Mitsubishi Heavy industries Ltd. was sued for patent infringement by General Electric Co. in a federal court in Dallas. GE claims that Mitsubishi is infringing two of its patents. One of the patents in question is related to the base frame supporting the weight of the rotor and the other covers a way to keep the turbine connected to the electricity grid even when the voltage drops. Dan Nelson, a spokesman for Fairfield, a Connecticut-based company, said that “GE has 148 issued U.S. patents related to wind energy.” Mitsubishi “has substantially less. We believe that there are multiple areas where MHI’s 2.4-megawatt wind turbines infringe on GE’s existing patents.” GE also plans to appeal an earlier case it lost against Mitsubishi.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=a8yD.gx07Hfk

Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins and Rochelle Massey were arrested for suspicion of trademark counterfeiting in his store on Broadway. However, they have not yet been formally charged. State police Lt. Brian Shortall said that they acted on a tip off that Jenkins was selling knock-off items, specifically sneakers and bought several items that exerts determined were not brand name manufactured. He said that “Four months ago we received information that counterfeit items were being sold from this location. We made multiple purchases of materials from here. We had those items examined. Based on that we made an application for a search warrant and we are executing that search warrant here.”

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http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100211/NEWS/100219911

Howrey, the global litigation giant is not disqualified from a major drug patent case as the conflict of interest was not found serious enough according to a federal judge in New Jersey. U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano reversed a magistrate judge's decision that 650-lawyer Howrey is automatically prohibited from defending Boston Scientific Corp. against a suit by Wyeth in Newark, N.J., because the firm represents Wyeth in a patent case in Europe. Pisano found that the two matters were unrelated and that an ethics wall had prevented any sharing of Wyeth information between the two sets of lawyers in distant offices in Howrey's international practice.

For more information visit:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202443039491&rss=newswire

The U.S. International Trade Commission has stated that it would start an investigation into allegations of patent infringement made by Sharp Corp. against Samsung Electronics. The ITC is beginning the investigation after Sharp filed a complaint against Samsung on 8 January 2010. In the complaint, Sharp asked that the ITC issue a cease-and-desist order on the export and sale of such products. The Commission stated in a statement that “By instituting this investigation, the U.S. ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case.” Neither the officials from Samsung or Sharp made any comments.

For more information visit:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/retail/update-trade-body-probe-sharps-claims-patent-breaches-samsung/

The Chicago police arrested 4 people in connection with selling counterfeit trademark goods in North Side. Chae W. Kim and Sun Kim were charged with one felony count each of Unauthorized Use of Trademarks. The names of the other two persons were not released by the police, but they were charged with one misdemeanor each of Unauthorized Use of Trademark. A number of consumer goods such as Coach handbags and Chanel sunglasses were found after a search warrant was issued.

For more information visit:
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/02/police-arrest-4-and-seize-counterfeit-trademark-goods.html

In March 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) and the Public Patent Foundation sued Myriad Genetics Inc., the University of Utah Research Foundation and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The case challenged whether anyone could hold patents on human genes which had broad implications for the biotechnology industry and genetics-based medical research. Christopher Hansen, an ACLU lawyer, told Judge Robert Sweet that researchers deserved praise but not patents for winning the race to isolate an important part of the body. He said important medical research was being hampered because the patents for "BRCA1" and "BRCA2" genes prohibit the study of the genes by others. Hansen said that “New forms and testing and new ways of using the gene have been inhibited. That's not good for womens' health."

For more information visit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/gene-patent-trial-begins-_n_447055.html