Tafas Verdict Is A Setback For Patent Office
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the “PTO”) has been the subject of a lot of criticism over the past few years. In some art units, it can take years before an Examiner first looks at a newly filed patent application. When an Examiner does finally look at the application on the merits, there is […]
Second Life – A New Dimension For Trademark Infringement
The New Virtual World Millions must have marveled at the new horizons described in the conceivably prophetic 1982 movie “Blade Runner”, which portrayed the existential boredom cloaking our planet and humans’ endeavor to relocate to new outer worlds. Merely twenty years later, in 2003, San Francisco-based Linden Research, Inc. (a/k/a Linden Lab), has opened the […]
Qualcomm v. Broadcom: Lessons In E-Discovery
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 — In Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., No. 05-cv-1958-B, slip op. (S.D. Cal. Jan. 7, 2008), the Court sanctioned Qualcomm and its attorneys for failure to produce key electronic documents. There is little doubt that the behavior of Qualcomm and its attorneys was egregious and warranted the severe sanctions imposed. However, […]
Qualcomm v. Broadcom: Lessons In E-Discovery
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 — In Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., No. 05-cv-1958-B, slip op. (S.D. Cal. Jan. 7, 2008), the Court sanctioned Qualcomm and its attorneys for failure to produce key electronic documents. There is little doubt that the behavior of Qualcomm and its attorneys was egregious and warranted the severe sanctions imposed. However, […]
Will The High Court Clarify The Exhaustion Doctrine?
Jan 16, 2008 — Today, for the first time in half a century, the Supreme Court heard oral argument on the extent to which a patentee can license its patents to different members of the same sales chain for the same product. In Quanta v. LG Electronics, the High Court heard arguments on whether a […]
Reviving The Exhaustion Doctrine
Thursday, Jan 10, 2008 — On Jan. 16, 2008, the Supreme Court will be hearing oral argument in yet another patent case. This time, the Supreme Court is reviewing the latest precedent from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the law of patent exhaustion. In Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics, the […]
Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics: Will The Supreme Court Revive The Exhaustion Doctrine?
Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics: Will The Supreme Court Revive The Exhaustion Doctrine?
Introduction The doctrine of patent exhaustion has long acted as a measure to prevent patent owners from “double-dipping” by collecting patent licensing royalties from multiple entities in a supply chain for use of the same patented invention. For example, assume that a patent owner has a patent that covers a computer processing chip. The patent […]
Recent Changes To Trademark Trial And Appeal Board Rules
Traditionally, opposing an application or petitioning to cancel a registration in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) has been an attractive alternative to litigation in the courts, in part because such opposition and cancellation proceedings have not required some of the hallmarks of a civil action, such as scheduling conferences, initial disclosures and expert […]
Patentable Subject Matter: Refining the Boundaries
Friday, November 02, 2007 — There have been more developments and proposed changes to U.S. Patent Law over the past year or so than in most of the twelve month periods that even seasoned patent practitioners can remember. The Supreme Court reversed long-standing Federal Circuit law, the Federal Circuit reconsidered its own decisions, the United […]