Comment on Provisional Patent Rights

Inventors in America long lived with the risk that others could copy and profit off an invention during the interim period when their patent application was pending at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Even after inventors received their patent, they were unable to get compensation for any infringing uses that occurred prior to the patent issue date. With an ever-expanding backlog at the USPTO and the corresponding increase in the time it takes for an application to be examined, this unprotected period potentially cost inventors significant losses. Additionally, contrary to the purpose of patent laws “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” inventors were incentivized to keep an invention secret from the public until their patent issued. In the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA), Congress gave patent applicants provisional rights in their published patent applications under 35 U.S.C. § 154(d). Prior to the passage of the AIPA in 1999, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming its earlier decisions, had held that a patentee “may of course obtain damages only for acts of infringement after the issuance of the . . . patent.” However, the AIPA provided damages for infringement in the period before a patent applicant is granted a patent. Provisional rights, also known as pre-issuance royalties, provide a patentee with the prospect of obtaining a reasonable royalty from a third party that infringes a published application claim. This right is provided only if the third party has actual notice of the application and a patent issues from the application with a substantially identical claim. The Federal Circuit has not had the opportunity to interpret the “substantially identical” and “actual notice” requirements under § 154(d), but several district courts have done so. At first glance, the district court rulings appear to be conflicting. However, this Comment explains how the rulings are actually consistent, with each one adding a slightly different layer to the interpretation of § 154(d). Currently, the various rulings addressing the actual notice requirement have not only ruled out constructive notice but also indicate that direct notification action by the patentee is not a necessary condition. It is sufficient if the alleged infringer knew about the patent application through other channels. Other rulings indicate that when patentees do take direct actions to notify, they cannot conceal the notification among other documents, although they do not have to point out the infringement of specific claims. The cases addressing the substantially identical requirement emphasize that each claim amendment should be evaluated carefully to see if it changes the scope of the claim and that not all claim amendments preclude a finding that claims are substantially identical, even those that are in response to USPTO rejections. These cases suggest that narrowing amendments can preclude a finding that claims are substantially identical, and such an interpretation, when considered in combination with an earlier Federal Circuit decision that arguably expands the definition of narrowing amendments, could severely limit the application of § 154(d). This Comment first explores the different rulings, reconciles them, and suggests that the Federal Circuit should consolidate the rulings from the district courts into one binding decision that will provide greater certainty to litigants. This Comment also explores the potential implications of the suggested decision. Although the few district courts that have addressed these issues so far have produced reasonable results, their rulings are not binding. This Comment recommends that the Federal Circuit, when given the chance to review a case where § 154(d) provisional rights are disputed, provide a decision consolidating the reasonable interpretations applied by the various district court rulings up to this point. Otherwise, there is a risk that other district courts may produce undesirable interpretations. Forum shopping is very common in patent cases and infringers might find courts that take the interpretation in a direction that weakens the protection promised to inventors. Such uncertainty about the application of § 154(d) could conflict with Congress’s intent to provide protection for inventors and could increase overall litigation costs

Comment on Provisional Patent Rights

Inventors in America long lived with the risk that others could copy and profit off an invention during the interim period when their patent application was pending at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Even after inventors received their patent, they were unable to get compensation for any infringing uses that occurred prior to the patent issue date. With an ever-expanding backlog at the USPTO and the corresponding increase in the time it takes for an application to be examined, this unprotected period potentially cost inventors significant losses. Additionally, contrary to the purpose of patent laws “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” inventors were incentivized to keep an invention secret from the public until their patent issued. In the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA), Congress gave patent applicants provisional rights in their published patent applications under 35 U.S.C. § 154(d). Prior to the passage of the AIPA in 1999, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming its earlier decisions, had held that a patentee “may of course obtain damages only for acts of infringement after the issuance of the . . . patent.” However, the AIPA provided damages for infringement in the period before a patent applicant is granted a patent. Provisional rights, also known as pre-issuance royalties, provide a patentee with the prospect of obtaining a reasonable royalty from a third party that infringes a published application claim. This right is provided only if the third party has actual notice of the application and a patent issues from the application with a substantially identical claim. The Federal Circuit has not had the opportunity to interpret the “substantially identical” and “actual notice” requirements under § 154(d), but several district courts have done so. At first glance, the district court rulings appear to be conflicting. However, this Comment explains how the rulings are actually consistent, with each one adding a slightly different layer to the interpretation of § 154(d). Currently, the various rulings addressing the actual notice requirement have not only ruled out constructive notice but also indicate that direct notification action by the patentee is not a necessary condition. It is sufficient if the alleged infringer knew about the patent application through other channels. Other rulings indicate that when patentees do take direct actions to notify, they cannot conceal the notification among other documents, although they do not have to point out the infringement of specific claims. The cases addressing the substantially identical requirement emphasize that each claim amendment should be evaluated carefully to see if it changes the scope of the claim and that not all claim amendments preclude a finding that claims are substantially identical, even those that are in response to USPTO rejections. These cases suggest that narrowing amendments can preclude a finding that claims are substantially identical, and such an interpretation, when considered in combination with an earlier Federal Circuit decision that arguably expands the definition of narrowing amendments, could severely limit the application of § 154(d). This Comment first explores the different rulings, reconciles them, and suggests that the Federal Circuit should consolidate the rulings from the district courts into one binding decision that will provide greater certainty to litigants. This Comment also explores the potential implications of the suggested decision. Although the few district courts that have addressed these issues so far have produced reasonable results, their rulings are not binding. This Comment recommends that the Federal Circuit, when given the chance to review a case where § 154(d) provisional rights are disputed, provide a decision consolidating the reasonable interpretations applied by the various district court rulings up to this point. Otherwise, there is a risk that other district courts may produce undesirable interpretations. Forum shopping is very common in patent cases and infringers might find courts that take the interpretation in a direction that weakens the protection promised to inventors. Such uncertainty about the application of § 154(d) could conflict with Congress’s intent to provide protection for inventors and could increase overall litigation costs

