Date: Mon, 2013-12-23
On December 23, 2013 Dr. David Martin appeared on Bloomberg West with Cory Johnson where he discussed the Rockstar Consortium portfolio. The full length interview can be viewed HERE.
Date: Wed, 2013-12-18
The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom recently published a report on the integration of knowledge assets into the capital markets. Similar to work done by Denmark’s John Horstead nearly a decade ago, this important study demonstrates the progress being made on linking intangible assets to mainstream credit and equity markets. In Chapter 7, the report details the pioneering banking work done by M·CAM.
Date: Wed, 2013-12-11
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA December 11, 2013 – M·CAM, Inc. released its Patently Obvious® Express on JPMorgan’s Virtual Currency Patent Application
On August 5, 2013 JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPMorgan) filed an application for an electronic mobile payment system which has eerie similarities to the popular online currency Bitcoin. Unfortunately for JPMorgan, all of the claims, totaling 175 claims, as of October 18, 2013, for published US patent application 20130317984 (the ”˜984 application) have been either cancelled or rejected.
M·CAM’s Patently Obvious® is a report providing visibility into potentially unconsidered alternatives, including art in the public domain, to patent holdings across a variety of technology areas.
M·CAM, Inc. is a global, full-service intellectual property and rights (IP&R) and intangible asset financial services firm. We provide the technical and financial systems that allow public and private markets to use IP&R and IA for regulated transactions in banking, securities, insurance, and public innovation investment and technology procurement. From our pioneering work in creating the world’s first standards-based innovation collateralization financial products for banking and securities to our work in grassroots innovator enablement and patent quality assurance programs, M·CAM provides the mechanism to balance the interests of public and commercial sectors to support and build thriving economies.
The M·CAM Patently Obvious® Express on JPMorgan’s Virtual Currency Patent Application can be found HERE.
Date: Thu, 2013-12-05
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Innovation Act by a vote of 325-91 today marking the first legislative milestone in ending the extortionary practices of patent trolls. M·CAM worked with Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-VA to draft language which helps bring transparency into the patent ownership and real-party-in-interest regime. While this bill does not address all of the abuses that have been largely ignored by the U.S. Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division, it is the first and important step in ending the patent licensing racket perpetrated by non-practicing entities.
Date: Thu, 2013-11-07
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – November 7, 2013 – M·CAM, Inc. released a Patently Obvious® Express report on Twitter, the day of its IPO.
Excerpt: “IBM’s current patent assertion against Twitter is not the first time the social media company has found itself the subject of infringement litigation. Twitter has been hit with multiple lawsuits in the past four years, but this foray by IBM is just the reconnaissance mission for a far larger struggle. By issuing the shot across the bow, IBM can test Twitter’s strength and reactions for the larger IBM portfolio. This will set the stage for a much larger global enforcement and transaction once Twitter is flush with cash from its IPO.”
Read the full Report: HERE
M·CAM’s Patently Obvious® is a weekly report providing visibility into potentially unconsidered alternatives, including art in the public domain, to patent holdings across a variety of technology areas.
M·CAM, Inc. is a global, full-service intellectual property and rights (IP&R) and intangible asset financial services firm. We provide the technical and financial systems that allow public and private markets to use IP&R and IA for regulated transactions in banking, securities, insurance, and public innovation investment and technology procurement. From our pioneering work in creating the world’s first standards-based innovation collateralization financial products for banking and securities to our work in grassroots innovator enablement and patent quality assurance programs, M·CAM provides the mechanism to balance the interests of public and commercial sectors to support and build thriving economies.
Date: Mon, 2013-11-04
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – November 4, 2013 – M·CAM, Inc. released an update to its Universal Display Corporation Patently Obvious® report originally issued on November 30, 2011.
In 2011, M·CAM published a Patently Obvious® (here) on certain Universal Display Corp. (OLED) patents related to OLED technology. At that time, we commented on questionable OLED patent prosecution activity as well as the validity of the patents themselves. Since then, a number of these patents have been entered into reexamination. M·CAM’s update examines what this means for OLED.
