Patents

With covid-19 vaccines rolling out worldwide, there seems to be some relief from the deadly coronavirus, but the pandemic is far from over. The vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies are protected under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS). The patent rights held by ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch Christy, Inc. v. US (Supreme Court 2021) This is a super interesting patent-as-property case. In 2018, Christy filed a class-action lawsuit asserting that the cancellation of its patent via Inter Partes Review was taking subject to the due process requirements of the Constitution as well as the ... Read More

New PatentlyO Patent Law Journal article by Thomas F. Cotter, Taft Stettinius & Hollister Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, and Innovators Network Foundation Intellectual Property Fellow.  Professor Cotter is also the author of the Comparative Patent Remedies blog.  Abstract:  It has often been observed that, while ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch Normally, a notice of appeal filed in federal appellate court does not include details on what particular issues are being appealed. That comes later in the appellant’s opening brief.   One exception is found in R. 44 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP).  R. 44 requires ... Read More

Introduction The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on intellectual property (IP) law undoubtedly ranks as one of the most-discussed topics of 2020 among legal academics and practitioners. Following initiatives at WIPO, the EPO and several national IPOs (including the UKIPO and the USPTO), EU institutions have now also become active ... Read More

Twelve days ago, Samsung gave notice of its appeal of Judge Rodney Gilstrap's preliminary injunction under which Samsung would oddly have to reimburse Ericsson for fines imposed by the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhan, China, even if the court did so sua sponte (i.e., without a contempt motion by Samsung). ... Read More

Editor’s Note: Avery Welker is a 1L at Mizzou and likely a future patent attorney. He is starting a new series linking law school canonical cases with intellectual property counterparts. You can email ideas for future posts to [email protected]. – Dennis Crouch By Avery Welker “That doesn’t look too bad,” ... Read More

Automotive supplier Continental brought FRAND litigation against the Avanci pool and several of its contributors, particularly Nokia, in 2019. But its federal lawsuit was transferred from the Northern District of California to the Northern District of Texas (i.e., Dallas), and in September it was dismissed. Continental has appealed the dismissal ... Read More

Over the years, the Supreme Court of the United States decided a number of patent cases, which is reflective of how important some controversies in that field of law are. Critics of the Federal Circuit would say the Supreme Court just had to step in all the time to restore ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch In its October 2020 decision in EcoServices v. Certified Aviation, the Federal Circuit issued a somewhat muddled nonprecedential opinion.  The en banc petition has now been briefed and awaiting action from the court. The patents at issue cover methods and systems for washing a jet engine.  ... Read More

PhRMA has filed an interesting brief arguing that proper-venue in ANDA patent-infringement cases under §271(e)(2) should be determined under the general venue statute (28 U.S.C. §1391) rather than the patent-specific venue statute (28 U.S.C. §1400(b)). Section 1400(b) is an exception to the general venue statute, 28 U.S.C. §1391. It should be construed narrowly ... Read More

After BREXIT, ratification and then withdrawal by the UK, a referral to the German Constitutional Court (“Bundesverfassungsgericht“) and finally a ratification by its parliament, the UPC project is once again blocked in Germany, as previously before the Bundesverfassungsgericht. Like the phoenix, the project is constantly reborn. But should we resist, or should ... Read More

Coloplast A/S v Salts Healthcare Limited [2021] EWHC 3 (Pat) (18 January 2021) In this judgment Nicholas Caddick QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, found Coloplast’s patent for a “comfort layer” for an ostomy bag invalid for obviousness over the common general knowledge and also over five separate ... Read More

As winter sales have just started in France, it is an ideal moment to mention an occasion to seize in Patent Law: the important judgment regarding the saisie-contrefaçon rendered by the Paris Court of Appeal on November 6, 2020 in the Manitou case. The Manitou case is well known to ... Read More

Topical Highlight Delhi HC Order Cripples Authors’ Royalty Rights in Underlying Works Image from here I critiqued the Delhi High Court’s order in IPRS v. ENIL, which held that underlying works incorporated in sound recordings are not utilized and do not incur royalty when the ... Read More

