Obviousness-Type Double Patenting: Why it Exists and When it Applies

At least since 1819, courts have prohibited double patenting—where an inventor has two patents on the same or obvious variations of the same invention. There have always been two basic justifications for prohibiting double patenting. The first focused on the patentee: bad actors might try to improperly extend their patent monopoly by filing serial applications. The second focused on the public’s rights: the bargain of the patent is that in exchange for the inventor getting a term-limited patent, the public is entitled to use the claimed invention (and its obvious variations) once the patent expires. This public-rights rationale is broader, and it applies independent of whether the patentee’s filing of serial applications allows her to extend the patent term. The patentee-based justification had more purchase in the olden days—when a patent’s term was determined by its issue date. Every new patent that issued would get a new term. Since 1995, though, a patent’s term is 20 years from the earliest effective filing date—a date that stays the same independent of whether the inventor strings out her patent applications—so the inventor cannot really game the system. On the other hand, the public still cannot receive the fruit of its bargain if it cannot use a claimed invention as soon as a patent expires. The previously low-stakes debate about the reason for prohibiting double patenting now matters. Most significantly, is there a double-patenting problem for a parent patent where the parent gets patent-term adjustment, but the child does not? On the patentee-based justification, there may well not be a problem for the parent, but on the public-rights based justification, there would be. Inventors that receive patent-term adjustment on a parent patent have to decide whether to pursue continuation applications, as continuation applications are likely to not receive the same amount of adjustment. Depending on how the law on double patenting evolves, the continuation patents may cut short the term of the parent patent—what this article will call patent patricide. For patents on pharmaceutical drugs, the question of patent patricide can be worth billions of dollars

INVENTORS BEWARE: THE DANGER OF GETTING TOO MANY PATENTS

INVENTORS BEWARE: THE DANGER OF GETTING TOO MANY PATENT

TC Heartland: It’s Time to Take Stock

It has been a little over a year and a half since the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking venue decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, shaking up the status quo in U.S. patent infringement litigation. The first months after TC Heartland saw a flurry of activity as litigants and courts wrestled with the impact of the decision on pending cases, pondered the true meaning of a “regular and established place of business,” and explored many other questions left by the TC Heartland decision. Eighteen months and several writs of mandamus later, it is now a good time to take stock of the newly emerging status quo in patent venue. This article does just that

Coupling of the 4f Electrons in Lanthanide Molecules

(C5Me5)2LnOTf where Ln = La, Ce, Sm, Gd, and Yb have been synthesized and these derivatives are good starting materials for the synthesis of (C5Me5)2LnX derivatives. (C5Me5)2Ln(2,2'-bipyridine), where Ln = La, Ce, Sm, and Gd, along with several methylated bipyridine analogues have been synthesized and their magnetic moments have been measured as a function of temperature. In lanthanum, cerium, and gadolinium complexes the bipyridine ligand ligand is unequivocally the radical anion, and the observed magnetic moment is the result of intramolecular coupling of the unpaired electron on the lanthanide fragment with the unpaired electron on the bipyridine along with the intermolecular coupling between radicals. Comparison with the magnetic moments of the known compounds (C5Me5)2Sm(2,2'-bipyridine) and (C5Me5)2Yb(2,2'-bipyridine) leads to an understanding of the role of the Sm(II)/Sm(III) and Yb(II)/Yb(III) couple in the magnetic properties of (C5Me5)2Sm(2,2'-bipyridine) and (C5Me5)2Yb(2,2'-bipyridine). In addition, crystal structures of (C5Me5)2Ln(2,2'-bipyridine) and [(C5Me5)2Ln(2,2'-bipyridine)][BPh4](Ln= Ce and Gd), where the lanthanide is unequivocally in the +3 oxidation state, give the crystallographic characteristics of bipyridine as an anion and as a neutral ligand in the same coordination environment, respectively. Substituted bipyridine ligands coordinated to (C5Me5)2Yb are studied to further understand how the magnetic coupling in (C5Me5)2Yb(2,2'-bipyridine) changes with substitutions. In the cases of (C5Me5)2Yb(5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) and (C5Me5)2Yb(6-methyl-2,2'-bipyridine), the valence, as measured by XANES, changes as a function of temperature. In general, the magnetism in complexes of the type (C5Me5)2Yb(bipy.-), where bipyo represents 2,2'-bipyridine and substituted 2,2'-bipyridine ligands, is described by a multiconfiguration model, in which the ground state is an open-shell singlet composed of two configurations: Yb(III, f13)(bipy.-) and Yb(II, f14)(bipyo). The relative contributions of the two configurations depends on the substituents on the bipyridine ligand.[(C5H4Me)3Ln]2(L) (Ln = Ce, Tb; L = 4,4'-bipyridine, 1,4-benzoquinone) are synthesized in order to study the effect of these ligands on the oxidation states of the metal as well as to study intramolecular coupling between two lanthanides fragments

