In a long awaited decision having the potential to impact where patent suits are litigated, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC today. TC Heartland confirms that, for the purposes of the venue statute for patent infringement actions—28 U.S.C. § 1400(b)—“resides” is limited to the state […]
In a second Intellectual-Property-related decision in as many days, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling on March 22, 2017, in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc. et al. (No. 15-866), confirming that copyright protection extends to pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works regardless of whether they were created as freestanding art or as […]
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decisive ruling today in SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Products, LLC (No. 15-927), eliminating the defense of laches in patent cases. This ruling continues the Supreme Court’s recent trend of overturning Federal Circuit precedent. Laches is an equitable defense in which a plaintiff is barred from […]
In a combined opinion for two cases, Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. (No. 14–1513) and Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, Inc.(No. 14–1520), a unanimous Supreme Court rejected the two-part test for awarding enhanced damages under 35 U.S.C. § 284. The Federal Circuit had pronounced this test nearly a decade ago in In re Seagate […]
On June 20, 2016, the Supreme Court issued a long awaited opinion in Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee, 579 U. S. ____ (2016). In its opinion, the Supreme Court squarely sided with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, approving of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) use of the broadest reasonable interpretation […]
In a recent decision, Azure Networks LLC v. CSR PLC (hereafter “Azure Networks”), the Federal Circuit held that the title owner of a patent may not be joined as a co-plaintiff in a patent infringement suit for purposes of standing if the title owner has transferred all substantial rights in the patent. 771 F.3d 1336 […]
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a substantive trademark matter for the first time in ten years, holding in Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank (No. 13-1211) that trademark tacking is a factual determination properly reserved for the jury (the fact finder). This ruling resolved a split in the Circuits regarding who properly decides trademark […]
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision today in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc. (No. 13-854), altering the standard used by the Federal Circuit since 1998 to review claim construction determinations on appeal. This ruling is the latest in a series of recent Supreme Court decisions reversing practices previously established by the […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued revised guidelines for determining patent eligible subject matter following recent groundbreaking precedent, including Alice Corp., Mayo, and Myriad. The guidance substantially alters the USPTO’s earlier, more restrictive examination procedures and instructions to examiners, and address the implications of those recent decisions in a more nuanced and […]
A unanimous Supreme Court today ruled that software patents based on abstract ideas that merely require generic computer implementation are ineligible for patent protection, affirming the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s recent en banc decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l. This ruling does not render all software-related inventions ineligible for […]
