Latest News & Alerts

How Do You “Like” That? First Amendment Protects Facebook “Likes”

In May 2012, we reported on a federal district court ruling from Virginia that hitting the “like” button on Facebook was not substantive speech protected by the First Amendment. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has now reversed the ruling that “liking” a political candidate’s Facebook page was unlike the kind of speech that...

Is the Heart of Texas America’s Heartland?

Five days ago, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas denied a motion to transfer venue on the part of a Taiwanese defendant because the defendant had placed its products into the stream of commerce “with knowledge and intent that they would be sold in the Eastern District of Texas.” By targeting the U.S. wireless...

The Price of Admission

Nokia is asking the Supreme Court to consider, among other questions, whether the “domestic industry” requirement of Section 337 is satisfied by “licensing alone.” Translated to practical terms: Can a non–practicing entity that doesn’t actually practice what it preaches, i.e. make any items that actually embody the claimed invention, nonetheless claim it has a “domestic industry” sufficient to invoke...

The Death Of Kings

We’ve spoken a time or a few about Soverain Software, which has been crossing swords with retailers over its purported “online shopping cart” patent for years. Last January, the Federal Circuit found Soverain’s asserted patent claims covered by technology found in the CompuServe Mall, a pre–Internet electronic shopping system, and invalidated for obviousness. Unexpectedly, the Federal Circuit...

Supreme Court Review of Software Patents? Nebraska AG Seeks to Block Patent Disputes

Two more stories worth following as summer’s end approaches: Dateline, Washington, D.C.: WildTangent is once more taking its case for a clear rule on software patent eligbility to the Supreme Court. Way back in 2010, WildTangent won a dismissal of a claim of patent infringement brought by Ultramercial in the district court. That court ruled that the...

GAO Issues Anticlimactic Report

As our readers know, a blizzard of patent reform bills has reached Washington, D.C., much to the interest of patent litigators, patent owners, and other stakeholders. Unfortunately for critics of the status quo, the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) has released a much–anticipated study of the consequences of litigation by non–practicing entities that would appear to diminish the problem...

Public Action Against Patent Trolls

It has been a busy week for public action against abuses of the patent and trademark laws: Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has entered a settlement agreement with MPHJ Technologies, the outfit targeting small businesses in a number of states with demand letters seeking a license to a patent allegedly covering the use of office scanners. Under...

New York Times Makes Headlines With A KO Blow To Helferich

If you’ve heard of Helferich Patent Licensing, LLC, a Chicago shell firm that claims to own a patent portfolio covering the process for sending links to mobile phones (colloquially, “link shortening”), it is perhaps in the context of its pitched battle with the New York Times Company. Or perhaps you’re just one of the many...

ITC Finds Domestic Industry Lacking for Lamina Packaging Innovations

While the President has been making news in the patent world with his reversal of the International Trade Commission’s ruling barring the importation of certain iPhones and other older model Apple products, the ITC has been making its own news in another case that has garnered significant attention,Certain Products Having Laminated Packaging, Laminated Packaging, and...

President Overrides ITC Order In Samsung–Apple Patent Row

On one front of their ongoing smart–phone war, Samsung believed it had won a key victory when it convinced the International Trade Commission to order a ban on the importation of older model Apple iPhones based on a finding that they infringed a Samsung patent relating to the transmission of data over cellular networks. The...