Intellectual Property Law

New Rules For eDiscovery

Posted on September 28, 2006
Only two months and a few days until the e-discovery amendments (the "Amendments") to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure take effect. For those not aware, on December 1, 2006 the Federal Rules will be amended to address a variety of topics related to the discovery of electronically stored information...

The Latest On Patent Reform In Congress

Posted on September 20, 2006
Our loyal readers know that the IP Blawg has been following proposed patent legislation all year, including the efforts of Rep. Darrell Issa to establish a pilot program to create a specialized patent rocket docket. A bill just reported out of a House committee would establish a pilot program aimed at increasing expertise among federal judges hearing patent cases...

FBM To Host IP Roundtable

Posted on September 15, 2006
As the Blawg has reported over the past 18 months, the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated an active interest in patent cases. Continuing that trend, it has already agreed to hear two cases involving patent issues in the upcoming term that starts in October...

Professor Kimberly Moore Unanimously Confirmed To Federal Circuit

Posted on September 07, 2006
In a 92-0 vote, Kimberly Moore was confirmed yesterday as a United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit ? filling the vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Raymond C. Clevenger, III. Professor Moore, an intellectual property law professor at the George Mason University School of Law, is currently the editor-in-chief of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal, and is...

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The Battle Between TiVo and Echostar Picks Up The Pace

Posted on August 21, 2006
The action is fast and furious in the patent dispute between digital video recording developer TiVo and satellite communications giant Echostar Communications. First, last week the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Echostar from ?making, using, offering to sell or selling? products that permit the recording of television programs by the method...

"Anonymous Internet Mischief" at the ABA Meeting

Posted on August 16, 2006
After taking some time off around the American Bar Association's annual meeting in Hawaii, the IP Blawg is back! While it can be difficult to concentrate on CLE courses and committee meetings with the lure of the beach in the background, the IP Blawg is proud to say it was in attendance when the Intellectual Property Litigation Committee held its...

FTC Rebuffs Rambus

Posted on August 04, 2006
The battle between computer memory developer Rambus and the Federal Trade Commission over Rambus' participation in the setting of standards for dynamic random access memory ("DRAM") technology took a sudden turn this week when a unanimous panel of the FTC reversed a decision rendered two years ago by an administrative law judge that Rambus did not unlawfully monopolize the market...

Can A University?s Color Scheme Be Trademarked?

Posted on August 03, 2006
A federal judge sitting in the Eastern District of Louisiana answered this question ?yes,? granting summary judgment of intentional trademark infringement for plaintiffs Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, Oklahoma University, and the University of Southern California against defendant Smack Apparel...

Congress Tries To Move Ahead On Patent Reform - Again

Posted on July 28, 2006
As we have reported in the past, Congress has been taking up patent reform legislation in fits and starts. Although committees in both the House and Senate have considered a number of bills that would make changes in the patent laws that range from inconsequential to potentially radical, nothing yet has made it out of committee...

Int'l Patent Litigation - Winning Strategies

Posted on July 26, 2006
Farella Braun + Martel is co-sponsoring a two-day seminar in Taiwan on International Patent Litigation--Winning Strategies and Approaches. This seminar, organized by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Academy, will cover issues relating to international and Taiwanese patent regimes...

YouTube Following In Grokster?s Footsteps?

Posted on July 26, 2006
The IP Blawg is following a recent copyright complaint filed in the Northern District of California that may help clarify the contours of on-line file sharing liability after the Supreme Court?s decision in MGM v. Grokster. Recall that last June the Supreme Court ruled in Grokster that distributors of peer-to-peer file-swapping software could be held liable for the actions of...

Apple Decides Not To Challenge Ruling Protecting Bloggers? Sources

Posted on July 17, 2006
We have learned that Apple Computer, Inc. will apparently not challenge the noteworthy California appellate decision rejecting its efforts to use the subpoena process to identify the source of leaked trade secret information about its upcoming products...

Trademark Application Does Not Taste Quite Right

Posted on July 13, 2006
As new products enter the marketplace, their developers are always on the lookout for ways to distinguish these products from existing or anticipated competing products. In the case of pharmaceuticals, one way to make a product stand out from the others in a highly competitive field is to give the product a unique, pleasant taste...

Patent Teamwork May Save Millions

Posted on July 07, 2006
Complex patent litigation is a challenge for even the most sophisticated companies. Patent cases tend to disrupt a company's business, occupy a disproportionate amount of management time and cost millions of dollars - win or lose. By working as a team, company executives and outside counsel can more effectively manage these cases to minimize disruption, risk and cost...

Fallout From eBay v. MercExchange - Court Denies Injunction

Posted on July 07, 2006
In May we reported on the Supreme Court?s decision in eBay v. MercExchange, in which the Court repudiated the long-held rule that a patent owner was entitled to a presumption of irreparable harm upon a finding of infringement of its patent. Under this rule, critics complained that a permanent injunction had become almost automatic for successful plaintiffs, which put an...