Naeglaeria infection of the central nervous system, CT scan findings: a case series

The imaging findings in four cases of a rare infection of the central nervous system caused by amoebae, Naeglaeria fowleri are presented. Naeglaeria fowleri are pathogenic free-living amoebae. They cause primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rapidly fatal disease of the central nervous system. The computed tomography brain findings in 3 (75%) of our cases of pan amoebic meningoencephalitis showed non-specific brain oedema; 2 (66%) of these cases also had moderate hydrocephalus and among that 1 (50%) case showed an old lacunar infarction in peri-ventricular region. In the remaining 1 (25%) case the scan was normal with no evidence of oedema or abnormal lesion. Out of three cases with diffuse brain oedema, postcontrast images showed abnormal meningeal enhancement throughout the brain parenchyma in 1 (33%) case. However, no definite focal enhancing lesion was noted. In the rest of the cases, no abnormal parenchymal or meningeal enhancement was seen on post-contrast images

Asset or Problem: Decision Making and Strategic Ambiguity in Mega Projects

In mega projects, the project phases from the initial planning stage to implementation stage can be spread more than twenty year. In this long period numerous external changes occur which will effect on project directly or indirectly. Major factors are political conditions of the country, technology, financial conditions, labor and all working conditions, land and other market conditions will change in long run during the implementation of mega project. A lot of unforeseen events will occurs, these unforeseen conditions, realization and resources causes the different output as compared to expected outputs in the mega projects. That’s why the planning of mega project is most strategic decision making moment in the life of organizations. So, it’s the responsibility of the project managers to keep the mega and complex projects as simple and flexible which can be adjustable in unforeseen condition.  In this study the planning of mega projects is explored. The planning of mega projects is most important and organizations must have too kept in consideration the unforeseen conditions in their planning and decision making process. Mega and complex project have different uncertainty and ambiguity factors which can be minimized by taking rational decisions. Keywords: Mega Projects, Project Planning, Rational Decision Making, Strategic Ambiguity and Project Uncertainty

Latino Parents\u27 Acculturative Stress and Their Preschoolers\u27 Prosocial Development: Testing the Mediating Role of Parenting Style

Studies increasingly recognize the importance of cultural factors when studying the development of immigrant children from low-income backgrounds. There is reason to believe that parents\u27 acculturative stress may be linked to children\u27s prosocial development, via parenting. the present study included a sample of immigrant Latino parents of 3- to 5-year-old Head Start preschoolers (N = 28) to examine how parents\u27 acculturative stress might be associated with children\u27s prosocial behavior at home, as reported by parents, and at school, as reported by teachers. Furthermore, it studied whether this linkage is mediated by warm, supportive, and hostile parenting practices. Results indicated that parents\u27 pressure against acculturation was negatively associated with teacher reports of children\u27s cooperation, prosocial actions, and motivation for prosocial behavior. in addition, the pressure to acculturate was negatively related to teacher reports of children\u27s motivation for prosocial behavior. Neither warm and supportive parenting nor hostile parenting mediated these associations. These findings highlight the importance of considering cultural and contextual factors when studying the prosocial development of Latino children from low-income backgrounds

