Today’s Federal Circuit practice tip: don’t misrepresent the record or the law In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit awarded sanctions against the plaintiff-appellant for filing and pursuing a frivolous appeal against one of four defendant-appellees. The court observed the plaintiff-appellant failed to explain how the district court erred in its determination that this defendant did not infringe and also made misrepresentations of the record and law […] Continue Reading →
Combining two embodiments in same prior art patent “does not require a leap of inventiveness” In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's denial of judgment as a matter of law of obviousness. A jury held the claim at issue was not obvious, and the district court denied the defendant's post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issue.While the Federal Circuit affirmed the […] Continue Reading →
Summary judgment of validity reversed; predictable variation of prior art obvious as a matter of law In a decision last month, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's summary judgment to the plaintiff. The district court had awarded damages after granting summary judgment of "validity" and infringement. While the Federal Circuit agreed with the district court's construction of a disputed claim term, the court held the asserted claims were obvious as […] Continue Reading →
Fourth Circuit: OBX geographically descriptive with no secondary meaning; noninfringement affirmed In a decision last month, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant in a trademark case. The mark at issue was OBX, which was an acronym coined to be short for the Outer Banks area of North Carolina. The plaintiff coined the acronym and sold various products bearing […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Sufficient evidence of fraud to defeat summary judgment on Walker Process claim In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit addressed the antitrust implications of so-called "reverse payments" between brand name and generic pharmaceutical companies. A health care provider brought suit against the two companies, alleging their agreement to delay the introduction of a generic pharmaceutical (which involved payment to the generic manufacturer of $4.5 million per month) […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit grants mandamus ordering transfer of case from Eastern District of Texas In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit granted a petition for a writ of mandamus after a district court denied transfer of the case. The defendants/petitioners had been denied transfer of a patent case from the Eastern District of Texas (a venue perceived to be plaintiff-friendly in patent cases) to the Southern District of Ohio, […] Continue Reading →
Integrating infringing component into larger product does not escape contributory infringement In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment of obviousness, but vacated and remanded the summary judgment of no contributory or inducing infringement of two other patents in suit related to recordable optical disk drive technology. The court relied on copyright cases applying the concept of secondary liability […] Continue Reading →
Patent lawyer without expertise in relevant field cannot testify on infringement, invalidity The Federal Circuit recently reversed a district court's post-verdict grant of judgment as a matter of law of nonobviousness, applying the KSR obviousness standard and addressing the requirements for expert testimony for legal conclusions of obviousness. The Federal Circuit clearly set forth that patent attorneys without specific skill and training in the area of the […] Continue Reading →
Failure to disclose patents to SSO results in unenforceabilty against products using standard In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed-in-part a district court decision that a patentee had breached a duty to disclose relevant video-compression technology patents while participating in a joint video team standards-setting organization (SSO). The Federal Circuit, however, reversed in part the district court decision finding the patents unenforceable against the world, instead holding […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Trademark claim against tribal corporation does not confer tribal court jurisdiction In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's grant of a motion to stay federal trademark claims against Indian tribal defendants pending a determination of jurisdiction by a tribal court. The trademark claims were for alleged passing off of cigarettes on the Internet, on the reservation of another tribe, and elsewhere. The […] Continue Reading →