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.

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.

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.

The U.S. Copyright Office recently released a statement supporting droit de suite, or the right of artists and their heirs to receive royalties on the resale of their works. America currently uses a first-sale doctrine, where artists' royalties begin and end with the first time their work is sold.

The 26th session of the WIPO Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) is currently taking place. The first two days were devoted to discussions about broadcasting organizations, and the next two are set aside for talks on intellectual property law exceptions for libraries and archives.

3-D printers are a remarkable technological advance. The ability to create three-dimensional objects quickly and easily is a valuable one. However, there are challenges to intellectual property protections inherent in these devices. Any new technological advance changes the landscape of intellectual property enforcement somewhat, from the printing press to digital cameras in everyone's pockets. 3-D printers are no exception.