M·CAM’s Patently Obvious® is a weekly report providing visibility into potentially unconsidered alternatives, including art in the public domain, to patent holdings across a variety of technology areas.
M·CAM, Inc. is a global, full-service intellectual property and rights (IP&R) and intangible asset financial services firm. We provide the technical and financial systems that allow public and private markets to use IP&R and IA for regulated transactions in banking, securities, insurance, and public innovation investment and technology procurement. From our pioneering work in creating the world’s first standards-based innovation collateralization financial products for banking and securities to our work in grassroots innovator enablement and patent quality assurance programs, M·CAM provides the mechanism to balance the interests of public and commercial sectors to support and build thriving economies.
The M·CAM Patently Obvious® update on Universal Display Corp.’s patents can be found HERE.
Date: Thu, 2013-10-31
Today M·CAM celebrates its 15th anniversary. We incorporated in Charlottesville, Virginia on October 31, 1998. In the past 131,400 hours, we’ve worked to create the world’s first and only regulatory compliant capital markets solution explicitly focused on bringing efficient, ethical financial solutions to the assets of the knowledge economy. A Virginia Corporation from inception, M·CAM’s first outside “investor” was the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) which awarded M·CAM the Commonwealth of Virginia’s first state Innovation Award of $30,000 issued to an IT-based financial services company. From these humble beginnings, we’ve deployed programs and services which have achieved market penetration in every country on Earth.
With this anniversary, M·CAM is one of the few firms (less than 25%) to pass the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ vital 15 year milestones after which the survival rate exceeds 91%. Our industry-leading services and technology have gained the trust and confidence of the world’s leading corporate, government and financial services firms. On the day of this anniversary, we’ve: finalized our world-wide Joint Business Relationship (JBR) agreement with the world’s leading accounting and advisory firm; been appointed as the Capital Market’s lead authorized agent for one of the world’s top 5 mineral reserves; launched the world’s first public equity qualitative text-based securities analysis platforms; and, continue to expand the banking collateral business that we’ve conducted since the day we opened our doors. We are honored to have a team of the world’s leading investment banking, insurance, and international trade executives working side by side with our unprecedented financial engineering and analytics professionals.
We would like to take this moment to thank each one of you for your vital contribution to our success and look forward to working with you and serving you in the bright future.
Date: Mon, 2013-10-21
On Sunday, the Financial Times reported on Rep. Goodlatte’s current patent troll legislation. We at M·CAM continue to work with the Judiciary Committees on this legislation to bring transparency, quality and commercial consequence to the policies being put in place.
Erik Lieberman, regulatory counsel for the Food Marketing Institute was quoted in the article, “It’s (trolling) a barrier to entrepreneurship. You can’t have an e-commerce website without being targeted by a troll…It makes it difficult to do business without getting sued.”
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c9246a6a-3113-11e3-b991-00144feab7de.html…
Date: Mon, 2013-09-23
M·CAM had a terrific experience participating in the 22nd Annual United Way Day of Caring in Charlottesville. For this 2nd year of participation, M·CAM worked at the Jackson P. Burley Middle School weeding, mulching, and planting flowers in the garden beds on the school grounds. The team had perfect weather for the event, and everyone had a great time. One highlight was tackling the poison ivy infestation with the resourceful use plastic grocery bags as protective gear! The school staff expressed their appreciation of our hard work and the wonderful improvements. We look forward to our next event.
Date: Sat, 2013-09-07
Dr. David Martin was featured in an interview with Poetic Justice’s Vanessa Fisher on Saturday. The interview is titled, “The Alchemy of Global Economics” and is part of Vanessa Fisher’s Dialogue Series.
The Poetic Justice site and interview can be found: HERE
Date: Fri, 2013-09-06
M·CAM’s unstructured text data analytic technologies has been featured in the Q3 2013 (Issue 36) magazine CONTAGIOUS. In his article, “Automation vs. Creativity: Will an algorithm be doing your job in ten years’ time?” author Will Sansom explores the growing intersection between human communication, creativity and computational technologies. “True AI is when you allow unstructured information to show you possibilities that you didn’t know you were seeking because you weren’t aware of the dimension space in which they existed,” Martin states in the article. CONTAGIOUS MAGAZINE can be found: HERE
Date: Thu, 2013-09-05
This morning, Richard Waters from the Financial Times reported on the Microsoft/Nokia deal in the story, “Nokia patents bump up cost for Microsoft.”
