Broadest Reasonable Interpretation is NOT Broadest Possible Interpretation In a decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week, In re Smith International, Inc., the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) decision affirming the Examiner’s rejections of some claims in an ex parte reexamination. The invention is directed to a downhole drilling tool for oil and gas […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Emphasizes “Why” is Important Part of Obviousness Rationales in Chemical Patent Cases In a recent decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, In re Stepan Company, the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision to affirm an examiner’s rejection that claims were obvious. The claims in the application were directed to ultra-high load, aqueous glyphosate salt-containing concentrates comprising water, a glyphosate salt in […] Continue Reading →
Kraft v. Kellog Co.: Objective Evidence of Non-Obviousness Earlier this month, the Federal Circuit decided Intercontinental Great Brands LLC (Kraft), v. Kellog Co., an appeal which arose from a patent infringement suit brought in the Northern District of Illinois. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant—Kellog, finding every claim of U.S. Patent No. 6,918,532 (the ‘532 patent) to be obvious […] Continue Reading →
Hollywood Studios Prevail Against Family-Friendly Video Streaming Site In a 3-0 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with Disney, Warner Bros., and Twentieth Century Fox by affirming an injunction that shut down movie filtering service VidAngel, Inc., saying that a ruling to the contrary would “create a giant loophole in copyright law”. VidAngel is a video filtering service that lets users stream films […] Continue Reading →
Trade Secrets: Lessons for Employers Two court cases have provided a potent lesson in the need to interview incoming employees from competitors, and when the so-called “nuclear option” is available, when it is your trade secret that walks out the door. The “nuclear option” is a portion of the Defend Trade Secrets Act that was passed in 2016. Among the […] Continue Reading →
YouTube “Reaction Video” Deemed Fair Use Much of the YouTube community breathed a sigh of relief last week as a New York federal court dismissed a lawsuit that had been brought against two of YouTube’s most popular personalities. On April 26, 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Ethan and […] Continue Reading →
A Computer Memory System is Not Abstract In a decision on August 15, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) reversed and remanded the district court’s decision in Visual Memory LLC v. NVIDIA Corporation. The CAFC concluded that the district court erred when it held that Visual Memory’s patent No. 5,953,740 (“‘740”) is drawn to patent-ineligible subject matter and […] Continue Reading →
The Most Difficult Definition: Considerations for Defining “Genetically Modified Organism” A patent applicant is free to act as their own lexicographer in drafting an application and may define terms as they see fit. Should a word not be defined explicitly in the application, the Patent Office will then give the term “the broadest reasonable interpretation according to a person having ordinary skill in the art” […] Continue Reading →
Domain Name Disputes: A UDRP Primer Has someone registered a domain that is identical or strikingly similar to your brand name or trademark? What rights do you have and what legal remedies are available if you or your company find yourself in a dispute over a domain name? This article is intended to serve as a brief overview of domain name […] Continue Reading →
What’s In A Name? Theresa Earnhardt, widow to professional race car driver Dale Earnhardt and step-mother to Kerry Earnhardt, appealed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decision that her stepson’s mark, EARNHARDT COLLECTION, was notas a whole primarily a surname. Theresa Earnhardt is the owner of trademark registrations and common law rights in the use of the mark DALE […] Continue Reading →