En Banc Federal Circuit Speaks On Joint Infringement and Induced Infringement

In two major decisions issued by the entire court, the Federal Circuit addressed two open questions, one regarding the doctrine of joint infringement; the other, the scope of the International Trade Commission’s authority over acts of induced infringement. In the latest of many chapters in the case of Akamai Technologies v. Limelight, the Federal Circuit...

Supreme Court Sides With Patent–Asserter In Commil v. Cisco

A divided Supreme Court held today in Commil v. Cisco that an accused infringer’s good–faith belief in the invalidity of a patent asserted against it is not a defense to an allegation of induced infringement. The opinion is a victory for the patent–assertion entity who sued Cisco, and another Supreme Court defeat for the Federal...

Divided Federal Circuit Panel Tackles Divided Infringement (Again)

In the week in which devoted fans await the final episode of the long–running TV drama, Mad Men, devoted Federal–Circuit watchers received the latest—but likely not the last—episode in the long–running drama of Akamai v. Limelight. This is the case that has not yet delivered on the promise of establishing with clarity when one party...

Federal Circuit Reins In ITC On Domestic Industry

It has been quite a while since we last talked about the International Trade Commission, the agency charged with protecting the United States from unfair trade practices—including intellectual property violations—in the importation of goods into the U.S. market. That is in part because the venue—with its complex rules and fast pace—appears no longer to be...

Supreme Court To Decide If You Have To Know You Are Inducing Patent Infringement To Knowingly Induce Patent Infringement

At the end of this month, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in its next big patent case, Commil v. Cisco. The question for decision relates to induced patent infringement, and whether an accused infringer who believes in good faith that the patent asserted against it is invalid can rely on that belief to...

Nothing Special About A Specialty Court

The Supreme Court reminded everyone, once again, that just because patent cases are heard by a special court of appeals, they are not governed by special rules that apply only to patent cases. In Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., the Court ruled 7–2 that when there are subsidiary factual issues in claim construction,...

Federal Circuit Chief Judge Sharon Prost Discusses New Post

As reported in The Recorder (registration required), Chief Judge Sharon Prost of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals talked about her sudden ascension to her new post at a conference on patent law held in northern California. Elevated to chief judge after former Chief Judge Rader resigned, Judge Prost suggested in a Q&A session that...

Federal Circuit Acknowledges That, Yes, Alice Did Change The Game

The yo–yo of Ultramercial v. Hulu has come to rest at last, and should prove to any doubters that the Supreme Court’s Alice v. CLS Bank opinion has changed the patent litigation game. The Ultramercial case has been adrift in cross–currents between the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court for years now. In 2010, the...

The Insular World of Intellectual Property

Even the global village has its cliques, as news from the Indian subcontinent and our nation’s capital reminds us. The Times of India reports today on a visit of representatives of the US–based Intellectual Property Owners’ Association with officials of the Intellectual Property Office, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, and the Supreme Court of India....

Go Ask Alice, When She’s Ten Feet Tall

With apologies to Jefferson Airplane, the Supreme Court’s Alice v. CLS Bank opinion has grown dramatically in size and strength since it issued in June. In that time, the Federal Circuit and federal district courts from New York to California have decided twenty–two cases of which we are aware. Of those, eighteen have found the...