For those who take an interest in patent matters - two blogs I must recommend are Patently-O and Shapeblog.
There is one case which I'm following in particular - Lawman's.
My interest in this case stems from a ruling that:-
"a combination of old elements shown in the prior art cannot constitute a point of novelty"
Currently this is being appealed, however if it holds then it will render a vast number of design patents unenforceable and forces new patents to have new or novel items within them and not just old items mashed together and called "new".
This is no bad thing, and something which would be good to see spread throughout the patent process.
An existing process + internet should not constitute a novel and new idea.
