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.
On September 27, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission announced its intention to conduct a study of “patent assertion entities” (“PAEs”). The FTC’s press release is here, the Federal Register notice is here, and the online public comment form is here. According to the FTC, “PAEs are firms with a business model based primarily on purchasing […]
The Federal Circuit has ruled that Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.’s financial and internal market research information may remain protected and need not be disclosed to the public. As we have noted separately, U.S. District Court Judge Koh had denied both parties’ motions to seal financial and other commercial information that the parties considered […]
Dish Network offers its customers the “Hopper”—a set-top box that combines video on demand (VOD) and digital video recorder (DVR) functionality. The Hopper uses “PrimeTime Anytime” and “AutoHop” to automatically record TV shows and skip commercials in those shows. Fox sued Dish, claiming these services infringed Fox’s copyrights, and moved for a preliminary injunction. The […]
Patent litigation tends to be protracted and expensive. In the past, such litigation has continued to a conclusion before any appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In some instances, a ruling that the trial court made early in the case on claim construction, or a ruling on liability, might […]
On June 17, 2013, in FTC v. Actavis, the Supreme Court resolved a long-brewing battle between the FTC and the antitrust and patent defense bar over whether reverse-payment patent settlements between patentees and alleged infringers violate federal antitrust laws. These settlements are categorized as reverse-payments because the settlement arises in the following circumstance: Alleged infringer […]
On June 13, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously held that 1) naturally-occurring DNA sequences are not patentable, even if they have been isolated from their natural environment, and 2) sequences of complimentary DNA (cDNA) are patentable. The Court’s recent decision in Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 569 U.S. ____ […]
On May 13, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous opinion affirming the Southern District of Indiana and Federal Circuit in Bowman v. Monsanto Co., holding that the exhaustion doctrine did not permit a farmer to harvest soybeans with patented genetic resistance to pesticides for seed. The opinion did not, however, […]
Anyone hoping for clarity on the standard for patent “eligibility” under 35 U.S.C. § 101 will be disappointed by the Federal Circuit’s recent en banc decision in CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation (No. 2011-1301, decided May 10, 2013). In a one-paragraph per curiam opinion, the court affirmed the district court’s holding that Alice’s patent claims […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has clarified the scope and nature of liability for online service providers when users upload infringing content to services such as media hosting sites. The Ninth Circuit’s March 14, 2013 decision vacated and replaced the court’s prior decision in UMG Recordings v. Shelter Capital Partners, 667 F.3d 1022 (2012) […]
The Federal Circuit recently decided to have the entire court consider en banc whether the court should overrule its longstanding rule that patent claim construction is a purely legal question which is reviewed de novo on appeal. This development may foreshadow significant changes in patent litigation practice. A brief historical discussion will highlight the potential […]
