A majority of the United States Supreme Court upheld the application of the first sale doctrine to internationally published material in a decision released today, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Tag Archives: United States
AIA Implementation
This weekend the ‘first-to-file’ rules come into force in the United States as part of the America Invents Act implementation. Among other things, the new rules affect the significance of the date of invention and the scope of prior art citable against applications.
Google FTC Investigation
Google has settled an United States FTC investigation by agreeing to not seek injunctions against willing licensees on standard-essential patents that the company had obtained from Motorola. Also in the settlement, the Commission closed its investigation of Google’s online search and advertising business.
Myriad Genetics going to the US Supreme Court
This afternoon, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will hear the appeal in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics on a single question: “Are human genes patentable?”
Continue reading Myriad Genetics going to the US Supreme Court
Patent exhaustion
The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Bowman v. Monsanto Co on the application of patent exhaustion to second generation self-replicating genetically modified seeds.
AIA Rules
New rules for U.S. patent prosecution came into force yesterday as part of implementation of the America Invents Act. The new rules relate to inventor oath and declarations, supplemental examination, inter parte review, post grant review and covered business method patents.
Red Shoes
The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit released its decision today in Christian Louboutin v. Yves Saint Laurent reversing the lower court in part, concluding that a single colour can be a trademark in the fashion industry and “Louboutin’s trademark, consisting of a red, lacquered outsole on a high fashion woman’s shoe, has acquired limited ‘secondary meaning’ as a distinctive symbol that identifies the Louboutin brand.”
CAFC on induced infringement
In an en banc decision released today, a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held it is “not necessary to prove that all the steps [of direct patent infringement] were committed by a single entity” when determining induced infringement of method claims.
Gene Patents
Today, the United States CAFC issued its latest decision on the patentability of gene patents in Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) and ACLU v. USPTO and Myriad Genetics after its earlier decision in the case was vacated following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Mayo v. Prometheus, Inc.
Reverse Payment Agreements
Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that reverse payment agreements or exclusion agreements between brands and the first generic under the Hatch-Waxman Act should be prima facie evidence of an unreasonable restraint of trade. The action was a class proceeding brought by wholesalers and retailers of the drug K-Dur against Schering, In Re: K-Dur Antitrust Litigation.