional intent with respect to patents on methods of doing or conducting business. The Supreme Court’s decision, expected by July, could have serious implications not only on business method patents but also on medical diagnostic methods, Harper and Weed contend.

Inventions related to business methods are typically claimed as a series of steps, with one or more steps often performed using a computer. The decision rendered by the Federal Circuit in Bilski set forth that processes must satisfy at least one prong of the M-or-T test to be eligible for patent protection. The Federal Circuit, however, expressly declined to comment in Bilski on whether a computer could meet the definition of a particular machine or apparatus.

“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recently published New Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions (”SME Instructions”) [that] embrace the Federal Circuit’s Bilski decision,” Harper and Weed write. The SME instructions require that, to be eligible for patent protection, process claims must either: 1) be machine implemented or 2) transform a particular article. The SME Instructions also set forth two corollaries to the M-or-T test: 1) the machine or transformation must impose a meaningful limitation in the invention as claimed and 2) the particular machine or transformation must involve more than insignificant “extra solution activity.” In the PTO’s view, it is no longer sufficient to insert a step such as presenting a result on a display. However, the SME instructions provide guidance on the recitation of a computer in a process claim, stating that a “general purpose computer may be sufficiently ‘particular’ when programmed to perform the process steps,” the attorneys write.

In view of that interim guidance, consider ways in which the business method may be characterized to transform articles or how a particular machine such as a computer may be incorporated into the business method in order to satisfy the M-or-T test, Harper and Weed suggest. Second, provide support for the transformation and/or particular machine in the specifications of newly filed applications and consider filing a continuing application to add such support to existing applications. Finally, incorporate features necessary to satisfy the M-or-T test into the claims of the application.

Though most observers have focused attention on the case’s impact on software patents, innovations in the diagnostics space are also affected, the attorneys note. Patent applications claiming methods of diagnosis typically recite the basic steps of gathering data from a patient sample, comparing the data with a standard, and generating information about or diagnosing the patient based on the comparison, Harper and Weed add. The Federal Circuit addressed the question of whether such medical diagnostic methods can constitute patent-eligible subject matter on two occasions post-Bilski. In Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen Idec, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment that certain claims were invalid as directed to ineligible subject matter. The claims covered a method for determining whether an immunization schedule affects the incidence or severity of a chronic immune-mediated disorder, and included a step of immunizing a patient in accordance with an immunization schedule, followed by interpreting the incidence, prevalence, frequency, or severity of a chronic immune-mediated disorder compared with a control group. The Federal Circuit found that such claims were not tied to a particular machine or apparatus and did not transform a particular article into a different state or thing, thereby failing the M-or-T test. More recently, the Federal Circuit held in Prometheus v. Mayo that claims directed to a method of optimizing therapeutic efficacy for treatment of an immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder satisfied the M-or-T test and thus represented patent-eligible subject matter. The claims included a step of administering a drug to a subject followed by determining the level of the drug’s metabolite in that subject.

“Although the SME instructions issued by the PTO do not specifically discuss medical diagnostic method claims, they do advise examiners to reject method claims if they do not tie at least one step to a particular machine or if they do not confer a different function or use on the data they manipulate,” Harper and Weed write. “Thus, one possible solution to the problem of patenting medical diagnostic methods is to include claims that specify that a comparing step is carried out using a computer programmed to compare gathered data with a standard. An alternative solution may be to include a step of treating a specific condition in the patient consistent with a diagnosis. Still another approach, as suggested by Mayo, is to include in the claims a step where either a drug or other substance is administered to a patient in connection with diagnosing the patient and/or a step where a sample from the patient is analyzed in some way.”

Source: Ratner Prestia

We just got a tip from a reader on these extra-tall cutting board surfaces for really, really tall cooks. Too-low countertops are a problem in the kitchen for tall cooks; remember how Julia Child herself had her countertops raised up a few inches? Well, this is an alternative for tall cooks; read on to see the inspiration for these “Colleen-ified” cutting boards!

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Apple on Tuesday updated its Boot Camp software and issued new drivers and utilities to allow users to run Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7. The Mac maker also issued its first security update of 2010, addressing 12 vulnerabilities.

