Measuring patent damages — and excluding reexam evidence
The Federal Circuit again tightened the criteria for setting damages awards in patent infringement cases. But, in a bit of good news for infringement plaintiffs, it lent further support to the general inclination of district courts to exclude evidence of non-final results of patent reexaminations by the U.S. Patent
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:
Boy, the Federal Circuit's sure lowered the boom on Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner in Apple Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., No. 12-1548 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 25, 2014).
Smartphone warfare.
The appeal dealt with Judge Posner's rulings as a trial court judge in the Northern District of Illinois phase of the titanic smartphone struggle between Apple and Motorola
If you've handled a bunch of patent cases without running across the Kessler doctrine, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Until today, IP wizards like you likely had little cause to know about the patent-claim-killing rule that sprang more than a century ago from Kessler v. Eldred, 206 U.S. 285 (1907). Be warned. It's
Blawgletter not too long ago got one of those machines that heats water and then blasts it through a canister of coffee essence to make — voila! — a steaming cup of joe.
These devices come from a Wide Range of sources, but many of them appear to spring from people who make the coffee-essence-canisters
What happens on appeal after the district court struck an expert report that did not exist until after the other side had deposed the expert and moved for summary judgment and the discovery deadline had passed?
The Federal Circuit affirms, silly. Cheese Systems, Inc. v. Tetra Pak Cheese and Power Systems, Inc., No. 12-1463
Rupert Murdoch's TV empire in the U.S. has lost its bid to stop you from avoiding the ads that Fox embeds in its shows — your Glees, your The Simpsonses, and your So You Think You Can Dances.
The Ninth Circuit turned back Fox's appeal of an order that denied its motion to enjoin
You can try a patent infringement case, win a verdict awarding millions in damages, and prevail on appeal as to the other side's invalidity defense, but still lose the case because the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office later declares the patent invalid.
So held the Federal Circuit, by a 2-1 vote, on July 2, 2013. Fresenius
Farmers plant seeds. Where do they get the seeds? Lots of places. Their own crops. Farmer Crawford up the road. Bean sellers. Monsanto. And so on.
What if the seeds use a technique that someone — Monsanto, say — has taken out a patent on? Can you use seeds from a crop that you or
Who wrote "I know it when I see it"? Do you think:
a. Jon Stewart, about comedic talent;
b. Rod Stewart, on pulchritude;
c. Jeb Stuart, concerning military audacity; or
d. Potter Stewart, in reference to "hard-core pornography".
The Second Circuit wrote something like that when it ruled on April 25