Posts in Courts

PRESS RELEASE: GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) today announced that it has reached agreement with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to join the USPTO’s motion to dismiss its litigation over Final Regulations published in August 2007 (Triantafyllos Tafas and SmithKline Beecham Corporation, SmithKline Beecham PLC and Glaxo Group Limited vs. David J. Kappos and the United States Patent and…

At the beginning of August 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al., Case Nos. 2006-1491, 2007-1180 (Fed. Cir. 2009), a decision that changed the playing field with respect to charges of inequitable conduct in patent litigation. Essentially, the Federal Circuit decided that since inequitable…

Legend has it that Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock while having his regenerating liver eaten daily by a great eagle. After the case of Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services, we in the patent world may now be subjected to similar torture in determining when medical/drug dosage calibration methods qualify as statutory subject matter under…

The Federal Circuit, in Amgen Inc. v. F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd, has made it clear that you had better characterize an application as a “divisional” if you want to the benefit of the “safe harbor” provided by 35 U.S.C § 121. And if you don’t, you’re going face obviousness-type double patenting problems.  The Federal Circuit in Amgen also went on…

Several weeks ago, as summer was winding down and most of us were enjoying some slow times and gearing up for back-to-school, preparing for Labor Day festivities, on vacation or studiously studying fantasy football player projections, Law.com published a very interesting piece titled Slot Opens on Federal Circuit Bench, More Vacancies to Come? The article started out by discussing how…

The appeal in Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Gateway, Inc. from the Southern District of California was considered in many quarters as the potentially seminal case on how to calculate damages based on a reasonable royalty using the Georgia-Pacific factors, especially the “entire market value” rule (aka factor 13). That Microsoft and others were currently on the hook to Lucent Technologies…

In the 1972 case of Deepsouth Packing Co. v. Laitram Corp, a bare majority of the Supreme Court ruled that exporting three separate boxes of parts that could be assembled abroad into a patented deveining machine in less than an hour was not actionable under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a). In response, Congress in 1984 enacted 35 U.S.C. § 271(f) to…

By now most probably know that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Microsoft a stay of the injunction against Word pending its expedited patent appeal.  The Federal Circuit granted the stay of the permanent injunction on September 3, 2009, but I had a very difficult time finding the ruling.  Being ever suspicious of the popular…

The Federal Circuit has recently issued some highly controversial decisions, such as In re Bilski now before the U.S. Supreme Court. But possibly the strangest this year is Martek Biosciences Corp. v. Nutrinova, Inc. What makes Martek Biosciences strange is not so much the argument between the majority and dissent about whether the claim term “animal” included humans. Instead, it…

Perhaps you have come across this story in the popular press over the last day.  It seems to be widely reported that Microsoft has convinced the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to grant a stay of the permanent injunction issued against the Redmond, WA based company relative to its popular word processing software – Word.  I…

The plot thickens as the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an Order earlier today granting Microsoft an expedited appeal of its  patent infringement loss to i4i Limited Partnership.  In addition to losing approximately $300 million in a decision handed down on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, Judge Leonard Davis of the United States District Court for…

On Thursday, August 13, 2009, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke conducted a ceremonial swearing-in of Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos. In his remarks before thousands of employees on the USPTO campus, Secretary Locke said “David is taking on a big job… Promoting and protecting U.S. inventions, innovation and creativity directly…

UPDATED: 8/15/09 @ 12:41pm – See: comment 1 In November 2008, the entered a permanent injunction in favor of Callaway at the conclusion of a patent infringement lawsuit in which Acushnet’s Pro V1 ball was found to infringed several patents obtained by Callaway when it bought Top Flite.  Originally, Callaway Golf Company brought suit against Acushnet Company, alleging that Acushnet…

The United States Patent Office announced on March 13, 2007 that it had just issued the first patent granted under the then newly minted accelerated examination program, which was first brought into effect in August of 2006. The patent in question, , U.S. Patent No. 7,188,939, was granted to Brother International, Ltd. from an application filed on September 29, 2006,…

Patent Bar Review September 22-26, 2009, New York City In clear, concise, right-to-the-point language, this information-packed course leads you through the intricacies – and around the traps – of the Patent Bar Exam. You’ll get the hard facts, test-taking tips, sample questions and answers, and intense practice exams that mirror what you’re going to face when you sit down to…