Federal Circuit Clarifies Means-Plus-Function Limitations By Blog Staff On June 1st, in Zeroclick, LLC v. Apple Inc, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) vacated and remanded a district court decision that several patent claims asserted against Apple Inc. were invalid. The district court held that the claims contained means-plus-function limitations and that the specifications did not disclose sufficient […] Continue Reading →
Fraudulent Invention Development Company Banned By Kirk M. Hartung Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement of a lawsuit against an invention development company which permanently enjoins the company from further business due to fraudulent and deceitful conduct with inventors. Scott Cooper and his companies, World Patent Marketing and Desa Industries, Inc., used bogus success stories to get clients to pay thousands […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Judges Encourage Congress to Act on Patent Eligibility By Kirk M. Hartung Patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C 101 has been a hot topic in the past few years and in view of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including the 2014 caseAlice Corp. Pty. Ltd. V. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347. In Alice, the Supreme Court concluded that abstract ideas are not patentable, absent something more, […] Continue Reading →
Design Patents: An Analogy By Gregory Lars Gunnerson A recent Webinar moderated by Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com titled, “Strategic Use of Design Patents”, analogized a design patent to a tool in a tool box. This analogy is intriguing. For example, a utility patent could be considered a hammer, as it is useful in a wide array of applications and delivers a devastating impact […] Continue Reading →
The Federal Circuit Limits Where Corporations “Reside” By Blog Staff On May 15, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided In Re: BigCommerce, holding that for the purposes of the patent-specific venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), a domestic corporation incorporated in a state with multiple judicial districts resides only in the particular judicial district within that state where it […] Continue Reading →
USPTO Proposed Rule Change to Adopt the Same Standard for Interpreting Claims in AIA Trials as the US District Courts and ITC By Blog Staff The big news of this week in the U.S. patent world is the publication of the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 9, 2018, for “Changes to the Claim Construction Standard for Interpreting Claims in Trial Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)”. The USPTO […] Continue Reading →
World Intellectual Property Day 2018 By Kirk M. Hartung On World Intellectual Property day (April 26), President Trump proclaimed his administration’s goal of improving intellectual property rights in the United States. This is similar to the pledge earlier this month by the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Andrei Iancu, in his recent speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to […] Continue Reading →
Patent Office Director Pledges Improvements to U.S. Patents By Kirk M. Hartung In a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce, the newly appointed head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Andrei Iancu, expressed his concern over the current state of the U.S. patent system, and pledged to make improvements within the Patent Office to strengthen and increase predictability. New laws, courts decisions, and negative commentary […] Continue Reading →
All’s Fair in Love and Litigation: The Intellectual Property War of Bumble and Tinder By Sarah M.D. Luth Last month Match Group, which owns Tinder (as well as OkCupid, Match.com and Plenty of Fish) filed suit against Bumble alleging patent infringement, trademark infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets. See Match Group, LLC, Plaintiff, v. Bumble Trading Inc., Defendant, 2018 WL 1371453 (W.D.Tex.). Match Group argues that Whitney Wolfe-Herd, a co-founder of Tinder, left […] Continue Reading →
Protecting Concepts: The Best in Their Businesses Do Battle By Kirk M. Hartung Basketball superstar Lebron James has challenged perennial college football power Alabama over a sports talk show staged in a barbershop. During last year’s NBA finals, James’ multi-media business, Uninterrupted, premiered its show “The Shop” on ESPN featuring James and other professional players discussing basketball in a barbershop. Alabama recently promoted its show “Shop Talk,” which […] Continue Reading →