Peter Zura has an interesting post about a case in the Eastern District of Texas (one of the most popular districts for patent cases to be filed) where a patent was held to be both anticipated and, failing that, obvious in light of KSR.  The court also addressed the concept of joint infringement, which the Federal Circuit has yet to address in detail, and found that a showing of agency or concerted action is not required to find joint infringement.  Instead, a contractual relationship may be sufficient.

Interestingly, one defendant in this case solicited prior art from members of the public on its blog to help invalidate the patent.  Apparently the submissions received helped the invalidity case.  [Update (8/30):  The New York Times has a story about the prior art search by the defendant.]  This is an interesting litigation strategy, and one that could be used by defendants in other cases as a way to expand the search for potentially relevant prior art.

Quotes from the court's decision in Advanceme Inc. v. RapidPay, LLC after the jump.

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