The U.S. Supreme Court took a step today towards limiting patent infringement cases, at least ones involving "method" patents (i.e., ones that describe a process rather than a device, design, or other patentable subject matter).
Kinds of infringement
Patent infringement may take different forms:
The chain works like this:
The online hawkers of handbags bearing the label of a famous high-end maker get their website services from a firm that "hosts" the websites (running the servers, granting "bandwidth", and giving IP ("Internet protocol") addresses) — all for a fee. The hosting firm in turn obtains the servers, bandwidth, and IP addresses under leases from an outfit
The Federal Circuit today tossed the work of a jury on grounds that the losing parties never raised before their appeal. "Plain error", the panel held.
Uh.
The plaintiff, WordTech Systems, alleged that Integrated Network Systems, and two men who worked at INS, infringed patents relating to robo-copying compact disks. At trial, the district court