Eleventh Circuit: Trademark licensee liable for infringement when deviating from license
In a decision Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court's finding of trademark infringement against a trademark licensee. The alleged infringer was actually licensed to use the mark owner's trademark, but did not use the mark as described in the license, instead using an abbreviated form. As a result, the court affirmed the jury's […]
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Patent Reform Act of 2007 to be passed in 2008?
The internet is abuzz with talk that the much-maligned Patent Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 1908 & S. 1145) may be passed in some form this month. A draft version of the Senate Judiciary Committee's report on the bill was released earlier this week, and while it does not contain any revised provisions, it does […]
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Timely article in Popular Science regarding the USPTO and its backlog
The passage below is from an article in Popular Science, and is timely given the current workload of the USPTO and statements by Director Dudas that application pendency will continue to increase: The Patent Office Has Become A National Disgrace THE Patent Office, in Washington, D. C, recently sent to a workman in a chemical […]
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Tomorrow at the Supreme Court: Oral argument in Quanta v. LG
Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. (No. 06-937). The case will determine whether patent owners who sell products embodying their patents conditionally are able to recover damages for patent infringement if the products are subsequently sold beyond the scope permitted by the original sale. The […]
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Seventh Circuit: Injunction against use of plaintiff’s copyrights and trade secrets too vague
In a decision last week, the Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded a district court's preliminary injunction in a copyright and trade secret case. The court addressed the degree of specificity necessary for an injunction against misappropriating trade secrets and infringing copyrights, and vacated the injunction because it failed to detail the substance of the trade […]
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Paper posted on public FTP site not necessarily printed publication; summary judgment reversed
In a decision this week, the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the district court's determination that the plaintiff's patents-in-suit were invalid as anticipated by another paper that was publicly available via the patentee's FTP site before the critical date for the span of one week, finding genuine issues of material fact as to whether the […]
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Pre-KSR obviousness instruction does not result in plain error post-KSR
In a decision this week, the Federal Circuit affirmed findings of infringement of two patents by two defendants. The court also reversed an invalidity ruling of one of one claim that had been the subject of reexamination, but remanded the case to the district court for a determination of the obviousness of one claim based […]
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Fifth Circuit: Prevailing defendant in file sharing copyright case not entitled to attorney fees
On Friday, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court finding denying an award of attorney's fees to a defendant who had been sued for copyright infringement by several recording companies, as part of the industry's ongoing litigation efforts to curb file sharing. In doing so, the court upheld the notion that, although attorney's fees are […]
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Ninth Circuit: Karaoke is audiovisual work, so not fully covered by – 115 compulsory license
In a decision yesterday, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of a complaint for declaratory judgment by a karaoke device manufacturer without leave to amend for failure to state a claim. The complaint sought a declaration that a compulsory license under § 115 of the Copyright Act was a sufficient license for a […]
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Amici piling up in lawsuit challenging new claim and continuation rules
Although the parties' motions for summary judgment have been filed, the amici keep coming forward in the consolidated lawsuits challenging the new claim and continuation rules. This brings the total number of amici in this case over 30, filing 19 20 (as of 1/4) total briefs. While the vast majority of amici filings support the […]
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