IP Wise

Oil States Versus The Administrative State

The Supreme Court has now heard from the petitioner in Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC. At issue is not only the fate of inter partes review of patents by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but possibly the ability of administrative agencies to review and retract their own erroneous decisions....

B&I Partners Assist Microsoft In Ending Patent Case

Partners Stacy Stitham and Peter Brann, acting as local counsel, assisted Microsoft in obtaining a dismissal with prejudice of a patent lawsuit filed in the District of Maine. While the federal lawsuit was pending, Microsoft invalidated the patent in the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which was then affirmed on appeal. The plaintiff sought a...

Understanding the Exceptional Trademark Case

The buzz in the (IP) blogosphere this week relates to Romag Fasteners v. Fossil, Inc., in which the Federal Circuit joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits in concluding that fee recovery under the Lanham Act follows the standards of the Supreme Court’s decision in Octane Fitness. Translation: The same standard governing recovery...

Skepticism from the Heartland

Last week we reported on the initial efforts to apply the Supreme Court’s opinion in TC Heartland, with particular interest in what impact that case may end up having on the business of patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas. As we noted, on first read, TC Heartland seemed to herald the end of the...

Texas Welcomes TC Heartland

What does the Supreme Court opinion in TC Heartland mean for the business of patent litigation in Texas—particularly the Eastern District of Texas? On first read, TC Heartland seemed to herald the end of the kind of forum–shopping that enabled the Eastern District of Texas to land 40% of all newly filed patent cases. The...

Supreme Court’s Federal Circuit Reversal Streak Continues

The 2016 Term of the Supreme Court has not been kind to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, the specialized appellate court that handles all patent appeals. In each of the six patent cases from the Federal Circuit decided by the Supreme Court, reversal was the result. Specifically, the high court: Reversed the Federal Circuit...

A Case of First Impression

It will hardly come as a surprise to frequent readers of this blog that the U.S. Supreme Court has (once more) jettisoned a legal principle fashioned by the Federal Circuit, nor that the opinion was largely without dissent (Justice Ginsburg did dissent in part). The case, Impression Products v. Lexmark International, concluded that a patentee’s decision...

Supreme Court Sharply Limits Patent Forum–Shopping In TC Heartland

Today, May 22, 2017, the Supreme Court struck a powerful blow against forum–shopping in patent litigation and the related patent troll plague. In a concise opinion by Justice Thomas in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, a unanimous Supreme Court held that a domestic corporation “resides” only in its State of incorporation for purpose...

TC Heartland: A View from the (Supreme) Courtroom

Having led the team that filed an amicus curiae brief for 48 Internet companies, retailers, and associations in support of TC Heartland, Peter Brann attended the oral argument in TC Heartland v. Kraft at the Supreme Court yesterday. Though not a disinterested observer, he offers these thoughts on what he saw: Although the venue question presented...

Big Week For IP In The Supreme Court

While the political world roils, the Supreme Court issued two major IP law decisions this week. In SCA Hygiene Products v. First Quality Baby Products, the Court, in an opinion by Justice Alito, held that the equitable doctrine of laches could not be asserted as a defense in patent cases. Laches is an old doctrine...