Patents

Visx Inc., the No. 1 maker of vision-correction lasers in the U.S., accused rival LaserSight Inc. of wrongly using its patented invention for equipment used in optical surgery. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Visx says in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., that it is the owner of a U.S. patent awarded in 1988 protecting an apparatus that scans the corneal surface of the eye and reshapes it with laser energy to correct problems such as nearsightedness.

It's too bad that Greg Kinnear couldn't have played Robert Kearns more often in real life. That thought went through my mind last week while watching Kinnear's performance in "Flash of Genius," a new drama based on the story of the cantankerous Detroit engineer who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler for a combined $30 million for infringing on his patent designs for the intermittent windshield wiper. Kinnear apparently never met Kearns, who died of cancer at age 77 in 2005.

Consumers stand to save billions of dollars in prescription drug costs in the next few years as an unprecedented wave of expensive brand-name medications come off patent, facing competition from far-cheaper generic versions. Four of the nation's 10 best-selling prescription medicines -- treating common ailments ranging from high cholesterol to asthma -- are due to lose patent protection starting this year through 2010.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Thursday that it would plead guilty to criminal charges to end a U.S. antitrust case arising from a bungled patent settlement over the drug maker's blood thinner Plavix. The New York-based company said it would admit to two counts of providing false statements to a government agency. The maximum fine for the charges is $1 million. Bristol-Myers said the false statements were made by "a former Bristol-Myers Squibb senior executive."

Scott Mitchell Rosenberg will not stay at a certain upscale New York hotel, no matter what you say to persuade him otherwise. He remembers vividly the moment when, traveling on business, he realized that his BlackBerry didn't get service in the hotel. That's OK, thought Rosenberg, chairman of Los Angeles-based Platinum Studios -- he unsheathed a second BlackBerry, with a different cellular carrier, which he keeps on his belt for emergencies like this one. It didn't work either.

It was to be the final medical procedure for Ruben Navarro, an altruistic end to the life of a critically ill 26-year-old who doctors said had no chance to recover. Staffers at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo were to disconnect him from the machine pumping oxygen into his lungs. After his heart stopped, transplant surgeons were to remove his organs so they could be used to save the lives of others. But in the late night quiet of an operating room Feb.

The phone call that changed Thomas Glaze's life came from his attorney in September, 1986. Monoclonal Antibodies, Glaze's biotechnology company in Mountain View, Calif., had unexpectedly lost a patent case at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. A rival biotech company, Hybritech, sued Monoclonal Antibodies for infringing a Hybritech patent by selling biotechnology-produced diagnostic kits used in pregnancy tests.

For decades, finicky children have been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crust removed. From a legal point of view, however, the lunchbox staple was invented on a patio in Fargo, N.D., in 1995. David Geske, who ran a packaged ice business, was entertaining his friend Len Kretchman, a consultant. For lunch, their kids wanted peanut butter and jelly with the bread trimmed and folded over.

Allergan Inc., the maker of the glaucoma treatment Lumigan, sued seven companies it said were improperly selling related products as ways to grow eyelashes. The companies sell cosmetics with names such as MassiveLash, DermaLash, Luxette, Age Intervention and MD Lash Factor, Allergan said Nov. 7 in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. All contain compounds called prostaglandins and infringe a patent for using the substance to grow eyelashes, the company said.

When does a great idea become a patentable invention? That was a question easier to answer when Thomas Edison came up with the lightbulb and Whitcomb Judson devised the zipper -- Industrial Age innovations that clearly fit with old ideas of what it meant to invent something. But a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit points up the difficulty of making such judgments in the age of the Internet. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw of WeatherWise USA Inc.

Broadcom Corp., after failing to buy Emulex Corp., said it sued the company for infringing patents related to networking and communications technologies. In its suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Broadcom says Emulex infringed 10 patents that cover high-speed data and storage technologies. Broadcom is seeking cash and an order stopping the infringement. Emulex did not immediately comment.

Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea, the world's largest maker of liquid-crystal display televisions, may be barred from selling TVs and computer monitors in the U.S. after losing a patent case filed by Japanese rival Sharp Corp. The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington said Wednesday that Samsung violated Sharp's patent rights and ordered both sides to submit arguments on whether an import ban should be imposed. In a notice on its website, the agency said it wanted to consider the effect of a ban on "competitive conditions in the U.S. economy."

Amazon.com Inc. has sued Animal Planet TV channel operator Discovery Communications Inc. over patents for a way to conduct searches on Internet shopping sites. In the suit filed May 15 in federal court in Amazon's hometown of Seattle, the online retailer contends that Discovery's online store is infringing four patents related to ways consumers refine searches for products or get recommendations based on prior purchases. Amazon is seeking a court order to block further use of the inventions, plus cash compensation.

Mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc. won the dismissal of a Broadcom Corp. lawsuit accusing the San Diego company of improperly using its wireless-technology patents to suppress competition. A federal judge's ruling made public Monday said Broadcom failed to properly claim that Qualcomm's patent rights were exhausted by its licensing of handset manufacturers. The Irvine company alleged that by collecting royalties from chip makers, Qualcomm was getting paid twice for the same patents.

Callaway Golf Co., the maker of Big Bertha and Steelhead golf clubs, traded lawsuits with Fortune Brands Inc.'s Acushnet Co. over its redesigned Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. Acushnet's new versions of Pro V1 golf balls, modified after a previous infringement suit by Callaway, infringed two other patents, according to a complaint filed Monday in Wilmington, Del. Acushnet countersued, claiming Callaway's patents are invalid and that the Carlsbad, Calif., company infringed nine of its patents.

When does a great idea become a patentable invention? That was a question easier to answer when Thomas Edison came up with the lightbulb and Whitcomb Judson devised the zipper -- Industrial Age innovations that clearly fit with old ideas of what it meant to invent something. But a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit points up the difficulty of making such judgments in the age of the Internet. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw of WeatherWise USA Inc.

The California Institute of Technology sued Canon Inc., Nikon Corp. and four other digital-camera makers, demanding cash for what it said was the unauthorized use of patented inventions. Also sued were Japanese camera makers Olympus Corp., Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp. and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. The lawsuit targets cameras made by Canon and Nikon, the world's two biggest makers of digital cameras, and the other companies. The companies are accused of infringing six patents owned by the institute for pixel sensors that improve the images that are transmitted electronically.

Charter Communications Inc., the U.S. cable television company controlled by billionaire Paul Allen, sued Verizon Communications Inc., alleging that the phone company's FiOS fiber-optic network infringes four patents. Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone-services provider, should be ordered to pay damages and stop using on-demand and other technologies without permission, Charter said in a complaint filed in federal court in Norfolk, Va.

MGA Entertainment Inc., maker of Bratz dolls, filed an emergency request Friday with a U.S. appeals court to stay a court order barring it from making and selling the dolls while it appeals the ruling. If MGA doesn't get a stay by Dec. 31, the Van Nuys company will suffer irreparable harm, it said in a redacted filing with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Eastman Kodak Co.'s complaint seeking to bar rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. from importing mobile phones with digital cameras that infringe its patents will be investigated by U.S. trade officials. The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would investigate the complaint brought by Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak, the 128-year-old photography company.