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Supreme Court Clarifies Ownership Rights in Federally Funded Inventions Under the Bayh-Dole Act

In a 7-2 decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980 (“the Bayh-Dole Act”) does not displace the general rule that rights in an invention belong to the inventor, and does not automatically vest title to federally funded inventions in the contractors receiving the federal funds. […]

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Supreme Court hears arguments today regarding first sale doctrine and international purchases

This morning the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Omega S.A., a case regarding the potential international scope of the first sale doctrine. Costco lawfully purchased authentic Omega watches abroad and imported them to the United States for sale in its stores. Omega sued for copyright infringement, arguing the watches […]

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Bayh-Dole Patent Ownership Dispute to be heard by Supreme Court

Last week, the Supreme Court announced it will review the Federal Circuit decision in Stanford v. Roche, addressing patent ownership under the Bayh-Dole Act, after granting Stanford's petition for a writ of certiorari. The Court will decide an interesting patent ownership dispute involving the contractual obligation of a University inventor to assign rights to the […]

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Supreme Court to hear case regarding proper standard for proving inducing infringement under 271(b)

In an order today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case regarding the necessary intent for inducing infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b). The case is Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., docket number 10-6. The specific question presented is: Whether the legal standard for the state of mind element of a claim for […]

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Supreme Court: Business method patents survive, but barely; Bilski’s claims unpatentable

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Bilski v. Kappos, the most recent case at the Court probing the boundaries of patentable subject matter under § 101. Details of the underlying facts of the Bilski case may be found in our post on the Federal Circuit's en banc decision here. All nine Justices agreed that Bilski's method […]

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Bilski decided

This morning, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Bilski v. Kappos. The court affirmed the Federal Circuit's decision. We'll have more detailed analysis soon. To read the opinion, click here.

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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, . . […]

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Supreme Court: Registration requirement of 411(a) not jurisdictional for copyright claims

Today the Supreme Court decided Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, a case regarding whether the registration requirement of 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) is jurisdictional or a claim processing rule. The Court held the requirement to be nonjurisdictional. The case involves a class action for copyright infringement by freelance journalists based on republication of works in […]

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Highlights from oral arguments in Bilski v. Kappos

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Bilski v. Kappos in an effort to determine the proper test to be applied to determine whether a claim is patentable subject matter under § 101. The oral argument transcript is available from the Court's website here. Click below for our thoughts on the arguments and […]

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Supreme Court grants certiorari in Bilski

In an order today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in Bilski v. Doll regarding the patentability of method claims. Back in October, the Federal Circuit decided In re Bilski, adopting the "machine-or-transformation" test as the exclusive test to determine whether a method is drawn to patentable subject matter. Bilski filed a petition […]

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