HOW CONGRESS MADE THE USPTO INFALLIBLE AND HOW THAT AGENCY SEIZED EVEN MORE POWER BY ITS “RULE MAKING AUTHORITY”

The Supreme Court of the United States is set to hear oral argument in Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee on April 25, 2016. The landmark case is the first opportunity The Supreme Court will have to weigh in on the constitutionality of the non-appealable provisions of the America Invents Act and the USPTO’s use […]

The Supreme Court rules that patent licensing beyond its terms is anti-competitive

In, Kimble v. Marvel, The Supreme Court considered anti-competitive concerns to patent licensing contracts beyond the term of a patent. Stated another way the case is about post-expiration patent royalties. The US has had a longstanding ban on such royalties, as a result of the holding in Brulotte v. Thys Co., that identified them as […]

The Supreme Court rules that Belief in Invalidity is Not a Defense to Induced Infringement

In Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defendant may not assert a good-faith belief in a patent’s invalidity as a defense against liability for inducing infringement. Inducement requires not just knowledge of the patent-in-suit, but also knowledge that the induced acts are infringing. Because infringement and validity […]