Happy Teenth–and welcome to the last Commercial Roundup of spring 2024!
- Patent holder’s grant of right to license patent didn’t deprive it of standing to sue for infringement.
- Infringement judgment didn’t become final before unpatentability decision did.
- Patent holder’s effort to stop Utah company from making sales that holder claimed infringed its patent made it subject to personal jurisdiction in Utah.
- Patent that didn’t claim “content” of a communication didn’t claim unpatentable “printed matter”.
- So proud of James!
- Order with permanent effect counted as “temporary injunction”.
- Contracts that paid generic drug makers both for delay in competing with brand name drug maker and for providing other “goods and services” didn’t stink enough to state a reverse-payment antitrust claim under Actavis.
- De novo test applies to review of ruling on motion to dismiss derivative claim.
- Request to appoint umpire in dispute over amount of loss might not qualify as a “civil action” or present a justiciable “case or controversy”.
- Promise to indemnify shipper except if its “sole negligence” caused “liability” to third party bound trucking company to pay shipper’s defense costs in suit claiming shipper negligently hired trucker.
- New lender that paid off debts to first lenders failed to prove that error in naming property owner as releasor instead of first lenders’ agent resulted from mutual mistake.
- Worker who agreed to arbitrate her own claims against her employer but also agreed not to arbitrate “class or collective” claims could pursue claims on behalf of other workers in court under Private Attorney General Act.
- Tenth Circuit calls for more briefing and argument on “fair use” in documentary film.
- Eleventh Circuit savages district court and class counsel for errors in service of getting some value out of now worthless claims.
- Tenth Circuit calls for more briefing and argument on “fair use” in documentary film.
- Co-trustee breached fiduciary duty by selling trust asset without other co-trustee’s okay.
- Final judgment that states it “is not appealable” is not a final judgment.
- Copyright Act does not limit damages for timely infringement claims to 3-year limitations period.
- Judicial estoppel barred party from invoking collateral estoppel.
- Lessee of oil and gas lands assigned all it owned in them despite limits in chart that “described” each “tract”.
- Oil and gas lessee could compute royalty on gas “at the wellhead” after backing out from sales proceeds the value of gas it burned to process the gas it sold.
- Section 285 of Patent Act doesn’t allow award of fees for IPR.
- Appropriations Clause of U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to empower head of agency to decide how much yearly funding it would receive up to a cap.
- KSR test for obviousness of patents on inventions also applies to patents on designs.
- Whether buyer could escape promise to buy merger target turned on unclear meaning of “promulgate” in context of SEC rules.
- Claim limitation that patent applicant added to avoid examiner’s rejection made a “material” change, barring use of earlier application to set patent’s priority date.
- Part owner of trademark owner lacked right to sue to cancel similar trademarks.
- Federal Trade Commission sues Live Nation for monopolization and unlawful exclusive dealing and tying in S.D.N.Y.
- Statute stating that “any judgment . . . shall . . . bear post-judgment interest” requires interest on entire judgment, including any portion consisting of pre-judgment interest.
- Colonel Philip J. Conran (Ret.) deserves the Medal of Honor for selfless heroism in saving two helicopter crews and 46 combat troops in a secret mission 55 years ago.
- Contract to supply buyer’s “requirements” lacked way to measure them and couldn’t support preliminary injunction.
- U.S. Mint implied it would pay for genuine coins despite presence of counterfeit coins in the more than 200 tons it accepted and melted to make new coins.
- Federal law that sets standards for escrow accounts but does not address payment of interest would preempt state law mandating interest payments only if interest mandate “substantially interferes” with federal standards.
- Lump-sum payments in licenses for multiple patents supported jury’s award of damages for infringement of one.
- AI and the threat of “moat building by gigantic entities that have tremendous resources”.
- Administrative Procedure Act applies to rules that exempt licensees’ repair of medical device software from claims under Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
- Permanent injunction that shut poultry farms should have allowed farms to fix odor problem by raising fewer chickens.
- State’s suit against private firm waived immunity from firm’s subpoena to state agency for evidence relating to subject matter of state’s claims.
- Trial lawyers speaking out for the rule of law.
- Patent application did not enable others to make and use the invention.
- Right to engage in political speech didn’t override Lanham Act bar on trademarks that use an identifiable person’s name without permission.
- Lanham Act doesn’t preclude challenge to USPTO’s grant of trademark renewal 10 years after it expired.
- Feature that scanned photos to find Facebook friends couldn’t identify non-users and therefore didn’t violate state Biometric Information Privacy Act.
- Maker of wearable insulin pumps failed to show competitor used information that qualified as trade secrets.