PatCon8 at San Diego

Yesterday and today, the University of San Diego School of Law hosted the eighth annual Patent Conference—PatCon8—largely organized by Ted Sichelman. Schedule and participants are here. For those who missed it—or who were at different concurrent sessions—here's a recap of my live Tweets from the conference. (For those who receive Written Description posts by email: This will look much better—with pictures and parent tweets—if you visit the website version.)

#PatCon8 at USD starts today, with a great schedule organized by @tedsichelman https://t.co/QiuH7PL8cw

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 2, 2018

13 women out of 68 #PatCon8 participants. We can do better. ☹️ https://t.co/ZKvdPDRI06

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 2, 2018

Judge Bencivengo to patent litigators at #PatCon8 – "You're killing me with these requests to file under seal."

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 2, 2018

Joe Matal to PTAB on seriousness of Nidec concurrence on panel stacking issue: “We’d like to have God on our side but we must have Judge Dyk.” #PatCon8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 2, 2018

Jeffrey Lefstin of UC Hastings decries 35 USC 101 “101 Imperialism” where subject matter eligibility pre-empts other standards and precedents for patentability: “Once you have a 101 hammer, all cases begin to look like 101 nails.” #PatCon8

— Joel West (@openITstrat) March 2, 2018

While we are discussing patent law inside, this is the view outside. #PatCon8 pic.twitter.com/b0rv4igDgk

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 2, 2018

In 28% of prior art invalidations, the art was known to @uspto (20% in applicant's IDS, 8% found by examiner). 55% of invalidations are based on activity (use/sale), not patents/pubs.

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Survey is not representative (concentrated in tech), but interesting data from 30 respondents. 30% of assertions led to litigation. 65% were made by NPEs.

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Matthew Sipe (@YaleLawSch alum, current SCOTUS fellow) compares issue-by-issue patent validity appeals between adjudicator types at #PatCon8. This paper isn't online, but other interesting work here: https://t.co/jL8xqIFFaa

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

.@lexvivo at #PatCon8: Citation network methods from https://t.co/WyB03Exypq applied to EPO PATSTAT database. Interesting tidbit: most "important" inventors under this method are Randall Saiki & Kary Mullis of PCR fame: https://t.co/QhAYxaJbyK

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

.@oferts70 argues that courts should not allow patentees to enforce post-sale restrictions through contract law or restructure sales as licenses to use patent law. For a different take, see @DanielJHemel's and my post-Impression thoughts: https://t.co/XaV7WAx1J8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Enjoyed presenting my work at #PatCon8 and getting some feedback from my U.S. colleagues https://t.co/JGa4wXWlSa

— Ofer Tur-Sinai (@oferts70) March 3, 2018

Next up at #PatCon8: @wsurferesq on Lost Profits in a Multicomponent World https://t.co/ScphN40EaY; see also his amicus brief supporting cert in Mentor Graphics https://t.co/O10zfq0KSw

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

.@ThomasCotter1, Erik Hovenkamp, Norm Siebrasse: Tech switching only leads to patent holdup when, due to path dependence, commitment to tech effects irreversible change in prospective costs or benefits of alternative. Existing literature may under- or overstate. #PatCon8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

John Golden: Just like physical systems can find their way to optimal low-energy state, allowing diverse actors to explore innovation alternatives allows IP systems to improve. #PatCon8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

This is fun to play with. E.g., easy to see breakdown of precedential/nonprecedential/R36 over time by tribunal of origin.

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

“If @WNicholsonPrice were here, I would call this my bow tie graph” –@IowaPatentLaw at #PatCon8 pic.twitter.com/IdkGxw9Q92

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Ryan Holte & @tedsichelman: descriptive data on obviousness decisions in dist. ct. & Fed. Cir. (e.g., spike in dist. ct. obviousness findings post-KSR); includes changes in reason given for decision (e.g., increase in predictability). No difference in timing or posture. #PatCon8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Shawn Miller presenting prelim data at #PatCon8 on venue post-TC Heartland across plaintiff types using @StanfordLaw NPE dataset https://t.co/UUmyHPyMmO

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Happy to present on IoT patents on a panel with Manveen Singh, Indranath Gupta (@JindalGLS), & @contreraslegals at PatCon8,San Diego https://t.co/tVnCeIag7j @NorthumbriaLaw @NinsoRIG #IoTlaw #IoTpatents pic.twitter.com/kYeYFQluDd

— Guido Noto La Diega (@guidonld) March 3, 2018

.@NeelSukhatme at #PatCon8: Are consumers more likely to buy patented products? In MTurk survey, no. Now doing field experiment for OTC pharma products (comparing across stores & over time); preliminary results say: still no.

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

Laura Pedraza-Fariña presenting work w/ Stephanie Bair on "anti-innovation norms": social norms that, when over-enforced, create barriers to creative pursuits #PatCon8

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 3, 2018

.@patenthistory asks at #PatCon8: Why was the volume of patent suits greater in the mid to late 19th century than today (in relative terms)? For his earlier work on this 1st patent litigation explosion in @YaleLJournal see https://t.co/rTp1Yzim9R

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 4, 2018

Thanks, @tedsichelman, for organizing a terrific #PatCon8!

— Lisa L. Ouellette (@PatentScholar) March 4, 2018