On May 17, 2010, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it will open its “Project Exchange” program to all patent applicants in an attempt to reduce the backlog of pending applications.

Under the program, patent applicants with more than one pending application can expedite the review of one patent application in exchange for withdrawing one unexamined application. The USPTO hopes the program will significantly decrease the number of pending applications and allow the agency to process applications more quickly.

Patent applicants wishing to participate in the program must submit the necessary materials before the December 31, 2010 deadline. More details about Project Exchange will soon be available on the USPTO website and in the Federal Register. 

On May 12, 2010, Sharing Sound, LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon.com, Inc., Netflix, Inc.,Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Barnes & Noble, Inc. and GameStop Corp. claiming the companies are infringing a patent related to online music distribution.

The patent-at-issue, US Patent No. 6,233,682, entitled “Distribution of musical products by a web site vendor over the internet,” was issued on May 15, 2001. Sharing Sound claims the companies are distributing music, videos, games and other products over the Internet, infringing its patent.

Sharing Sound seeks damages and attorney’s fees in the patent infringement lawsuit.

SOURCE:  Michelle Massey, “Sharing Sound LLC vs. Amazon.com, Inc., et al,” Southeast Texas Record, May 20, 2010 (http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/226983-recent-patent-infringementfalse-marking-cases-filed-in-the-eastern-district-of-texas).

Some of the biggest names in both adult and mainstream media have been sued in a patent infringement case involving video-indexing processes that use thumbnail images as part of their DVD navigation.

The patent law provides “….Any person may sue for the penalty [of false marking], in which event one-half shall go to the person suing and the other to the use of the United States.”  35 USC 292(b).

On May 18, 2010, Microsoft Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Salesforce.com, Inc., claiming some of the company’s web applications and services, along with the hardware and software used to run them, infringe nine of its patents. Salesforce.com’s customer-relationship management (CRM) software is the target in the infringement lawsuit, a software that competes with one of Microsoft’s programs. Microsoft seeks treble damages, a permanent injunction and attorney’s fees.