IP Wise

Executive Action On Patent Trolls At The Federal And State Levels

At the federal and state levels, the executive branches of government show signs of willingness to take steps to clip the wings of patent assertion entities (a/k/a patent trolls). With signs of legislative action at the federal and state levels as well, we may be witnessing a turning of the legal tide. White House Proposes...

An Encouraging Step By The ITC

We’ve spoken before about the ITC’s proposed discovery rules – and why limitations on discovery nearly always translate into limitations on otherwise out-of-control litigation costs. Thanks to ITC Blog, we’re aware that the final discovery rules have now been adopted. The rules are effective as of June 20th, and it is a welcome step by the ITC down a...

Never Mind The Gap at the Federal Circuit

CLS Bank was going to do for computer–implemented inventions what Bilski was going to do for business method patents. The Federal Circuit took the case en banc so that the entirety of the court could craft a ruling about when and under what circumstances adding a computer to an abstract method or system patent claim would suffice to render that claim...

A Licensee By Any Other Name

Following up on our prior post about the hubbub – whether exaggerated or true to form – of the ITC being the latest hotspot for patent trolls, submitted for your approval is an interesting decision from the Federal Circuit, which casts a jaundiced eye on the ability of non-practicing entities to rely on licensing activities to establish domestic industry....

The Patentee Behind The Curtain

The End Anonymous Patents Act, recently introduced in Congress by Ted Deutch, has already drummed up significant support and press. The Act would require disclosure of the real party in interest of a patent upon issuance or, in cases where patents are transferred, within a short time after acquisition—providing some much needed transparency to the...

Notes on a “Scan”–dal

Step away from the scanner. Or so says FolNer LLC and more than a dozen other shell companies, all claiming to own four patents allegedly covering the act of scanning a paper document and sending that scan by email. As reported by NBC Connecticut, a collection of LLCs with six–letter names (like FolNer) continues to target...

Back In The Saddle Again

We’ve mentioned Alcatel–Lucent before. We’ve certainly mentioned Newegg a time or two. And so, it is worth mentioning that Newegg has successfully battled another patent infringement claim all the way to the Federal Circuit. Alcatel had claimed its patents covered certain core elements of ecommerce functionality; Newegg (and Overstock) disagreed. The verdict, and the affirmance on appeal, sided with Newegg. We look...

Troll Troubles

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, who blogs at Written Description, has written a guest post for Patently O on a panel she recently chaired at the Yale Law School on “Patent Assertion Entities: Promoting or Stifling Innovation?” A panel of academics, in–house patent counsel, and Patent Office counsel appear to have focused their attention not on bad actors (patent trolls),...

Alice’s End

In a badly fractured en banc decision, the Federal Circuit in CLS Bank v. Alice Corp. affirmed the lower court’s holding that Alice’s claims to a computerized method, a computer-readable medium containing computer instructions, and a computer system that implements those instructions were not patent-eligible subject matter. We are still in the process of reviewing the seven...

Patent Ban Down Under?

New Zealand’s Commerce Minister has released a supplemental order paper clarifying the government’s position that software patenting shouldn’t be allowed within the country. The paper – which affects the Patent Bill pending before parliament – proposes language that a computer program is “not an invention and not a manner of manufacture for purposes of this Act.” That...