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Welcome to the Snell & Wilmer intellectual property and technology litigation blog! Check here for useful news and information about patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other IP and technology litigation developments.

Supreme Court Holds Patent Royalties Expire When Patent Expires

In 1964, the Supreme Court held, in Brulotte v. Thys Co., that a patent owner may not receive royalties on a patent after the patent expires.  Today, in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, the Supreme Court declined to overturn Brulotte, relying on stare decisis, which “carries enhanced force when a decision, like Brulotte, interprets a statute.” […]

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Federal Circuit Remands Because PTAB’s Claim Construction Was “Unreasonably Broad”

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) administers post-grant patent proceedings under the America Invents Act. The PTAB has invalidated many patent claims, and has been referred to as a patent “death squad.” But a recent Federal Circuit decision reversed the PTAB’s holding that claims owned by Proxyconn, Inc., were invalid, delivering encouraging news to patent […]

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Supreme Court Invokes Common Law Principles in Largely Pro-Patent Decision: Good-Faith Belief of Invalidity Is Not a Defense to Induced Patent Infringement

The Supreme Court decided today in Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. that an accused infringer’s good-faith belief that a patent is invalid, standing alone, is not a defense to induced infringement.  As discussed in greater detail in our earlier post, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling that prohibited Cisco from presenting […]

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Federal Circuit Holds Biosig’s Patent Not Indefinite Under New Standard

Applying the Supreme Court’s new “reasonable certainty” standard for patent definiteness in Biosig Instruments, Inc. v. Nautilus, Inc. (2015) (Nautilus III), the Federal Circuit again held that Biosig’s patent for a heart rate monitor is not indefinite.  In Nautilus II (2014), the Supreme Court rejected the Federal Circuit’s “insolubly ambiguous” standard for indefiniteness, but did not determine whether Biosig’s […]

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Supreme Court: TTAB Proceedings Can Have Preclusive Effect in Federal Court

Today, the Supreme Court held in B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries that likelihood-of-confusion decisions by the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) can have preclusive effect in federal court. Hargis applied to register the mark SEALTITE and B&B opposed, based on its registration for SEALTIGHT.  The TTAB sustained B&B’s […]

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Supreme Court Gives District Courts More Power in Patent Claim Construction

On January 20, 2015, in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., the Supreme Court reallocated power between federal district courts and the Federal Circuit in the patent claim construction process.  For many years, the Federal Circuit has reviewed all district court claim constructions de novo, without deference to the district court. Today, the Court held […]

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Supreme Court to Review Defenses to Induced Patent Infringement

On December 5, 2014, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Commil USA, LLC, v. Cisco Systems, Inc., to decide whether a defendant’s good-faith belief that a patent is invalid is a defense to induced infringement. Previously, a divided panel of the Federal Circuit held that a Texas district court should have allowed evidence that Cisco believed […]

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Arizona Supreme Court Limits Preemptive Sweep of Arizona’s Trade Secrets Act

The Arizona Supreme Court decided yesterday in Orca Communications Unlimited v. Noder that Arizona’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, A.R.S. § 44-401 et seq., does not preempt common law tort claims for misappropriation of confidential information that does not rise to the level of a statutory “trade secret.” The majority of jurisdictions deciding the preemption issue […]

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Patent Assertion Entity Settles FTC Charges

Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) acquire patent rights and attempt to generate revenue by licensing or litigating the patents.  In September 2013, the FTC announced its decision to collect empirical data to study the effects of PAE activities. Recently, on November 6, 2014, the FTC agreed to settle charges against MPHJ Technology Investments, LLC, a PAE […]

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