“Nearly one-third of the €5.44bn price Microsoft agreed to pay” was to license the patent portfolio.
“However, even at €1.65bn for the patent licensing, some experts argue that Nokia may have sold on the cheap. Amid the mass of patents are leading positions in a number of technologies that are not directly related to the handset business Microsoft is acquiring – but which could have significant value in new markets in the future, according to David Martin, chairman of M-Cam, a patent advisory company.
“Depending on what comes along with it, there could be a significant ”˜free inside’ set of gems,” he says. Nokia also stands to get less from any future patent sales because the intellectual property will have lost its non-exclusivity as a result of the Microsoft licence, wiping 40-60 per cent off the value, says Mr Martin.”
The full story can be found: HERE
Date: Fri, 2013-07-26
Earlier this week, a U.S. appeals court ruled in favor of Google, Amazon and J.C. Penney, and against Eolas on the basis that sections of Eolas’s patents were invalid. (http://bit.ly/1biM9wX)
M·CAM correctly anticipated the Court’s Decision in our 2003 presentation to Columbia University’s Eben Moglen and the notable GNU founder Richard Stallman,
“It sure would have been nice if Microsoft wouldn’t have followed the trail that Doyle put them on – namely one Pei Wei! Arguing inequitable conduct on that one was a good way to get an awful lot of other art removed from consideration. In 1990 to 1992, prior to any of the Eolas or Pei Wei, over 20 patents issued containing interactive hypermedia claims that were unconsidered in any of the Eolas patent examinations.”
Date: Mon, 2013-07-15
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA & NEW YORK, NY – M·CAM President David Pratt is featured in Saturday’s New York Times article written by David Segal titled “Has Patent, Will Sue: An Alert to Corporate America”.
An excerpt from the article:
“So, the key question: Does the Hadoop Distributed File System infringe Parallel Iron’s patents?
David Pratt, the president of a company called M·CAM, agreed to weigh in. M·CAM is based in Charlottesville, Va., and performs what it calls “stress tests” on patents on behalf of banks that are making loans to companies with intellectual property. Mr. Pratt described himself as “patent-agnostic,” which is to say he came to this task without any particular bias.
His conclusion was that Parallel Iron has a very weak case.
“The problem is, these patents are severely challenged by what we call precedent innovation,” he said, using a fancy term for ideas that are in the public domain before a patent is granted. “What’s described in Patent No. 7197662,” referring to Parallel Iron’s patent, “has been done a thousand times. I.B.M. has been doing it since the beginning of computers.”
Mr. Pratt followed up by e-mailing a patent that predates Parallel Iron’s and which, he suggested, was quite similar. As Mr. Pratt put it, “There’s virtually no chance that ‘662 and its family could survive a full-scale re-examination by the Patent Office, because there are a lot of things that could disable or destroy it.”
See more here: Has Patent, Will Sue: An Alert to Corporate America
Date: Tue, 2013-07-02
Read more: HERE
Date: Thu, 2013-06-13
Official Supreme Court opinion handed down on Myriad Genetics Case.
Read the transcript: HERE
Date: Wed, 2013-06-05
NEW YORK, NY – Judge Randall Rader issued an Op-Ed in the New York Times regarding Patent Assertion Entities, also known as “Patent Trolls”. The piece entitled, “Make Patent Trolls Pay in Court” is worth consideration.
Read the Op-Ed: HERE
Date: Tue, 2013-06-04
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Barack Obama issued Executive Orders to bring transparency to the patent system and curb Patent Assertion Entity or “Patent Troll” activities (Citation – Summary: HERE, Full Report: HERE). These orders and recommendations echo several of Dr. David Martin’s previously proposed suggestions and changes.
