Government recommends Supreme Court hear patent exhaustion case In a filing on August 24 (that got put on the back burner with the hubbub about the new continuation and claim limit rules), the government has recommended that the Supreme Court grant certiorari in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. (No. 06-937). Detail about the Federal Circuit's decision may be found in this […] Continue Reading →
Supreme Court: vertical retail price maintenance no longer per se violation of antitrust law Overruling a nearly century old decision, the Supreme Court Thursday held that a manufacturer may, in some instances, enter into a vertical agreement with its retailers to set minimum retail prices for the manufacturer's goods. The court overruled the venerable decision in Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co., 220 U.S. […] Continue Reading →
Roundup of media coverage of KSR and Microsoft Below is a sampling of various media reports regarding yesterday's two Supreme Court patent decisions, KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc. and Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp.: "Court douses patent wildfire" (Chicago Tribune) "Ruling toughens patent process" (USA Today) "Patent protections tempered by Supreme Court rulings" (Los Angeles Times) "High court puts limits on patents" […] Continue Reading →
Initial thoughts on KSR v. Teleflex After an initial reading of the opinion in KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., several issues jump out. There are four (4) reasons why the Federal Circuit's TSM test is no longer the exclusive test for obviousness While the Court noted that the Federal Circuit's "teaching-suggestion-motivation" (TSM) test was not necessarily inconsistent with cases such […] Continue Reading →
Initial thoughts on Microsoft v. AT&T, a.k.a. Deepsouth: the sequel In what could be termed a sequel to the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Deepsouth Packing Co. v. Laitram Corp., the Court again found that if U.S. patent law is to extend its reach further into foreign acts, it must be Congress, not the courts, that extends it. The Court held that Microsoft's act of […] Continue Reading →
Supreme Court reverses both KSR and Microsoft As reported at SCOTUS Blog, the Supreme Court has today ruled in two cases, reversing decisions of the Federal Circuit. The first came in KSR v. Teleflex, where the Court has apparently ruled 9-0 that the Federal Circuit's view on obviousness is too narrow, reversing the decision that Teleflex's invention was nonobvious. Previous coverage of […] Continue Reading →
Supreme Court proposes revisions to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure In can what only be described as a busy day at the Supreme Court, the Court, in addition to rendering opinions in five cases (including two patent cases, see here and here), also proposed revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil, Criminal, Bankruptcy, and Appellate Procedure. While the Rules of Appellate Procedure only have a […] Continue Reading →
Today’s opinions in KSR v. Teleflex and Microsoft v. AT&T Click here for the opinion in KSR v. Teleflex. Click here for the opinion in Microsoft v. AT&T. More to come once we've had a chance to review the decisions. Continue Reading →
Supreme Court asks for Government’s view on yet another patent case In its order list released today, the Supreme Court has indicated that it may accept yet another appeal in a patent-related case, as it has invited the Office of the Solicitor General to file a brief stating the position of the United States on the case. The case is Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, […] Continue Reading →
Roundup of media coverage of Microsoft v. AT&T oral arguments, more to come for Microsoft? Now that the oral arguments before the Supreme Court have passed, various media outlets have had the opportunity to weigh in on the arguments and offer their predictions as to how the case will come out. A sampling of this media coverage is below: Seattle Post Intelligencer USA Today Boston Globe Houston Chronicle Forbes Los […] Continue Reading →