Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court held that the patentee has the burden of proving infringement when a licensee seeks declaratory judgment, in Medtronic v. Mirowski (PDF), reversing the lower court.
Tag Archives: United States
IP at the USSC
On Friday, the United States Supreme Court granted cert in four IP related proceedings: POM Wonderful v. Coca-Cola – standing under the Lanham Act to challenge labelling; Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies – does inducing patent infringement require direct infringement; Nautilus v. Biosig Instruments – standard for indefiniteness in patent claims; and ABC, Inc., v. Aereo, Inc. – copyright infringement and public transmissions over the Internet.
Patentable Subject Matter (again)
The United States Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al. on the issue of whether computer-implemented inventions are patentable subject matter. This is an appeal from an en banc decision of the CAFC in which the panel of ten judges had written seven separate decisions with a majority holding the claims to be non-patentable.
Google Books
Judge Chin of the District Court of New York held today that the Google Books scanning project is ‘fair use’, granting Google’s motion for summary judgment. Google has scanned more than 20 million books and includes the results in its search engine. The Authors Guild and individual authors sued for copyright infringement and sought class action status. The Authors Guild has indicated it will appeal the decision.
Reverse Payments
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision today in FTC v. Actavis, Inc. considering the legality of ‘reverse payment’ patent settlements particularly under the Hatch-Waxman Act. A majority held that such settlements are not presumptively illegal, nor immune from antitrust attack.
Isolated DNA
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that isolated DNA is not patentable subject matter but cDNA is patentable in Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. et al.
Patent Assertion Entities
President Obama released reports and plans relating to patent litigation in the United States and particularly addressing “Patent Assertion Entities”. The announcement today included among other things, plans to provide new rules as to patent ownership and guidance on ‘functional claiming’ in software patents, as well as recommendations on costs awards in patent cases.
Seeds are not exhausted
In a unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the lower court decision in Bowman v. Monsanto et al. The Court held that a farmer who buys patented genetically modified seeds may not reproduce them through planting and harvesting without the patent holder’s permission.
En banc Patentable subject matter
Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its en banc decision in CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation on the patentability of computer related inventions. The panel of ten judges wrote seven sets of reasons but a majority affirmed the lower court decision that the asserted system, method and computer-readable media claims were not directed to eligible subject matter.
isoHunt found to infringe
The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld summary judgment against isoHunt, a Canada based BitTorrent search engine, for contributory copyright infringement.