Federal Circuit Holds That Inequitable Conduct Defense Properly Resolved By Court, Not Jury

Posted on June 30, 2006
A divided panel of the Federal Circuit held earlier this week in Agfa Corp. v. Creo Products Inc. that the issue of whether plaintiff committed inequitable conduct in failing to disclose material prior art during prosecution of its patents, including defendants' own prior art system, was properly resolved by the court, rather than a jury...

Does Selling a Trademark as a Keyword for Advertising Infringe Trademark Rights?

Posted on June 29, 2006
Well, the French seem to think so. On Wednesday, a French court of appeals upheld a lower court ruling finding Google liable for trademark infringement for selling Louis Vuitton?s trademarks to competitors as keywords for advertising. Previously, a French court had also ordered Google to stop selling the trademarks of Le Meridian Hotels and Resorts as keywords for advertising...

Supreme Court Steps On The Gas To Review Obviousness

Posted on June 28, 2006
In a case with huge implications for both patent prosecutors and litigators, the Supreme Court has granted KSR?s petition for certiorari and is prepared to address basic questions of patentability that have not been considered by the Court since 1966, before the Federal Circuit was even formed...

The Supreme Court Punts On Patentability

Posted on June 23, 2006
In a decision that has many court watchers scratching their heads, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ?dismissed as improvidently granted? the writ of certiorari in Laboratory Corporation of America v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc. The one-sentence per curiam ruling put an end to a case that experienced several strange twists on its way to and from the Supreme Court...

Congress Considers Clampdown On Online Gambling

Posted on June 23, 2006
As we have previously reported, there are differing views over whether the federal Wire Act of 1961 bars internet gambling, sometimes leading to tension between federal officials and state governments interested in permitting and regulating such conduct...

FBM & Stanford University Host IP Event

Posted on June 22, 2006
UNDERSTANDING THE SUPREME COURT?S RECENT PATENT DECISIONS How Those Decisions May Impact Technology CompaniesCo-hosted byFarella Braun + Martel LLP Stanford Law School'sProgram in Law, Science & Technology In the last two or three years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken an unprecedented interest in patent cases...

Trademark Office Denies "Disparaging" Mark

Posted on June 19, 2006
As we have reported in the past, one function of the Trademark Office in reviewing applications for trademarks is to deny registration to marks that it deems consist of "immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter" in accordance with section 2(a) of the Lanham Act...

Form Letter And Follow Up Mere Offer Of License In Declaratory Judgment Action

Posted on June 13, 2006
Sending a form letter and engaging in follow up licensing discussions do not satisfy the "reasonable apprehension of litigation" test as required to support jurisdiction under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. Section 2201(a). So held Judge Martin Jenkins of the Northern District of California in a May 31, 2006 Order in Shoom, Inc...

Merck vs. Integra - Back In The Federal Circuit

Posted on June 12, 2006
We reported last summer on the Supreme Court?s decision in Merck KgaA vs. Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd., in which the Court held that the exemption to infringement under 35 U.S.C. section 271(e)(1) should be given a broader application than that adopted by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit...

Copyright Obstacles Loom For Cablevision?s DVR Technology

Posted on June 11, 2006
Keep your eyes on the recently-filed Cablevision copyright litigation pitting several movie studios and the three big television networks against the cable television provider?s efforts to roll out new digital video recorder technology. The case looks like it could address key questions about the legal limitations upon emerging technologies designed to let consumers time-shift and space-shift digital content...

Court Draws Distinction Between "Customer List" and "Contact List" In Trade Secrets Litigation

Posted on June 06, 2006
In a May 31, 2006 decision, Judge Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted limited a preliminary injunction in favor of a pharmaceutical services company (Fisher Bioservices) against its former sales representative (Haas) who had started working for a competitor in Fisher Bioservices, Inc...

Will The Supreme Court Fundamentally Change Patent Law Again?

Posted on June 05, 2006
In keeping with its recent trend of taking a fresh look at some of the fundamental principles of patent law, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to accept certiorari in a case that would permit it to consider the standards under which courts evaluate the validity of patents...

California Recognizes Privacy And Shield Law Obstacles To Unmasking Source of Leaks In Trade Secret Dispute

Posted on June 01, 2006
In a noteworthy case pitting a trade secret plaintiff?s efforts to identify the source of the leaked information against bloggers? rights as journalists, a California appeals court has rejected Apple Computer, Inc.?s efforts to subpoena e-mail received by the publishers of online news magazines...

Illicit Copyright Infringement Resolution ? Senate Resolution 488

Posted on May 31, 2006
Did you see where the United States Senate unanimously passed by consent last week a resolution ?expressing the sense of Congress that institutions of higher education should adopt policies and educational programs on their campuses to help deter and eliminate illicit copyright?? Senate Resolution 488 has no legal authority, but it suggests the strength of the entertainment industry in keeping...

More Skirmishing On Patent Reform

Posted on May 26, 2006
The problem facing Congress as it attempts to craft patent reform legislation became starkly apparent again in hearings held this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee?s Sub-Committee on Intellectual Property. As we have reported on a number of occasions, Congress, prodded in general by the technology community, has been considering several potentially substantial reforms to the patent laws, but thus...

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