U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh sided with Apple this week in a patent dispute that will now prevent Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States. This marks a significant decision for the mobile marketplace, as Apple has effectively stunted the growth of one of the few legitimate rivals to its industry-leading iPad.

With legislators still struggling to craft an appropriate solution to the hot-button issue of digital copyright enforcement, the Obama administration has extended an olive branch to the general public in hopes of inspiring productive conversations.

As students from around the world migrate to the United States to take advantage of superior post-secondary education opportunities, it appears as though American colleges and universities are getting as much as they give. According to the latest report released by the Partnership for a New American Economy, foreign-born students are behind 76 percent of the patents awarded to the nation's top 10 patent-generating schools.

Biotechnology firms have traditionally been among the most active patrons of the U.S. patent system, filing applications to protect initial ideas and issuing licenses to monetize inventions and further their development. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has underscored the power of this relationship once again by quantifying the effects of intellectual property management at all levels of the research life cycle.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has extended the window for its After Final Consideration Pilot (AFCP) in order to further evaluate the program. The pilot program is now set to end on September 30, pushed back from the original June 16 close date.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has consistently embraced the role of facilitator in its dealings with the entrepreneurial community. But as dynamic technologies have posed new questions to the American intellectual property system, not all inventors have been pleased with the answers. To sort out fact from fiction in the complicated relationship between the two sides, attorney Leonid Kravets recently adopted a unique empirical approach.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director David Kappos made his way to Capitol Hill this week to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the first oversight hearing for the America Invents Act. Kappos reported consistent compliance with the legislation's prescribed implementation framework and elaborated on future strategies for bringing harmony to the international patent system.

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology convened this week for an in-depth discussion on how universities can start turning federally funded research projects into private-sector innovation. Legislators were joined by delegates from the Association of University Technology Managers, several state colleges and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation.

As pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb prepares for the impending expiration of patent protection on its flagship heart attack and stroke medication, Plavix, the company has taken itself out of the running for producing a generic version of the drug and will instead focus on developing the industry's next innovation.

Although musical artists have enjoyed the benefit of copyright protections for decades, their counterparts on the silver screen have not been so lucky in the field of intellectual property management. But after years of negotiations, World Intellectual Property Organization officials seem convinced that audiovisual performers will soon be afforded the same "economic and moral rights" that protect musicians.