Read more from AppleInsider

Wilfred Konneker attended Ohio University in the 1940s and was an early pioneer in nuclear physics before founding several companies and becoming one of the university’s financial benefactors. He’s come through again — big time. Diagnostic Hybrids, a company Konneker helped found in 1983 with two OU professors and the financial backing of the university foundation, was sold to a California company for $130 million. The foundation’s cut could total almost $41 million, according to OU officials. About $10 million of the foundation’s share represents the value of stock that Konneker donated after the company was started. Diagnostic Hybrids develops and manufactures lab-testing kits to quickly screen for viral infections, such as herpes and H1N1. The purchasing firm, Quidel Corp., is a leading provider of similar diagnostic tests that can be administered in doctors’ offices. The purchase is an all-cash deal.

Konneker founded Diagnostic Hybrids with former OU professors Joseph Jollick and Thomas E. Wagner. The foundation invested $1 million, or about $2.17 million in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars. “There are faster ways to make money for a university through tech transfer than investing in start-ups, such as licensing technology to companies around the world,” says OU chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut. “But there is only one way to create jobs in Ohio, and that’s what OU is doing. This is a model we are following across the state.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

BumpTop released The Windows version of BumpTop’s 3D desktop in April 2009. Today, BumpTop finally released a version for the Mac. BumpTop turns your desktop into a 3D experience, where documents are organized in stacks and you can pin often used files, folders or images onto the walls. BumpTop also incorporates a physics simulations, so interactions with your files on the 3D desktop feel extremely lifelike.

Sponsor

Turn Your Desktop into a 3D Environment

While the Mac doesn’t offer multi-touch screens, BumpTop managed to incorporate some multi-touch gestures by using the touchpad on Mac laptops (these are only available in the Pro version). Swiping down with three fingers, for example, creates a new stack of files on your desktop. If you are using a desktop or an older laptop, however, you will not be able to make use of these gestures.

Mac Version Give You a More Seamless Experience

For the Mac version, the BumpTop team has tweaked the user interface so that it fits in nicely with the rest of the OSX experience. BumpTop still suffers from a slight disconnect between the desktop experience and running an application. Switching to the application takes you out of the 3D experience. Interestingly enough, this effect is less pronounced on the Mac than on Windows. On the Mac, BumpTop just becomes a seamless part of your desktop and stays out of the way. On Windows, BumpTop often feels more like an additional application than an integral part of the OS.

For a more detailed look at BumpTop’s feature set, also have a look at our earlier review of the Windows version.

Get a Free Pro Version

The free version of BumpTop incorporates most of the most interesting features in the software, but the Pro version ($29) includes a number of cool additional features like multi-touch gestures, unlimited sticky notes on your desktop and a find-as-you-type feature that makes it easy to find documents on your desktop.

The Pro version is a free upgrade to the first 100 people who sign up at this special ReadWriteWeb page.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has a point.  There are many, if not a vast majority of policymakers, who agree with the senator that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is best left to thoughtful Congressional legislation, not EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act.  Thus her looming threats to introduce amendments or resolutions or other procedural maneuverings to “take a time out,” slowing down EPA rulemaking procedures aimed at addressing climate change.

But failing to seize her moment in the spotlight and put forward a specific legislative solution is where her logic falls apart and observers note the senator’s ear to certain greenhouse-gas-intensive industries that oppose action on climate change.  This leaves me to believe that if we take climate change seriously, then perhaps EPA action is in fact better than no action at all.

Sen. Murkowski says that she doesn’t want a “gun to the Senate’s head” and claims that choosing between Waxman-Markey or Kerry-Boxer bills and EPA regulation is a “false choice.”  While she acknowledges the science of climate change and notes the impacts in Alaska, the senator’s stated intent is to ensure that EPA regulations don’t come into place prior to Congress finishing its deliberations because she fears significant economic hardship from an EPA approach to the climate challenge.

The senator emphasizes that Congress must pass a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — she’s on record as being in favor of passing legislation to reduce emissions.  Her position that the Senate needs to pass legislation based on sound policy that takes into account environmental integrity, economic impacts and job creation is absolutely appropriate.

What is lacking, however, from Sen. Murkowski’s foray into the fire, are a sense of urgency and a positive solution.  Urgency is a scientific and economic necessity.  Peer-reviewed science notes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case scenario forecasts are increasingly likely without immediate action, which is why so many are eager to see the EPA move forward.

The Senate is tied up in its predictably partisan politics all with an eye toward mid-term elections.  Meanwhile, EPA is following its mandate and the law, and is trying to urgently tackle the problem.  As logical as Sen. Murkowski may be in her desire to find a congressional solution to climate change, so is EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in her intent to urgently solve a problem that economist Sir Nicholas Stern has called “the greatest market failure the world has ever seen.”