The new petition for certiorari in Samaranayake v. Iancu (Supreme Court 2021) has little chance of being granted, but it does offer some insight on USPTO procedure.  I mentioned 35 U.S.C. § 144 in a prior post this week.  This case also focuses on Section 144 and asks whether the Federal Circuit ... Read More

Reuters just reported on my antitrust complaints to competition authorities in multiple jurisdictions, challenging the basis on which they don't allow tens of millions of app developers to publish COVID-related apps on their stores, no matter how legitimate those apps may be.In alphabetical order, these are the jurisdictions:Australia: Australian Competition ... Read More

One of the issues raised in the Coronavirus Reporter v. Apple antitrust complaint in the District of New Hampshire is the allegation that Apple's app reviews are "arbitrary and capricious" to the extent that one app might be rejected though a similar or more problematic app is approved. I've also ... Read More

After almost six months of commenting on App Store antitrust cases, above all Epic Games v. Apple, the time has come for me to state clearly that, just like Epic, I am convinced that Apple and Google have monopoly power in their respective app distribution markets. And while the focus ... Read More

I’ll mention here that the new Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is an litigator, and has handled a number of intellectual property cases. These were primarily entertainment related copyright and trademark cases, although he has worked on a few patent cases as well. Examples: Jukin Media, Inc. v. Viumbe, LLC et ... Read More

Note, I’m calling these folks “ACTING ____” because it is simpler and makes sense.  BUT, the “acting” title is a term of art defined within the US Code.  To avoid some of the legal requirements associated with being an “acting director,” the temporary leadership is using the longer title of ... Read More

Today (20 January 2021) seems to be a perfect day to celebrate democracy and the rule of law. I will therefore not keep you up for too long, but just wanted to make a short personal comment and a call to all of us discussing the UPCA and the ... Read More

The Federal Circuit and Supreme Court are both closed today.  Although inauguration day is not a nationwide federal holiday, it is a holiday for non-essential federal employees who work in the Washington DC Area. Congratulations to President Biden! We’ve got some work to do.   ... Read More

Images from here and here The Delhi High Court passed an order last month in the matter of H Lundbeck A/S v. Hetro Drugs Ltd., whereby it ruled that “export of the products from India would amount to use of the product in India” under Section ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch This morning I was looking for inauguration related patents and stumbled across Facebook’s recently issued US10855640, which essentially claims combining a live video with parallel live social media responses.  This patent is part of a family claiming a 2009 priority date, and at least three other patents have ... Read More

As expected and is usual, Andrei Iancu has stepped-down from his post as Undersecretary of Commerce and USPTO Director a few hours before the conclusion of Donald Trump’s four years as president. Iancu will be remembered as being professional and engaged with the IP community throughout his three-year leadership. Every ... Read More

We are pleased to inform you that Remfry & Sagar, one of India’s leading IP law firms, is looking to recruit two candidates for patent drafting for its Bengaluru and Gurgaon offices. For further details, please read the job description below: Patent Drafting Positions at Remfry & Sagar, Bengaluru & Gurgaon ... Read More

Introduction The recent decision “Truvada” of the Federal German Supreme Court, dated 22 September 2020 (docket no. X ZR 172/18) is a landmark decision in the field of supplementary protection certificates („SPCs“). According to the decision, the legitimate legal interest (“Rechtsschutzbedürfnis”) for filing a nullity action after the expiry of ... Read More

One of the core requirements for an invention to be patentable in India, and in fact, all over the world, is Industrial Applicability. Under section 2(1) (ac) of the Patents Act, 1970, the definition clearly states that an invention must be capable of being made or used in the industry. ... Read More

After having us recently hummed the Beatles’ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da song with the TRUVADA case (see here), French case law is now flirting with New York gangs with a decision about a “Kit Crack” (not to be confused with the “Kit Kat”), reminding us the Notorious Big’s Ten Crack Commandments rap (listen here). In ... Read More