Blawgletter recalls a story about people who got tickets from a police officer for committing a variation on vagrancy — in the officer’s words, "standing around and talking big".
Ask most lawyers if principles of prudential standing require you to join the patent owner to an infringement case if the plaintiff owns an exclusive field of use license, and they’ll say . . . hey, I told you to stop coming up to my office. I’ll call security on you, I will!
Start again. Pose that question to that Rarest of Legal Breeds — the Patent Lawyer — and she will pause, look you in the eye, and say . . . have you read the Federal Circuit’s opinion today in Int’l Gamco, Inc. v.Multimedia Games, Inc., No. 07-1034 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 15, 2007)? Because they answered that very question. Their Honors said yes. Thank you for asking! Now get out of my reception area, or I’ll have to call security!!
Er. As near as Blawgletter can discern, one must join the patentee if one doesn’t have an exclusive enough license because otherwise bad things could happen. For example, one may lose the case (which the patentee who Still Has Some Rights won’t like) or one may file a whole bunch of duplicative and wasteful cases (which federal judges who Already Work Too Hard won’t like). So you need a Really, Really Exclusive License to have standing.
We’ll say bye-bye now.
Barry Barnett
