Arizona State University received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to create the Pracademic Centre of Excellence in Technology Transfer. The PACE/T2, as it will be known, will be a collaboration between ASU's own tech transfer unit Arizona Enterprises, the university's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, Security and Defense Systems Initiative and the ASU W.P. Carey School of Business.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled Google did not infringe a patent owned by Google's Motorola Mobility unit related to mobile-phone technology, according to Bloomberg. The ruling, which is available online, underscores a victory already won by Apple at the U.S. International Trade Commission, according to Bloomberg.

North Carolina State University's Office of Technology Transfer, which has commercialized more than 400 products to date, has decided to open an office suite at HQ Raleigh, which is a shared office space provider for entrepreneurs. NCSU's goal with this move is to create meaningful links between its students and staff and the local startup community. Members of HQ Raleigh will be able to access NCSU's advice on intellectual property technology transfers, as well as counsel on research and innovation generally.

A recent white paper from the United States Postal Service inspector general reports the organization has no formal intellectual property management strategy. External consultants ipCapital Group reviewed the current intellectual property procedures at the USPS and found it has no process in place for patenting its inventions, and many of the organization's inventors simply do not know which new ideas they should patent.

The government sequester and shutdown did not adversely impact the progress of awarding patents in the U.S. Nor did the necessary work that went into implementing procedures of the America Invents Act like the first-to-invent designation and the post-issuance reviews. Rather than being slowed by any of these factors, the U.S. Patent Office awarded more patents than ever in 2013, according to Patently-O. The preliminary figure for 2013 is 277,861 patents issued in total, an increase of 10 percent year-over-year.

Google Inc. recently requested a federal court to declare it had not infringed two patents held by the University of California and its licensee Eolas Technologies. The patents in question were both issued in December 2011, and Eolas sent a demand letter to Google last month claiming that the company was infringing these patents, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft Corp. has made a $7.5 billion bid to take over Nokia Oyj's handset operations. Chinese mobile-phone makers Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. asked China's Ministry of Commerce to ensure Microsoft does not increase patent licensing fees on wireless technology, according to two government officials who asked not to be named. The ministry is now conducting an anti-monopoly review of the deal, according to Bloomberg.

Federal Judge Ruben Castillo found characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are not protected by U.S. copyright law this month. In a case brought against author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, lawyer and Holmes scholar Leslie Klinger argued against the estate's contention that the characters of Holmes and Watson remain under copyright protection because 10 of Conan Doyle's stories are still under copyright.

The U.S. Trade Representative wrote in its annual report to Congress about China's fulfillment of trade obligations that China must make "critical changes" to its intellectual property laws. The Trade Representative wrote "counterfeiting and piracy remain at unacceptably high levels and continue to cause serious harm to U.S. businesses across many sectors of the economy."

Tesla Motors Inc is selling its Model S sedans in China, but it has yet to choose a Chinese name, according to Yahoo News. This stems from a trademark dispute with a local businessman, Zhan Baosheng, who registered the common Chinese name for the firm - Te Si La - in 2006 and will not relinquish the trademark to the automaker. His agent, Guangdong-based Jinda Trademark Co, reported he has no interest in selling the trademark.