Posts Tagged: "sanctions"

By claiming mutual and unilateral mistake, DuPont had placed the truthfulness of its subjective belief concerning its stacking rights at issue… The problem for DuPont was that the internal e-mails showed that in-house attorneys advised DuPont executives that the company did not have the right to commercialize the stacked product “[b]ecause of the field of use limitation” contained within the Licensing agreement. Upon learning that DuPont had been advised that they had no right to stack, Monsanto moved for sanctions, asking the district court to rule that DuPont had misrepresented its subjective belief concerning stacking rights and had perpetrated a fraud on the court.

This is very good news for defendants and for the patent system. If Rule 11 is actually enforced against those who sue without a reasonable basis the bad actors will be wiped out. It will also work to identify those who are REALLY the patent trolls compared with those who are patent owner who simply seek redress for rights that are being trampled. As long as the bad actors operate the patent system will remain in jeopardy because the popular press and critics of the patent system unjustifiably paint all non-practicing entities with the same brush. Meaningful and appropriate use of Rule 11 will deal with the bad actors, while distinguishing from those non-practicing entities that have reasonable grievances that deserve consideration rather that ridicule.

Earlier today, WIPO issued a press release, allegedly as the result of “recent media attention and requests for information” relating to what WIPO is and does, and exactly what happened regarding the computer deals that seem to quite clearly violate UN sanctions. Despite the belief of WIPO that the computer deals did not violate UN sanctions, the agency has implemented safe guards relative to their technical assistance program. There will be better coordination between UN organizations and committees to review deals that could potentially tread on UN sanctions.

WIPO is under fire again. It seems that WIPO not only shipped computers to North Korea, but also shipped computers to Iran as well. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) called this latest WIPO transgression “an outrage.” At a hearing where Deputy USPTO Director Teresa Rea was a witness, Lofgren went on: “Really, it’s an outrage that WIPO would be transferring material, violating the sanctions that we have to North Korea and Iran… I mean it’s basically, it’s funded by U.S. inventors.”

It was also determined that the underlying patent litigation was brought for no other reason than to extract nuisance payments despite the fact that there was no infringement. Specifically, the district court determined that Eon-Net filed the lawsuit against Flagstar had “indicia of extortion” because it was part of Eon-Net’s history of filing nearly identical patent infringement complaints against a plethora of diverse defendants, where Eon-Net followed each filing with a demand for a quick settlement at a price far lower than the cost to defend the litigation.

On Friday, May 13, 2011, the Federal Circuit issued the latest decision in a long line of Rambus decisions stemming out of conduct of Rambus as it participated in the JEDEC standard-setting body, as well as litigation events that followed. A five judge panel of the Federal Circuit (per Judge Linn) affirmed the district court’s determination that Rambus destroyed documents during its second shred day in contravention of a duty to preserve them and, thus, engaging in spoliation.

On November 17, 2008, I found a press release on Business Wire issued by AutoClear LLC discussing what allegedly transpired in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by American Science & Engineering, Inc. (ASE) against AutoClear in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.  The trouble with this particular press release was that it was apparently completely false,…