Supreme Court: NFL collective licensing of trademarks not immune from Section 1 antitrust scrutiny Monday the Supreme Court unanimously held the NFL's practice of collectively licensing the trademarks of all 32 individual teams is not immune from antitrust scrutiny under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The NFL argued that because the marks are all licensed through a single entity, NFL Properties, there was no "contract, combination, . . […] Continue Reading →
En banc Federal Circuit to address potential patent misuse issues in license practices The Federal Circuit has agreed to hear en banc an interesting issue with regard to the potential for patent misuse in licensing. The case is Princo Corp. v. ITC. At issue is the patent pool related to the technology used for CD-R and CD-RW discs. The alleged infringer, Princo, admitted infringement before the ITC, but […] Continue Reading →
In license agreement, right to “have made” implicitly granted with right to make In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of a patent licensor's claims for breach of a license agreement and patent infringement. The non-exclusive licensee arranged to have third parties manufacture the licensed product, but the product was sold by the licensee. The patent owner argued this was a breach of […] Continue Reading →
Sales of products by party under unconditional covenant not to sue exhaust patent rights In a decision Wednesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's finding that a patentee's claims for patent infringement were barred by patent exhaustion in view of a settlement agreement between the patentee and a previous defendant in an infringement suit. The patentee previously sued a third party, and the suit was resolved by a […] Continue Reading →
Existence of other licenses under patent does not preclude finding of irreparable harm In a decision Tuesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of a permanent injunction. The district had previously granted a permanent injunction after a jury found willful infringement. In a previous appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the finding of willful infringement, but vacated the permanent injunction because the district court did not consider […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Copyright owner’s ambiguous reservation of rights clarified with extrinsic evidence In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment that a copyright holder did not have standing to sue for copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and related declaratory judgment claims. The case involved the film Gone in 60 Seconds, produced and directed in 1974 by H.B. "Toby" Halicki, and remade […] Continue Reading →
Second Circuit: Copyright license of indeterminate term improperly read to be perpetual In this appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, the Second Circuit reversed the dismissal of a copyright claim based on ambiguity in a contract, but affirmed dismissal of the antitrust claims because the plaintiff's proposed market definition was not plausible.The district court dismissed the copyright claims based […] Continue Reading →
Second Circuit: MLB collective trademark licensing does not violate Sherman Act In a recent decision, the Second Circuit affirmed a district court's summary judgment to the defendant in an antitrust case regarding trademark licensing. The case involved the collective licensing setup of Major League Baseball Properties ("MLBP"). The plaintiff was a licensee of MLBP. The court held the centralized licensing agent for all Major League Baseball […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Absent evidence of intent to the contrary, custom software purchaser retains license In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's decision that a software developer's delivery of customized software includes a grant of an unlimited, non-exclusive, implied license to use, modify, and retain the source code of the programs in the absence of written agreements to the contrary. The Ninth Circuit also affirmed the […] Continue Reading →
Patent exhaustion does not create a cuse of action; dismissal affirmed In a decision last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's decision dismissing a case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The plaintiff brought suit when it believed the patent holder had fraudulently concealed a second licensee of the same patents. The plaintiff was a licensee of the defendant patent holder and therefore could […] Continue Reading →