Nominations Open for the 2014 ABA Journal Blawg 100

It is that time of year again, when the ABA Journal (‘Law News Now’) sets about building its annual list of the 100 best legal blogs (or ‘blawgs’).  This will be the eighth time the 'Blawg 100' has been compiled.

The final list is determined by ABA Journal staff and, while it is not a ‘popularity contest’, nominations are accepted in the form of ‘friend-of-the-blawg briefs’, a.k.a. the Blawg 100 Amici.

Nominations are open now, and close at 5pm US Eastern Time on 8 August 2014.

The decision to nominate a blawg is, of course, entirely personal.  But if you are a regular Patentology reader, and you find the blog interesting and useful, then I would really appreciate you putting in a good word!  Nominations can be made via the Blawg 100 Amici submission page.

Of course, if you do not want to nominate Patentology, there are many other worthy legal blogs out there.  You might, for example, want to check out last year's finalists in the IP law category:

1. Gene Quinn's IP Watchdog (Twitter: @IPWatchdog);
2. Kevin Noonan and Donald Zuhn's Patent Docs (Twitter: @PatentDocs);
3. Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log (Twitter: @rtushnet);
4. The Hollywood Reporter's Hollywood, Esq (Twitter: @thresq); and
5. The Biederman Blog, written by Students at Southwestern Law School's Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute (Twitter: @Biedermanblog)

In 2013 IP Watchdog was inducted into the Blawg 100 Hall Of Fame while, in a shock development (to me, at least), Dennis Crouch's enormously popular and well-regarded Patently-O blog failed to make the list altogether!

You can read about all of the successful candidates in the 2013 Blawg 100 on the ABA Journal web site.

Nominate a blawg (maybe even this one) now!

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Before You Go…

Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful.  Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.

But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour.  If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research.  My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection.  But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me.  If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.

The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months.  No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar.  You might even find it to be fun!

There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net.  In particular, you can read:

1. a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
2. instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.

Thank you for considering this request!

Mark Summerfield

Tags: News, Patentology admin