(2,2-Bipyridyl)bis(eta5-1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)Strontium(II)

In the title compound, the Sr-N distances are 2.624 (3) and 2.676 (3) Angstroms. The Sr-centroid distances are 2.571 and 2.561 Angstroms. The N-C-C-N torsion angle in the bipyridine ligand is 2.2 (4){sup o}. Interestingly, the bipyridine ligand is tilted. The angle between the plane defined by Sr1, N1 and N2 and the plane defined by the 12 atoms of the bipyridine ligand is 10.7{sup o}

(2,2-Bipyrid­yl)bis­(η5-penta­methyl­cyclo­penta­dien­yl)strontium(II)

In the title compound, [Sr(C10H15)2(C10H8N2)], the Sr—N distances are 2.624 (3) and 2.676 (3) Å, the Sr⋯Cp ring centroid distances are 2.571 and 2.561 Å and the N—C—C—N torsion angle in the bipyridine ligand is −2.2 (4)°. Inter­estingly, the bipyridine ligand is tilted. The angle between the plane defined by the Sr atom and the two bipyridyl N atoms and the plane defined by the 12 atoms of the bipyridine ligand is 10.7 (1)°

Cohomology of the minimal nilpotent orbit

We compute the integral cohomology of the minimal non-trivial nilpotent orbit in a complex simple (or quasi-simple) Lie algebra. We find by a uniform approach that the middle cohomology group is isomorphic to the fundamental group of the sub-root system generated by the long simple roots. The modulo $\ell$ reduction of the Springer correspondent representation involves the sign representation exactly when $\ell$ divides the order of this cohomology group. The primes dividing the torsion of the rest of the cohomology are bad primes.Comment: 29 pages, v2 : Leray-Serre spectral sequence replaced by Gysin sequence only, corrected typo

Automorphic Instanton Partition Functions on Calabi-Yau Threefolds

We survey recent results on quantum corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space M in type IIA/B string theory on a compact Calabi-Yau threefold X, or, equivalently, the vector multiplet moduli space in type IIB/A on X x S^1. Our main focus lies on the problem of resumming the infinite series of D-brane and NS5-brane instantons, using the mathematical machinery of automorphic forms. We review the proposal that whenever the low-energy theory in D=3 exhibits an arithmetic "U-duality" symmetry G(Z) the total instanton partition function arises from a certain unitary automorphic representation of G, whose Fourier coefficients reproduce the BPS-degeneracies. For D=4, N=2 theories on R^3 x S^1 we argue that the relevant automorphic representation falls in the quaternionic discrete series of G, and that the partition function can be realized as a holomorphic section on the twistor space Z over M. We also offer some comments on the close relation with N=2 wall crossing formulae.Comment: 25 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the workshop "Algebra, Geometry and Mathematical Physics", Tjarno, Sweden, 25-30 October, 201