Adaptation of prior art bidding system to the web obvious under KSR and Leapfrog In a decision Monday, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's permanent injunction and denial of judgment as a matter of law in a patent infringement case. A jury determined the asserted claims of the patent were not obvious and that the defendant willfully infringed, and awarded $38.5 million in damages, which the district court […] Continue Reading →
Consent judgment with no explanation of how claim construction affected noninfringement vacated In a decision Tuesday, the Federal Circuit vacated a consent judgment entered by a district court and remanded the case for clarification. The district court entered a consent judgment, stipulated by the parties, stating the defendants' products did not infringe under the district court's claim construction of several terms, but that the plaintiff could still […] Continue Reading →
Eleventh Circuit: Laches presumed not to apply in copyright case filed during limitations period In a decision last week, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a district court decision granting summary judgment in a copyright infringement action. The central disagreement between the parties was over the scope of copyright protection in a book about sales techniques. The district court granted the defendant's motion for summary […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Termination of rights allows Lassie to come home to author’s heir In a decision last week, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's denial of summary judgment in a copyright case. The district court held the heir of an author had, by agreement, "given away" the termination right granted by 17 U.S.C. § 304(c).The Ninth Circuit reversed, stating that the district court had gone against the […] Continue Reading →
Purported inventor who waited eight years to file suit could not overcome presumption of laches In a decision yesterday, the Federal Circuit upheld a district court's grant of summary judgment due to laches and applicable state statute of limitations in an inventorship case. The plaintiff, having waited more than eight years after finding out about the patents to file suit, claimed that an intervening reexamination should have reset the time […] Continue Reading →
Reverse doctrine of equivalents still a losing argument at the Federal Circuit In a decision Wednesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's finding of patent validity and patent infringement. The Federal Circuit found no error in the district court's holding that the reverse doctrine of equivalents was inapplicable and that claim preclusion prohibited the defendant from raising other validity challenges. Specifically, the defendant did not establish […] Continue Reading →
Seventh Circuit: Prevailing defendants should have greater presumption of fees in copyright cases In a decision Wednesday, the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court's denial of attorney fees to a prevailing defendant in a copyright case. The district court found that, as a matter of law, no copyright infringement occurred, but declined to award attorney's fees.The Seventh Circuit reversed. The court held the suit was frivolous, and brought […] Continue Reading →
En banc Eleventh Circuit reaffirms digital compilation of magazine archives a privileged revision In a decision last week, the Eleventh Circuit en banc addressed the application of New York Times v. Tasini in the context of a comprehensive CD archive encompassing all National Geographic magazines from 1888 to 1996, called the Complete National Geographic. In a previous decision, a panel of the Eleventh Circuit held the CNG was […] Continue Reading →
First Circuit: Discovery rule not triggered in copyright case by parties’ acrimonious split In a recent decision, the First Circuit reversed a district court's decision dismissing a copyright infringement claim on statute of limitation grounds. The main issue was whether the statute of limitations for copyright infringement claims barred an architectural firm's action against a former client. The court determined that no triggering event had occurred which would […] Continue Reading →
U.S. Copyright Office begins online registration system today Today the U.S. Copyright Office will officially begin accepting registrations for some works online. The works that may be registered online are "basic claims" for literary, visual arts, and performing arts works (including motion pictures, sound recordings and single serials). A "basic claim," which is eligible for online registration must be one of: a single […] Continue Reading →