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 […]
Goodyear and Its Effects
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown is a recent Supreme Court case in which the Court held that foreign manufacturers’ sales of a limited quantity of goods in a state did not subject the manufacturers to personal jurisdiction in that state for deaths of state residents that occurred outside the state and were caused […]
April Fools Rules: The Final PTAB rules
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the final Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rules. Some of the notable changes include modifications away from page-limits towards a total word count limit. The office noticed that there was some perceived gamesmanship occurring with page formatting. The total word count limit brings a petition […]
Don’t Sell This IPR Strategy Short
Recognized for his business acumen when predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, hedge fund manager J. Kyle Bass is now attempting to capitalize on the pro-petitioner tendencies of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), notoriously dubbed the patent “death squad.” Earlier this year, Bass founded the Coalition for Affordable Drugs to target patents that […]
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 […]
Federal Circuit issues clarifying opinion on Definiteness vs Indefiniteness test
The Federal Circuit recently clarified its interpretation of a major Supreme Court case involving the standard of definiteness and when a patent may be determined indefinite. Previously the Federal Circuit has held that a claim is indefinite “only when it is ‘not amenable to construction’ or ‘insolubly ambiguous.’” In Biosig Instruments, Inc. v. Nautilus, Inc. […]
Federal Circuit issues clarifying opinion on Direct Infringement vs. Induced Infringement
The Federal Circuit recently clarified its interpretation of a major Supreme Court case involving direct infringement. In Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks the Federal Circuit issued a new opinion that said direct infringement of a method claim “exists when all of the steps of the claim are performed by or attributed to a single […]
Federal Circuit: Limited Power to Hear Appeals on Motions to Stay
In Intellectual Ventures v. JPMorgan, the Federal Circuit held that the mere filing of a petition for covered business method (CBM) patent review or post-grant review (PGR) under the AIA did not give it the jurisdiction to hear an appeal of a decision on a motion to stay trial court proceedings. In this case, Intellectual […]
Important Trademark Decision May have Implications for Patent Law
In B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) can prevent a district court from re-judging issues that have already been decided by the TTAB’s decision, if the “ordinary elements” of issue preclusion are met. This is despite the fact that the […]
Federal Circuit Issues First IPR Opinion
The Federal Circuit has issued its first opinion from an appeal on the merits of an inter partes review, In re Cuozzo Speed Techs. In In re Cuozzo, the court held that the decisions of the USPTO to institute an IPR are final and cannot be appealed to the Federal Circuit, and that the USPTO’s […]