The senator from Alaska has made her point and has everyone’s attention.  But now is the moment for real leadership and putting forward a concise legislative option that places a science-based cap on greenhouse gas emissions.  Otherwise, Sen. Murkowski is open to critiques of just playing politics.

Washington

Published in The Hill (January 19, 2010).

When it comes to animated kids’ characters these days, you get one of two extremes: the cute and/or fuzzy sort (this is the Elmo and SpongeBob posse), and the kick-ass crew (Spider-Man, et al). Far be it from us to argue with what works, of course, but for kids hankering for heroes with a little more grit and realism, the time has finally come. Making their stateside debut on Playhouse Disney this Monday were Brewster, Koko and Wilson—three All-American friends who just happen to be diesel locomotives.

  Yeah, we know railroad engines have been done before. But Thomas the Tank Engine dates from 1946—and he’s looking the part, what with that gray-rubber face on his boiler and all. By contrast, the three engines in the Chuggington series—created by London-based Ludorum and already a successful franchise in Canada, Japan and most of Western Europe—are thoroughly millennial motors.

  For one thing, there’s diversity in this roundhouse. Koko is billed as "a strong lead female train … who isn’t afraid to put her wheels to the rails." The moral messaging is credible, too. For instance, when Brewster arrogantly fills his hopper cars with more traprock than he can carry, he learns his lesson when his brakes fail. But best of all, the CGI-enhanced animation makes for a surprisingly realistic industrial landscape. All three characters are modeled after actual commercial locomotives (Wilson is an EMD F3-A diesel-electric unit) and follow railroading protocols right down to obeying the semaphore signals and using their sander valves to achieve better rail adhesion on steep ascending grades.

  Try that, Little Mermaid.

—Posted by Robert Klara

Mischa Barton has spent much of the past week filming a guest spot on NBC’s veteran crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but the former “It Girl’s” turn as a leggings-wearing Lady of The Night has made her the most talked about woman on set — and that isn’t a good thing. According to a sneaky snitch close to production, Mischa — who was admitted to a psychiatric hospital last summer — spent all day Tuesday flubbing her lines, turning the shoot into a 10 hour day for the frustrated cast and crew. Sources say SVU only shot one scene the entire day, thanks to Mischa’s “unprofessionalism.”

“She only had seven lines, seven! Each time she would mess up she would forget her lines and Mariska kept prompting her and saying ‘it’s your line Mischa.’”

Mischa’s certainly no stranger to acting on the small screen. The beauty played Marissa Cooper on FOX’s The OC before leaving the show in 2006. Most recently, Mischa starred in the short-lived CW drama The Beautiful Life. That show was cancelled last fall after just two episodes.

Through a new partnership with ktMINE, 2Market Information, parent company of Tech Transfer E-News, is offering hands-on access to an incredibly rich source of royalty rate data, full-text license agreements, and detailed agreement summaries. ktMINE is an online, interactive IP database of more than 6,000 license agreements that allows you to quickly find true market comparables using specific search criteria. Users can run unlimited searches and see unlimited results, including all royalty rates and full text agreements. Access is made available through affordable 2-day and 5-day passes, which can be activated at the user’s convenience. For complete details or to order, CLICK HERE.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s (RPCI) TTO has signed a licensing agreement with Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., for tumor imaging technology developed by RPCI researcher Ravindra Pandey, PhD. Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical is one of China’s largest producers of oncology drugs. Additional terms were not disclosed, but Richard Matner, PhD, MBA, director of RPCI’s TTO, recently spoke about the institute’s focus on deal-making in Asia in an interview with Technology Transfer Tactics. “We’ve found that, overall, the capacity for risk tolerance is higher in Asia than in the U.S. or Europe,” Matner said. “Assets or free capital move projects forward, and there’s a higher level in China and India. Right now China’s got $2 trillion in the bank and a straightforward mission from the Premier to bring various therapies into China. We’ve been a little ahead of the curve in that we’ve been negotiating in Asia for some time.”

The RPCI tumor imaging technology also shows potential as an anti-cancer treatment agent, according to Hua Bai, president and CEO of Zhejiang Hisun. “We believe a drug with these properties would be extremely valuable for patients in China,” he says. “It may play a significant role in improving treatment options for people with cancer and will greatly enrich Zhejiang Hisun’s growing oncology drug pipeline.”