Monetary policy application in the oil-exporting countries: the case of Kuwait

Kuwait has a small open economy, depends totally on exporting one primary single commodity (oil) to earn its Income and is dependent on the rest of the world to importits needs of consumer and capital goods. Thus, the vulnerability of the Kuwaiti economy to exogenous pressures is reflected in the local monetary sector, as well as in the other sectors. However, this external pressure on the monetary sector is isolated from the condition of the balance of payments = especially in the short-term - because the persistent surplus of the balance of payments reflects the oil revenue which is kept outside the country in the foreign reserve of the government. On the other hand, the government expenditure in the local economy is determined by some socio-economic and other political tendencies rather than the level of the oil revenue. Hence, the persistent deficit of the private non-oil balance of payments against the outside world is offset by the government monetary injection in the local economy through its annual budgetary spending to cover the cost of its development plans. Nevertheless, the external influence on the local monetary condition is due to structural and institutional constraints in the financial market and the economy on one hand, and to the policies of the monetary authorities on the other. The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of the monetary policy instruments by the Central Bank of Kuwait during the period 1970-1988 to achieve its economic and monetary objectives postulated in its Charter. Moreover, in addition to this originality, this study has also updated previous empirical works concerning the behaviour of the money stock, since the latest academic research in this field ended in 1982.The behaviour of the monetary sector is studied through the balance sheet of the Central Bank, the consolidated balance sheet of the commercial banks, specialized banks, investment companies, and other participants in the financial market. This study shows that the banking system has experienced a considerable growth in its activities inside and outside the country. But in spite of the structural shift in the investment portfolio of the commercial banks in favour of the local opportunities against foreign investment, the distribution of bank credit among the various productive sectors shows unfair trends against some sectors such as industry and agriculture, and in favour of speculative activities in the stock market and real-estate, which highlights some doubts on the credit rationing policy of the Central Bank, The econometric model of the demand for-and-supply-of money function shows that the equilibrium level of the money stock is determined by external and Internal factors, with the Central Bank playing the role to accommodate the external pressures on local liquidity, rather than controlling the quantity of money. The low interest rate policy adopted by the Central Bank shows that it has failed to secure a fair distribution of bank credit among the productive sectors in the local economy. On the other hand, it encouraged the speculative trends in the stock market and brought about inflationary impacts. Moreover, this policy along with the exchange rate policy has provided the right environment for capital outflow, and exposing the local liquidity to external influences. Nevertheless, the exchange rate regime (the basket peg) has succeeded in maintaining the stability of the Kuwaiti Dinar against the major foreign currencies, and avoiding some undesirable impacts on the Kuwaiti economy resulting from the appreciation or depreciation of the Kuwaiti dinar. The implementation by the Central Bank of monetary policy instruments shows that these instruments were introduced either to help the commercial banks to overcome their liquidity problems in local currency, or to regulate this liquidity among them: therefore, no attention whatsoever was paid to controlling the credit policies of the commercial banks. Such conclusion is evidenced throughout this study either by the exposition of the tendencies behind the introduction by the Central Bank of its instruments of control, or by its neglecting to make effective use of these instruments in accordance with their orthodox concepts. The main findings are discussed and a series of recommendations to enhance the use of the monetary policy instruments are suggested

MRI findings in methanol intoxication: a report of three cases

Methanol is a highly toxic substance and acute methanol poisoning produces severe metabolic acidosis and serious neurological symptoms, including severe visual impairment, extrapyramidal signs and coma. We present three cases of accidental methanol intoxication and discuss the MRI findings

Spinal changes in patients with ankylosing spondylitis on MRI: case series

Magnetic Resonance Imaging appearances are described in three cases of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). The different appearances of AS on magnetic resonance imaging are described and their significance in relation to the pathology of this condition is discussed. MRI is increasingly used to detect changes in the spine of patients with AS. Spinal changes associated with spondyloarthritis are florid anterior spondylitis (Romanus lesion), florid discitis (Andersson lesion), ankylosis, insufficiency fractures of the ankylosed spine, syndesmophytes, arthritis of the apophyseal and costovertebral joints and enthesitis of the interspinal ligaments

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome: a case series in patients with eclampsia

Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) refers to a clinicoradiologic entity with characteristic features on neuro-imaging and non-specific symptoms comprising headache, confusion, visual disturbances and seizures. The lesions in PRES are thought to be due to vasogenic oedema, predominantly in the posterior cerebral hemispheres, and are reversible with appropriate management. We report 3 cases of acute PRES who had eclampsia and presented with recurrent episodes of seizures and hypertension. Their MRI scan showed diffuse abnormal signal intensities involving predominantly deep white matter of the occipital lobes. Based on the findings the most probable diagnosis of PRES was suggested. They were started on antihypertensive drugs. On follow-up examination after 5-7 weeks, the patients showed marked improvement clinically and on neuro-imaging following which they were discharged in stable condition