From outsideonline.com, Nov. 6, 2019 (written by Frederick Reimers) - 

No one likes a bully, and in this age of cancel culture, the behavior can have dramatic consequences. When a news report dropped last week that online gear purveyor Backcountry.com was suing dozens of smaller brands for trademark infringement of the word “backcountry,” the online reaction was swift. Since its formation Friday, the Facebook group Boycott BackcountryDOTcom has mushroomed to more than 12,000 members, all of them angry and discussing ways to spread the boycott.

According to articles by Agnarchy.com and the Colorado Sun, early this year, Backcountry.com began serving several brands with lawsuits based on their 2007 trademark. Two years before that, Backcountry.com had started petitioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel those companies’ trademarks. Businesses included Backcountry Denim, Backcountry Nitro coffee, and even the company Constellation Outdoor Education, which trademarked the name Backcountry Babes for clinics offering women-focused avalanche education courses. Observers, including former Backcountry.com employees who wished to remain anonymous, believe that the lawsuits are tied to the company’s 2018 launch of their own branded products.

Read the full article HERE

Christopher Boone, March 19, 2019 - By the time the application window closed, Amazon had received 238 proposals from cities and regions throughout North America looking to become the second headquarters of the behemoth tech company.

Amazon invited proposals especially from places that looked a lot like its native Seattle: metro areas with more than a million people; a stable and business-friendly environment; communities that could “think big and creatively” about real estate options; and a location that would attract and retain technical talent.

In the race to attract high-tech companies, what can cities and regions do to become centers of innovation? At the moment, some places are clearly in the lead.

By my analysis of data from the U.S. Patent Office, Santa Clara County, California, is sprinting ahead of the country. Between 2000 and 2015, more than 140,000 patents were granted in Santa Clara County. That’s triple the number for second-ranked San Diego County.

Read more here!

Law360 (March 1, 2019, 6:59 PM EST) -- The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to review two challenges to a patent covering Wi-Fi technology, including one that was brought by Intel Corp., rejecting the owner's arguments about "gamesmanship" and "vexatious multiplication of proceedings."

The board said in decisions Wednesday it will institute inter partes review of a Hera Wireless SA patent based on separate requests that were filed a day apart. One petition was brought by Intel, the other by a group of companies that includes Ruckus Wireless Inc. and Roku Inc.

"We are mindful of general concerns by patent owners regarding abusive multiple proceedings directed to the same patent, but we do not find any such abuses here," PTAB said.

With respect to the substance of the challengers' arguments, the board said Intel had shown a likelihood it would succeed on arguments that the patent is invalid because it was anticipated or made obvious by earlier inventions.

It made a similar finding for Ruckus, a unit of Arris International PLC, and the others in its group, which said the patent would have been obvious.

The patent has been involved in several infringement lawsuits that Hera filed in Delaware federal court over Wi-Fi technology. Companies that have been sued include Arris, Roku and Lenovo (United States) Inc. Lenovo was named an interested party in Intel's challenge.

Both petitions at issue Wednesday were filed in July 2018.

PTAB in its decisions emphasized that the petitions were filed within one day of each other, "eliminating any concern that either petition relies on 'the same or substantially the same prior art or arguments previously' presented to the patent office."

The board also rejected the suggestion that there was substantial overlap in the challenges, saying the two petitions made distinct invalidity arguments.

"We do not see any evidence on this record of 'gamesmanship,' as patent owner charges," the board said.

The board's final decisions regarding the validity of the challenged claims is expected within a year.

Attorneys for Intel, the Ruckus group and Hera could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The patent-at-issue is U.S. Patent No. 7,962,103.

Intel is represented by Tyler Bowen and Bryan Banks of Perkins Coie LLP.

The Ruckus petitioners are represented by Arris in-house counsel Carol Ansley, Christopher Tyson of Duane Morris LLP, and Bryan Clark of The Webb Law Firm.

Hera is represented by Timothy Devlin and Leonard Monfredo of Devlin Law Firm LLC.

The cases are Intel Corp. v. Hera Wireless SA, case number IPR2018-01371, and Ruckus Wireless Inc. et al. v. Hera Wireless SA, case number IPR2018-01418, both at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

--Editing by Stephen Berg.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1133841/ptab-says-no-gamesmanship-in-wi-fi-patent-challenges?copied=1