Source: Newswise

Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

• November 9, 2009 — App Review: TouchDown by NitroDesk (7)
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• October 3, 2009 — 10 Things I Love About You (and Why) (4)
• September 24, 2009 — Newbtorial: Getting the Most From Your HTC Exhange App (2)

If you want some real talk on the deficit and Washington’s harlequin act to fix it, please listen to Daniel Indiviglio. If you want to hear politicians croon utter nonsense about the debt with their fingers crossed behind their backs, please listen to Sen. Judd Gregg.

Republican commission advocates remain skeptical that a presidentially
appointed panel would have the clout to tackle the nation’s toughest
fiscal problems. Sen. Judd Gregg
(R-N.H.), a sponsor with Conrad of legislation to create a budget
commission by law, called a presidentially appointed panel “a fraud”
designed to do little more than give Democrats political cover.

“It’s a fraud among anyone interested in fiscal responsibility to
claim an executive order could structure something that would actually
lead to action,” Gregg said.

This is rich, hypocritical stuff.

In Gregg’s budget commission, a debt reduction bill would require
super-majorities to pass in the House and Senate. That’s strange, because super-majorities are scarce in Congress and non-existent for bills that
deal with tax increases and entitlement reforms — both of which are
necessary parts of any serious deficit reduction plan. Oh wait … that’s exactly the point! Gregg rigged his
budget commission to fail so he can grab credit for proposing deficit reduction without actually having any unpopular deficit reduction ideas pegged to his reputation. And this guy has the audacity to use the word “fraud.”

I don’t necessarily trust the White House panel to accomplish any more than Gregg’s ploy to play deficit doctor. I’m pretty down on serious deficit fighting in general because Democrats won’t propose service cuts in election years and Republican aren’t likely to support tax hikes in any year that, well, begins with the month of January. It seems to me that the only difference between the panels is that Gregg doesn’t get any credit for the empty gimmick if the White House picks all the panelists.

Chalk it up to Verizon Wireless feeling the FCC’s heat for their “advanced device” list, but it appears that the original advanced device list that was submitted to the commission in December 2009 included 10 devices that are no longer on today’s list.  Upon initial inspection, it appears that most of the devices removed were high-end feature phones, such as the Motorola Krave, Samsung Rogue, and several LG devices.  To recap, advanced devices were hit with a $350 early termination fee (decreasing by $10 for each month of service), while other devices remained at $175 (decreasing by $5 for each month of service).

Verizon Wireless has not officially commented as to the reason for the removal.  Great news for those purchasing feature phones, but for those of us that use smartphones, there’s still work to be done.  Smartphone buyers, do you see the same thing happening, or will we be looking at a potential FCC intervention?

Via PhoneScoop

In another sign of China’s emergence as a hot market for technology partnerships, a biotech company launched through the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has signed a multi-million pound deal to sell its products in China. Burdica Biomed, a Fife-based firm that develops personal lubricant products, has reached a partnership agreement with Sinopharm, China’s largest pharmaceutical and medical device distributor. Under the terms of the 10-year deal, Sinopharm will seek regulatory approval in China for Burdica’s products, which include a lubricant that improves fertilization. The regulatory process is expected to take 12 to 18 months. Thereafter, Sinopharm will distribute Burdica’s products in China. Burdica expects product sales in China to exceed £50 million in revenues.

The deal is a major coup for Burdica and for the university, which helped to launch the company in 2007 through its Edinburgh Pre-Incubator Scheme (EPIS). EPIS provided Burdica with space at the university as well as business mentoring support and an interest-free loan. “This is a huge success for Burdica and the university,” says Adrian Smith, program director of EPIS. “It shows that supporting innovation can have real results, with substantial financial consequences for Scottish companies and the economy.”

