IP Wise

Microsoft Makes A List (of Patents), Which You Can Check Twice

Citing its commitment to a “healthy patent ecosystem around the world,” Microsoft has taken the intriguing (possibly bold) step of publishing “a list that includes to the best of our knowledge all issued patents that Microsoft currently owns, either directly or through subsidiaries, along with a tool for assisting in review of the list.” In announcing...

Non–practicing Entities, Domestic Industry, and the ITC

The International Trade Commission has become a popular venue for patent litigation recently. Although the ITC cannot award damages, it can issue orders barring the importation of foreign–made goods into the United States if they are found to infringe a U.S. patent for which there is a “domestic industry,” a concept we’ll return to in a moment. ITC proceedings are difficult...

Fleshing Out the Form Complaint

A short note on a short order that would likely pass without comment—if it weren’t from the Eastern District of Texas. The order—with a mere two paragraphs of analysis—finds Plaintiff’s patent infringement claim lacking in the requisite specificity and requires Plaintiff to re–plead within two weeks. In short, the accusation directed at “visual voicemail products” is too...

Spanning the Globe…News of Note

Highlights of some recent attractions: First Sales Can Be Foreign. In a 6–3 decision in a copyright case, the Supreme Court has held that the “first–sale doctrine” applies to copyrighted works lawfully made abroad. The first–sale doctrine says that the intellectual property rights associated with a copyrighted work are exhausted with the first authorized manufacture or...

Trolls by the Trillions

We wouldn’t practice patent law if we didn’t like statistics, at least a bit—and past blog entries have made that clear. Therefore, it was with much interest that we reviewed the thorough information–gathering of Assistant Professor Colleen Chien (Santa Clara University Law School) on the staggering rise of patent troll litigation. We will let Professor Chien’s comprehensive work speak for...

Presidential Patents

CBS ran a news clip yesterday, regarding the anniversary of Honest Abe’s patent, filed March 10, 1849. The patent, for “buoying vessels over shoals,” was issued two years later, as Patent No. 6469 in our young nation’s history. The writer will confess to a certain academic interest in Presidential trivia, and, inspired by CBS’s lead, will offer a...

Divided We Fall…

Just a short follow up on a head–scratching topic oft on the Federal Circuit’s radar as of late: joint or divided infringement. As alert readers may recall, in Akamai, the Federal Circuit concluded that it was no longer necessary, in order to prove induced infringement, to demonstrate that all steps were committed by a single entity. (A...

Live by the Sword; Die by the SHIELD

(Which sounds like it should be the title of an old He-Man episode from the 1980s, but is not nearly as exciting). We’ve spoken before about the Saving High–Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act a/k/a SHIELD Act, which would add a “(patentholder) loser pays” provision in computer hardware and software patent cases in instances where the...

What Price Efficiency?

We are sympathetic to the plight of federal judges. Many U.S. district courts have overcrowded dockets, unfilled judgeships, and underfunded judges. In administering a busy court, efficient case management can be paramount, and judges should and do look for ways to streamline case management by consolidating cases. They have the authority under Federal Rule of Civil...

Gunned Down By the Supremes

The Supreme Court has issued another patent–related opinion, which causes all patent–related lawyers to prick up their ears… In Gunn v. Minton, the issue on appeal was whether a patent litigation malpractice case “arises under” the federal patent laws for purposes of exclusive federal jurisdiction. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court found that it did not....