1) The House of Representatives passed H.R. 1249 (aka the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act) by a voice vote of 304 to 117. The House bill will now have to be reconciled with the Senate version. The bill would do away with the current first-to-invent regime and replace it with a first-to-file system.

2) In the case of Microsoft v. i4i (SCOTUS 10-290), the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mircrosoft’s argument that the clear and convincing evidentiary standard in patent cases should be replaced by a preponderance of the evidence rule.  Scalia, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alioto, and Kagan joined the opinion, and Thomas wrote a concurring opinion. Roberts recused himself since he owns stock in Microsoft. This is a victory for patent owners.

3) Apple Computer’s trademark “App Store” is “probably” not infringed by Amazon’s “Amazon Appstore for Android”, according to U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who stated after a hearing that she is “probably” going to deny the motion because Apple hasn’t demonstrated confusion among consumers. (Source: Bloomberg News).

4) The trademarks for the Palin’s names  (Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin have now been issued.  Strange that this was not reported in the media, though the iniitial rejection by the Trademark Office was widely noted.