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Dippin’ Dots: brought to you by inequitable conduct, but not an antitrust violation

What do Dippin' Dots, the little beads of ice cream sold at fairs, stadiums, and malls, have to do with patent and antitrust law? For the Federal Circuit, they presented the "close case" where a patent holder can be found to have engaged in inequitable conduct during prosecution of the patent but is not liable […]

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India’s Union Cabinet approves accession to Madrid Protocol

Today, India’s Union Cabinet approved India’s accession to the Madrid Protocol, the international treaty relating to registration of trademarks. The next step will be introduction of Bill in India’s Parliament to finalize the accession and to amend India’s trademark laws to include the requirements of the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Protocol permits trademark applicants to […]

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Seventh Circuit: single sale insufficient use in commerce to support trademark registration

In Custom Vehicles, Inc. v. Forest River, Inc., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a trademark plaintiff did not engage in sufficient use in commerce to support trademark rights. Even worse for the plaintiff, the court held that even if there were sufficient use, the mark at issue was descriptive, and there was […]

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Are wedding receptions full of copyright infringers?

Maybe, if you ask Richard Silver. Mr. Silver claims to have invented the dance known as the “Electric Slide” at a disco in 1976. He registered a copyright on his performance of the dance in 2004. While Mr. Silver’s claims may seem dubious (such as, for example, his claims on his website that he also […]

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Bush proposes 8% increase in USPTO funding for fiscal 2008

In his proposed budget released on Monday, President Bush proposed $1.9 billion in funding for the USPTO in fiscal year 2008. In addition to this amount, USPTO fees would also not be diverted to cover other government programs, instead permitting the USPTO to use the full amount of collected fees for operating expenses, including hiring […]

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Jurisdiction over Foreign Patents Requires – 1367(c) Analysis

The question before the Federal Circuit in Jan K. Voda, M.D. v. Cordis Corporation was whether where an accused infringer is shown to have moved its infringing activities offshore to Germany, the U.K. and elsewhere, does supplemental jurisdiction of the court, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1367, permit an infringement determination under the parallel foreign […]

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Federal Circuit again dismisses patent case for lack of standing

The Federal Circuit has once again found the plaintiff in a patent infringement lawsuit did not have standing to bring its infringement claim. In order for a single plaintiff to have standing to assert infringement of a patent, that plaintiff must be the owner of the entire interest in the patent. As succinctly stated by […]

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Federal jury finds H.264 video compression standard does not infringe patent

A federal jury in San Diego recently found that Broadcom, a company that produces chips used in everything from mobile phones to next-generation DVD players, does not infringe two patents held by Qualcomm on video compression technology. Why is this finding important? Qualcomm asserted its patents covered the H.264 video compression standard, which is the […]

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Federal Circuit Places Members of the Bar on Notice

It’s not over until it’s over. In International Electronic Technology Corp. v. Hughes Aircraft Company, DirecTV, Inc. and Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc., the Federal Circuit dismissed International Electronic’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. In its ruling, the Federal Circuit stated: “The court takes umbrage at parties who have not carefully screened their cases to ascertain […]

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On this date: 1886

Karl Benz patents his "Motorwagen," the first automobile. Below are figures from the patent: The full patent (in German) is available here.

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