8 Aug 2014
In Amdocs Ltd. v. Openet Telecom, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2014) the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reversed the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in a case between competitors in the so called data mediation software industry. The case involves Amdocs Israel Limited (Amdocs), which sued Openet Telecom,...
27 Nov 2013
Back in July of 2012, a jury returned a powerful verdict against Samsung, in a suit filed by Apple (AAPL), claiming Samsung infringed on several patents, and diluted Apple’s trade dress for the iPhone. That jury found that 26 Samsung smartphones and tablets infringed Apple patents and that six Samsung smartphones diluted Apple’s registered iPhone...
21 Oct 2013
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision holding Sturm did not infringe Keurig’s patents, because Keurig’s patent rights were exhausted. Patent exhaustion is an affirmative defense to a claim of patent infringement, which is triggered, in some instances as in this case, when a patent owner authorizes...
20 Jun 2013
On October 19, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (the Board) decision to deny registration of the mark “Rebel” for grass seed on the grounds that the mark is a generic designation of the seed and therefore not entitled to registration. Pennington Seed, Inc....
3 Jan 2013
On November 28, 2006, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the case of KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc. The case itself concerned a broadly worded patent claim that the United States Patent Office (USPTO) told the Supreme Court was invalid under Section 103 of the Patent Act and was issued in...
1 Jan 2013
In PHG Technologies, LLC, v. St. John Companies, Case No. 06-1169 (Fed. Cir., Nov. 17, 2006), the Federal Circuit vacated the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee’s preliminary injunction in favor of Plaintiff-Appellee, PHG Technologies, L.L.C. (“PHG”). The court relied on the finding that Defendant-Appellant, St. John Companies, Inc. (“St. John”)...
7 Mar 2012
On September 15, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided in a copyright case that Lexis Nexis(Lexis) did not infringe on the copyright of the plaintiff corporation LawMode. Ross Brovins & Oehmke v. Lexis Group, Case No. 05-1513 (6th Cir., Sept. 25, 2006) More specifically, the court held that Lexis’ compilation...
6 Dec 2011
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in the Dystar Textilfarben v. C.H. Patrick Co. and Bann Quimica decision that defended the use of the “motivation-suggesting teaching” (hereinafter: “M-S-T”) test in order to determine a finding of obviousness in the matter of patented inventions. The opinion is of particular interest...
16 Jan 2007
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Spine, Inc. (DePuy) was recently involved in a $20 million (plus) patent infringement case regarding polyaxial screw spinal implant devices. The case was litigated to a jury yielding a verdict of $20 million in favor of DePuy Spine. On appeal, the Federal Circuit upheld DePuy Spine’s $20 million verdict as...