The Daily Reviewer | Patent Prospector

i4i Review Redux

Mar 10, 2010 4:54pm

Microsoft has prevailed upon the CAFC to rehear, en banc, only the willfulness portion of its affirmation of the district court ruling in i4i v. Microsoft. In other words, the CAFC cut Microsoft a break, probably because the CAFC wants another bite at cleaning up the willfulness standard. A revised...

Less Than Best Mode

Mar 9, 2010 3:18pm

The American arm of Japan's Ajinomoto complained to the ITC to stop foreign imports of dietary supplement lysine, under the aegis of 5,827,698 and 6,040,160. The snag was that their patent applications didn't actually disclose their production techniques. That cost them the patents for failing to meet best mode, and...

Whole Wallet

Mar 7, 2010 11:47am

Taking a break from the frigid east Washington winter, CAFC Judge Rader has been marshalling in Marshall. Rader's adjudicating an East Texas patent brawl between IP Innovation and Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell. Judge Rader takes no wooden nickels as the Linux twins sought to toss IPI's damages expert...

Cool Analogy

Mar 5, 2010 8:10pm

5,955,955 claims a computer drive bay fan, meant to cool the hard drives right in their own living room. '955 owner Comaper sued Antec for infringement. Trial found Antec willfully infringing some claims. Some claims were obvious to the jury, others validly novel. Appeal found that "irreconcilably inconsistent." The CAFC...

Momentos

Mar 3, 2010 1:44pm

Media Technologies sued Upper Deck for infringing two memorabilia patents: 5,803,501 & 6,142,532. After a trip to the CAFC on district court summary judgment over res judicata (reversed), trial court proceedings were stayed pending reexamination. Both patents made it through reexam unscathed. Then, based on claim construction, Upper Deck got...

Static

Feb 27, 2010 3:59pm

Trading Technologies sued eSpeed and Ecco for infringing 6,772,132 & 6,766,304, which go to displaying "static price levels" on a computerized board for commodity trading. One service product infringed, but others literally did not, and applying the doctrine of equivalents was proscribed. Defenses to indefiniteness and inequitable conduct went nowhere,...

Crock

Feb 25, 2010 10:24pm

The International Trade Clowns (ITC) handed a crock to clog maker Crocs when it asserted 6,993,858 and D517,789: '858 was found obvious and '789 not infringed. Crocs squealed and appealed to the CAFC, which stepped in it and splattered the ITC with both feet: utility and design patent case law.......

Fragments

Feb 24, 2010 5:34pm

Andrew Chapman and David King had a patent idea "directed to divalent antibody fragments comprising two antibody heavy chains and at least one polymer molecule attached to the heavy chains in a site-specific manner on each chain... Chapman's invention involves joining together two fragments with an interchain bridge containing a...

Floored

Feb 19, 2010 8:37am

"Pergo and Alloc are direct competitors in the field of laminate flooring. Pergo owns the 6,421,970 and 6,397,547 patents, which relate to mechanical joints that enable flooring panels to be joined without the use of glue or other fasteners, such as nails or metal clips. Alloc brought a declaratory judgment...

Relatively Stiff

Feb 18, 2010 9:42am

Yousef Daneshvar filed a patent application claiming : "an apparatus for dressing a wound. The invention features a 'relatively stiff support' that is secured over the wound using one or more 'relatively stretchable straps.'" The BPAI rejected Daneshvar's claims as anticipated and obvious over 5,779,657. Daneshvar had to go to...

Why the Hawk

Feb 9, 2010 11:52am

A friend and client, India born, was telling me about the different prior art search firms he had used. "The Indians are cheap, and you get what you pay for. They find something and they quit. They know nothing about litigation, or U.S. patent laws. They have no concept of...

Unpublished

Feb 8, 2010 1:52pm

ResQNet sued Lansa in 2001 for infringing five patents related to terminal emulation. Lansa found art, two unpublished user manuals for a software product called Flashpoint, that it argued anticipated one of the asserted patents, 6,295,075. But the district court wouldn't admit the art as public, and hence not legally...

Deep Fryer

Feb 7, 2010 12:29pm

SEB sued Montgomery Ward and others for infringing 4,995,312 by selling a cheap deep fryer manufactured by Pentalpha. Speedy justice meant that getting to trial took a mere seven years, whereupon a jury found willful infringement, awarding $4.65 million in damages, which the district court judge hence cut by $2...

Inherent Anticipation

Feb 2, 2010 1:48am

Abbott sued Beckton, Dickinson and Company and Nova Biomedical for infringing 5,628,890, which claims a glucose sensor. A jury found '890 anticipated. Abbott appealed the trial judge's jury instruction over the meaning of anticipation. The CAFC surveyed the boundary of inherency, and found the nugget: "all elements must be disclosed...

Diabetic

Jan 29, 2010 12:25am

5,820,551 claims single-use test strips for measuring blood sugar, useful for diabetics. Becton, Dickinson and Company threw down a declaratory judgment (DJ) action on competitor Abbott over a couple other patents. Abbott countered with a suit that also asserted '551. Weak move. The DJ worked: summary judgment of non-infringement and...