» Paul Allen’s Interval Sues 11 Companies for Patent Infringement Interval Licensing is suing a cluster of defendants, including AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube.

» Book Review - The Most Powerful Idea In the World - William Rosen How the Industrial Revolution transformed invention itself.

» Robert W. Gundlach, Inventor at Xerox, Dies at 84 Mr. Gundlach had 155 patents to his name on behalf of Xerox when he retired in 1995, including a crucial innovation in offset duplicating.

» Common as Air - By Lewis Hyde Lewis Hyde draws on the founding fathers for arguments against the privatization of knowledge.

» Snooki and Snooky: Reality TV Star and Cartoon Cat The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a request from Nicole Polizzi, a k a Snooki from MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” to trademark her nickname.

» A Compendium of Everyday Genius At the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, a new exhibition highlights a collection of inventions that inhabit and inform our daily lives, from bubble wrap to Velcro -- brilliance hiding in plain sight.

» Inventing Our Way Out of Joblessness Getting the United States Patent and Trademark Office back on track could help the economy, too.

» In Stop and Go Driving, One Pedal for Both Jobs A Japanese inventor designed a brake-accelerator pedal, which has come under a spotlight since allegations that some Toyotas speed up without warning.

» In a Partnership of Unequals, a Start-Up Suffers A start-up struck a deal with another company. The acrimonious breakup four months later is a lesson in keeping tabs on who did the innovating.

» Smartphone Patent Suits Challenge Big Makers Patent-holding company NTP is suing major players in smartphone market, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, LG and Motorola, charging that cellphone e-mail systems used by those companies are infringing on NTP's patented technology; critics say NTP has consistently inflated importance of their innovations, saying company produces no product or service other than licensing demands and lawsuits; NTP is best known for winning $600 million after long, drawn-out legal battle with BlackBerry mak...

» Drug Company Payoffs The Senate should crack down on “pay for delay,” a tactic by which the makers of patented drugs pay generic competitors to delay cheaper alternatives.

» Charles S. King, Range Rover Designer, Dies at 85 The vehicle Mr. King engineered was featured in an exhibition at the Louvre as an exemplary work of industrial design.

» European Union Tries to Simplify Patent Law The cost of obtaining patents across the 27 countries in the union, requiring translations in several languages, is considered a deterrent to innovation.

» Broad View Of Patents On Methods Supreme Court rules that regulations regarding patents could include business methods and should not be limited to 'machine or transformation' test traditionally employed to determine if process is eligible for patent; suit was filed after plaintiffs, Bernard L Bilski and Rand A Warsaw were denied patent for business plan that helps institutions hedge seasonal risks of buying energy; photo

» No More Hunting and Pecking Cliff Kushler, creator of T9 predictive text software for cellphones that reduced number of key presses required for messaging, has created new technology solution for virtual keyboards on touch screens common on many smartphones; software, called Swype, allows users to glide finger across keyboard to spell words, rather than using taps; currently runs on seven smartphones in United States, across all major carriers, with plans to run on more than 50 models worldwide by year end; photos