Wall Street Journal Quotes Peter Brann On Impact Of Major Supreme Court Patent Case

/ 0 Comments

In a March 23, 2017, article, the Wall Street Journal quotes Partner Peter Brann on the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in a major patent case, TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands. The case, which is scheduled for oral argument on Monday, March 27, 2017, has the potential to put a stop...

Read More
separator

Patent Trolls Still Can’t Find A Way Through Alice’s Looking Glass

/ 0 Comments

We (and others) have written frequently and at length about the impact of Alice v. CLS Bank on patent litigation—how the test set out in that case has enabled litigants and courts to obtain an early determination of whether a patent claims a viable invention or just an abstract idea. Parties who assert patents in...

Read More
separator

Supreme Court May Take Its Chance To End Forum Shopping

/ 0 Comments

Before closing up shop for the holidays, the Supreme Court issued a short order which, among other things, granted the cert. petition filed in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, LLC. By taking this case, the Court has given hope to those of us concerned about forum shopping, and the over–concentration of patent...

Read More
separator

What’s Your Damage, Apple?

/ 0 Comments

The opinion of the Supreme Court is in, in Samsung v. Apple, and the news is not appetizing for Apple. Justice Sotomayor, writing for a unanimous Court, did just enough to (temporarily?) undo the $399–million verdict Apple had secured in this skirmish of the smartphone wars for infringement of its design patents. But the Court...

Read More
separator

Vote Counts: Supreme Court Ties Make Everyone The Loser

/ 0 Comments

Intellectual property law is not especially ideological—or at least not obviously so. While there are many vehement disputes in the field of IP law, few if any can be cast in R–vs.–D, right–vs.–left terms. That is one reason that patent law has been an area in which the Roberts Supreme Court has been able to...

Read More
separator

Government Supports Supreme Court Review Of Patent Exhaustion Dispute

/ 0 Comments

For some, patent exhaustion is the feeling you get when you try to read the text of a patent and just can’t keep your eyes open. In the law, patent exhaustion is a legal doctrine that limits the scope of a patent–holder’s rights. The first valid sale of a patented product exhausts those rights, so...

Read More
separator

Supreme Court To Review Statute Against Disparaging Trademarks

/ 0 Comments

Federal trademark law, specifically, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a),  provides that the Patent and Trademark Office can refuse to register a trademark that disparages persons, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols. Last December, the entire Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held this disparagement provision to be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, as we discussed at the...

Read More
separator

32 Internet Companies, Retailers, and Associations File Supreme Court Amicus Brief on Patent Venue

/ 0 Comments

Perhaps only in the sphere of patent litigation can the issue of venue—in what court a case can be filed—take on mammoth significance, and draw the attention of interested observers. Why does venue matter? Well, under the current relaxed regime, over 40% of all patent cases in 2015 were filed in the Eastern District of...

Read More
separator

The Role of Design Patents in Patent Troll’s Litigation Designs

/ 0 Comments

The business world snapped to attention when Apple obtained a $400 million verdict from Samsung in a dispute largely focused on design patents covering how smart–phones look. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the question of how to assign damages for design patent infringement—that is, how to distinguish between the value of the...

Read More
separator

Supreme Court To Decide Which Exports Can Trigger Patent Infringement Liability For World–Wide Sales

/ 0 Comments

The Supreme Court term is closing this week with a flurry of long-awaited, contested opinions on abortion, gun control, and government corruption. But intellectual property–minded court–watchers found interest in the Court’s decision to grant cert. (in part) in the case of Life Technologies v. Promega. While U.S. patent law is generally limited to domestic conduct,...

Read More
separator