Update on “Patent Troll” Legislation in the Wake of the 2014 Elections In December of 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3309, the "Innovation Act," ostensibly to address the problem of abusive patent litigation, sometimes referred to as patent trolling. While H.R. 3309 passed with bipartisan support by an overwhelming margin of 325-91 votes, its companion bill failed to clear the Senate. Failure of the […] 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 →
Seventh Circuit: Noncompete provision in license agreement reasonable, not patent misuse In what the court described as "one of those non-patent patent cases," the Seventh Circuit yesterday affirmed a grant of summary judgment to a patentee who, in its license agreement, included a noncompete provision. The licensee had terminated the license, and argued the noncompete constituted patent misuse, and was therefore void. The court rejected this […] Continue Reading →