When the USPTO unveiled the locations of its first four branch offices, it was no surprise to see that Silicon Valley had been circled on the map. Although it is still months away from opening, the San Jose site recently reached an important milestone as Michelle Lee, former head of patent strategy at Google, was named branch office director.

When telecommunications and intellectual property management mix together in industry headlines, the theme does not always have to be two firms locked in contentious litigation. Case in point, French phone equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent has independently decided to reassess the contents of its portfolio in pursuit of a new revenue generation strategy.

USPTO officials met with their counterparts from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in Kyoto this week for the 30th annual Trilateral Conference. After reflecting on their achievements to date, the delegates signed a declaration pledging their renewed commitment to promote further development of and collaboration between patent offices around the world.

Although many of the same faces will occupy the halls of power in the nation's capital in the coming months and years, many are expecting important changes to follow the latest round of appointments and elections. Innovation community stakeholders are monitoring this transitional period intently as they look toward the final stages of the America Invents Act's implementation and beyond.

The University of Michigan's Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) has gotten off to a fast start this semester, shedding new light on its methods, strategies and results in a series of formal and informal events on campus.

In April of this year, Microsoft filed a patent infringement suit against Motorola Mobility in Germany. According to a recent blog post by Florian Mueller, the complaint is the latest in a line of actions brought by Microsoft (as well as Apple) against several Android-based devices and services. This one involves an attack on the basis of Google Maps – a step closer to a frontal assault on Google itself. Indeed, the significant piece of news reported by Mueller, who was present in the German courtroom for the first hearing in the case, was an announcement by counsel that Microsoft intends to add Google, Inc to the complaint. Motorola Mobility is, of course, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. Microsoft will add Google in an effort to directly examine Google, Inc witnesses as to their knowledge of the alleged infringement, there being no other third-party discovery avenues under German rules, as contrasted with U.S. civil litigation rules.

A piece by Gina Smith in Readwrite Social from July 2012 reported on the issuance to Mark Zuckerberg of the very first patent he applied for in 2006 – six years after he filed the application along with a co-inventor.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), long considered Intel's most viable competition, is said to be weighing a variety of potentially transformative patent strategies. According to Reuters, the chipmaker has hired expert advisors from JPMorgan Chase to help evaluate and potentially sell key intellectual assets.

There are still many disagreements left to be settled in the smartphone patent wars, but at least one dispute ended amicably over the weekend. Apple has come to terms with HTC, one of Google's primary hardware allies, in a confidential agreement which will see the end of all outstanding patent litigation between the two sides.

If Google, Amazon and Apple are generally considered the three technology brands with the widest global reach, then Netflix may be the closest source of competition. As the company hints at an expansion of its powers, market analysts have been analyzing how the movie rental giant's patent portfolio may help or hurt its prospects.