Source: EPIS

The authors evaluate promising process flowsheets for bioethanol production from different feedstocks along with current and promising technologies for bioethanol production. Case studies illustrate how process synthesis allows for the …

The University of Utah pumps millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into the Utah economy, according to a new study. “The Economic Impact of Sponsored Research at the University of Utah” clearly illustrates the financial impact of research spending, which is increasingly important to TTOs as their missions become intertwined with local economic development. According to the independent study, every dollar spent by U-Utah creates an additional 95 cents in gross state product (GSP) — the measure of a state’s overall economic output over a one-year period. Every two jobs supported by research create three new jobs in other industry sectors, the study calculated. “Research conducted at the University of Utah not only advances science, technology, and medicine but also has positive economic effects that are felt broadly outside of academia,” notes Jan Crispin, the study’s author and senior research economist at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at U-Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

Crispin used data from U-Utah’s Financial and Business Services to estimate the economic role of research spending on jobs, earnings, gross state product, and tax revenue. The analysis, conducted during the fall of 2009, is based on research expenditures during the university’s 2008 fiscal year. Crispin estimates that every $1 million spent on sponsored research at the university supports 20 jobs in Utah, generates approximately $849,450 in earnings for Utah workers, contributes $1.4 million in GSP, and provides $86,135 in state and local tax revenue. “This new study makes it easy to translate the power of [research] funding, not only for students and research outcomes on campus but also on the economy of the entire state,” says Tom Parks, the university’s vice president for research.

Source: University of Utah News Center

Joining Travolta’s Scientology humanitarian effort to capture as many mind prisoners as possible, a Christian group is sending an army of Proclaimers to Haiti. Proclaimers are solar-powered audio bibles, which could assemble into a giant robot to destroy the scientologists.

Maybe. I just like the idea of a giant Bible robot fighting Travolta and his cohorts until they obliterate each other.

But I digress: According to Australian news outlet ABC News, the Faith Comes By Hearing organization has sent 600 of these Bibles already, which will spread the Holy Word speaking in Haitian Creole. They claim that they are helping Haitians by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s word in audio”. The first part is good, especially if you accompany that with food, water, medicines, and shelter. The second part, however, may not be that useful at this point.

They claim that “the Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or… even on the moon!” I’m sure that it would be more helpful in the moon than it could be in Haiti. Because I imagine that, in Haiti, a solar-powered Bible would be as helpful as the Genesis according to Eddie Izzard.

[ABC News]

The latest NAHB numbers from yesterday are more fuel for David Rosenberg’s argument that housing is double dipping:

HOUSING STILL IN A DEPRESSION 
It is truly a sad state of affairs when an extension of a housing tax credit, super- low interest rates and the incursion of the Fed balance sheet into the mortgage market all translate into a down housing backdrop.  The NAHB index fell for the second month in a row, to 15 in January from 16 in December, 17 in November and the nearby high of 19 in September, which takes the headline down to June 2009 levels.  In fact, this is the fourth lowest reading ever.   What was really striking was the dip in the ‘prospective buyer traffic’ sub-index to 12 from 13 – the lowest this has been since last March when everyone seemed to think the world was coming to an end. 

And the stimulus for housing, if not renewed, could add some uncertainty to the outlook – the Fed’s purchases stop at the end of March and the deadline for the $8,000 tax credit for first-time
buyers (and $6,500 for move-up buyers) is April 30, in terms of when the purchase contracts have to be signed, and the deal must be completed by June 30.

But the first kicker is expected to come today, as the FHA comes out with its new (and higher) fee schedule (to 2.25% from 1.75% according to the New York Times) and tightened lending standards too (though amazingly, the 3.5% minimum down-payment requirement is not expected to be touched; but a minimum FICO score of 580 established – this is largely for “show”) because what few people realize is the losses the government agency faces and the extent to which a taxpayer bailout lies ahead.

What is apparent is that the builders are still competing against a wave of foreclosed properties being dumped back onto the market. 

RealtyTrac estimates that a record three million homes will be repossessed this year and that this flood
of supply will seriously curtail new home sales and construction activity.  And, it is the government’s own policies that are creating these strains – go back to that FHA article from yesterday’s WSJ and re-read the last part.  It’s all so surreal:   “Mr. Stevens says first-time buyers are key to clearing inventory in markets such as Las Vegas, James Smith, a 42-year old air-conditioning repairman, might not have been able to buy a $188,000 home out of foreclosure recently in Henderson, Nev., were it not for the low FHA downpayments. To make the 3.5% downpayment, he used around $4,300 of his own money and borrowed the rest from his father- in-law.  “It was actually a great thing”, he says.  He repaid his father-in-law after receiving an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.”

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See Also:

• Warren Buffett: We Need 13-Year Olds To Start Cohabitating To Clean Up The Housing Overhang
• Housing Starts Tank In December, A Huge Reversal From November
• Homebuilders Index Slips Again In January, Confirming The Housing Double Dip