By Tom Zuber and Jeff Zuber of Zuber Lawler & Del Duca
The Supreme Court recently held that a farmer could not make copies of a patented soybean by purchasing harvested beans and planting them. In Bowman v. Monsanto Co., No. 11-796 (U.S. Feb. 19, 2013), a unanimous Supreme Court held that such activity fell outside the doctrine of patent exhaustion, which… More...
An en banc panel of the Federal Circuit recently modified contempt examinations in patent infringement injunction cases. In Tivo, Inc. v. Echostar Corp., No. 2009-1374, 2011 U.S. App. WL 1486162, (Fed. Cir. Apr. 20, 2011), the Federal Circuit consolidated the two-part KSM test into a single-step More...
In an issue of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit considered whether Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 9(b)’s particularity requirement applies to false marking claims under §292. In In re BP Lubricants USA, Inc., 97 U.S.P.Q.2d 2025 (Fed. Cir. 2011), the Federal Circuit More...
The Federal Circuit recently rejected the 25 percent rule in calculating damages and assessing a reasonable royalty. In Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 2011 WL ________(Fed. Cir. Jan. 4, 2011), the Federal Circuit found that the 25 percent rule of thumb was an arbitrary rule and was not tied More...
In an issue of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit considered the definition of the term “use” for purposes of infringement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 271 (a) where elements of the allegedly infringing service were in the possession of more than one individual. In More...
An en banc opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit narrows the scope of the patent misuse doctrine by holding that antitrust violations alone do not support a patent misuse claim. In Princo Corp. v. International Trade Commission and U.S. Philips Corp., 616 F.3d 1318 (Fed. Cir. More...
In a split decision, the Federal Circuit has reiterated its strict interpretation of the joint infringement doctrine, limiting its application to cases where a clear “puppeteer” exists. In Golden Hour Data Systems Inc. v. emsCharts Inc., 614 F.3d 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2010), the Federal Circuit More...
In a long-awaited opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Circuit Court’s ultimate holding in In Re Bilski, but held that the Federal Circuit’s machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for patentability of a claimed process. Bilski v. Kappos, ___ U.S. ___, 2010 WL More...
The Federal Circuit has held that the founder and president of a company that has submitted a patent application may owe a duty to disclose to the USPTO under Rule 56(c)(3), even if he was not the inventor or preparing attorney or agent. In Avid Identification Systems Inc. v. The Crystal Import More...
The Federal Circuit clarified that extraneous and “inapposite” past license evidence should not be used to calculate reasonable royalty rates in patent infringement cases. In ResQNet.com Inc. v. Lansa, Inc., 594 F.3d 860 (Fed. Cir. 2010), the Federal Circuit court affirmed a district court More...
In a controversial decision, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has held that neither isolated DNA nor methods directed toward identifying mutations in these genes constitute patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. section 101. If upheld on appeal, Ass’n for Molecular More...
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