Yesterday Senators Patrick Leahy and Orrin Hatch (chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Representatives John Conyers and Lamar Smith (chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee) introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2009. Click below for more detail of the newly-introduced legislation, as well as links to other coverage […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Tenth Circuit affirmed a district court's finding of no copyright infringement after a bench trial and the findings for the defendants on related claims. The district court held there was insufficient evidence of copying, specifically that there was no evidence the defendants had access to the copyrighted work. The copyright […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal for lack of declaratory judgment jurisdiction over a defendant's counterclaims for non-infringement, invalidity, and unenforceability of a patent. The plaintiff brought suit against the defendant for infringement in 2003, and on the eve of trial on the issues of invalidity and unenforceability, offered […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's summary judgment of obviousness. The patent related to dessicant packages. The district court held a prior art reference taught all limitations of the claims with the exception of the type of absorbent material contained in the package, and that, under KSR, it would be […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit held the Court of Federal Claims correctly dismissed a copyright infringement suit against the United States for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The plaintiff is a federal prisoner who created various coyprightable works while in federal prison. He brought suit alleging copyright infringement after his works were distributed […]
Continue Reading →Thursday, the Federal Circuit held oral arguments in In re Kubin, a biotechnology case involving a patent over a gene sequence in humans, and specifically whether the claims were obvious. This was the first precedential decision by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences on the issue of obviousness in this field after KSR, so […]
Continue Reading →In a decision Tuesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of a permanent injunction. The district had previously granted a permanent injunction after a jury found willful infringement. In a previous appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the finding of willful infringement, but vacated the permanent injunction because the district court did not consider […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit found that a district court's grant of a stay pending inter partes reexamination without considering the patentee's pending motion for a preliminary injunction was an abuse of discretion. The Federal Circuit held the grant of the stay effectively denied the preliminary injunction motion, thereby making the stay order […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment of non-infringement in an architectural copyright case. The appellant had argued that the district court had effectively heightened the standard for infringement by performing an element-by-element comparison focusing on the differences between two floor plans. The Eleventh Circuit held the […]
Continue Reading →In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a distirct court's vacatur of a decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. In an appeal of rejections in twelve different applications involving approximately 2,400 claims, the Board only addressed the rejection of 21 "represntative" claims pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.192(c)(7) [now 37 C.F.R. […]
Continue Reading →Receive the latest news and updates from us and our attorneys.
Sign Up