On May 10, 2001, M·CAM’s Dr. David Martin testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, The Internet, and Intellectual Property in a Hearing dedicated to, “Patents: Improving Quality and Curing Defects.” (Hearing text: HERE) Dr. Martin’s testimony and report (pages numbered 26-53) called for an overhaul of USPTO procedure and called for several quality interventions. These remarks were enhanced in 2004 when Dr. Martin testified at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Roundtable on Patent Donations. (Comments: HERE) Furthermore, in January of 2013, Dr. David Martin made comments in support of transparency and recording Real Party In Interest at the USPTO Real Party in Interest Roundtable. (David Martin Comments begin on P.107 and Questions on P.123; Full Transcript: HERE)
In summary, the Presidential Executive Orders and Legislative Recommendations are summarized as follows:
“LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS:
In that spirit, the Administration recommends that Congress pursue at least seven legislative measures that would have immediate effect on some major problems innovators face. These measures would:
1. Require patentees and applicants to disclose the “Real Party-in-Interest,” by requiring that any party sending demand letters, filing an infringement suit or seeking PTO review of a patent to file updated ownership information, and enabling the PTO or district courts to impose sanctions for non-compliance.
2. Permit more discretion in awarding fees to prevailing parties in patent cases, providing district courts with more discretion to award attorney’s fees under 35 USC 285 as a sanction for abusive court filings (similar to the legal standard that applies in copyright infringement cases).
3. Expand the PTO’s transitional program for covered business method patents to include a broader category of computer-enabled patents and permit a wider range of challengers to petition for review of issued patents before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB).
4. Protect off-the-shelf use by consumers and businesses by providing them with better legal protection against liability for a product being used off-the-shelf and solely for its intended use. Also, stay judicial proceedings against such consumers when an infringement suit has also been brought against a vendor, retailer, or manufacturer.
5. Change the ITC standard for obtaining an injunction to better align it with the traditional four-factor test in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, to enhance consistency in the standards applied at the ITC and district courts.
6. Use demand letter transparency to help curb abusive suits, incentivizing public filing of demand letters in a way that makes them accessible and searchable to the public.
7. Ensure the ITC has adequate flexibility in hiring qualified Administrative Law Judges.
EXECUTIVE ACTIONS
Today the Administration is also announcing a number of steps it is taking to help bring about greater transparency to the patent system and level the playing field for innovators. Those steps include:
1. Making “Real Party-in-Interest” the New Default.
2. Tightening Functional Claiming.
3. Empowering Downstream Users.
4. Expanding Dedicated Outreach and Study.
5. Strengthen Enforcement Process of Exclusion Orders.”
Date: Mon, 2013-06-03
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – M·CAM Chairman Dr. David Martin featured on NPR’s This American Life show entitled, “When Patents Attack…Part Two!”
Program Introduction from NPR: “Two years ago, we did a program about a mysterious business in Texas that threatens companies with lawsuits for violating its patents. But the world of patent lawsuits is so secretive, there were basic questions we could not answer. Now we can. And we get a glimpse why people say our patent system may be discouraging, not encouraging, innovation.”
Listen to the story:HERE
Read the associated Patently Obvious:HERE
Date: Fri, 2013-05-31
As Reprinted from the Austin Statesman, AUSTIN, TX – May 30, 2013 Full Article:HERE.
“Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, met with a group of Austin’s high-tech officials Thursday to collect feedback on a new bill designed to reduce the number of frivolous patents lawsuits brought by “patent trolls.” The Patent Abuse Reduction Act, which Cornyn filed last week, would heighten requirements and, potentially, costs for plaintiffs in patent lawsuits with little or no merit…” Bill text and summary: HERE. Senator Cornyn came to Austin, TX to explain concepts in the bill.
M·CAM President, David Pratt had several comments in the article: “Such cases are often brought by entities “that make nothing and sell nothing,” said David Pratt, president of M-CAM Inc., a patent advisory firm based in Charlottesville, Va. “The patents in many cases are extraordinarily vague.” Because discovery costs can easily run into the millions of dollars, mostly on the defendant’s tab, Pratt said, “patent trolls” typically file vague claims and offer settlements to drop the suit before discovery.”