Ergo Licensing, LLC v. Carefusion 303, Inc., No. 2011–1229 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 26, 2012) (Judges Newman, Linn, and Moore) Means-plus-function claims can be tricky. A means-plus-function limitation lets a patentee claim a structure by describing its function, like a “means for attaching a door to a wall” or a “means for containing liquid,” instead of [...]
Landmark Screens, LLC v. Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius, LLP, No. 2011–1297 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 23, 2012) (Judges Bryson, Clevenger, and O’Malley) This is a malpractice case, and the conduct by Landmark’s former patent lawyer is pretty bad. The main issue before the court was whether Landmark’s fraud claim was barred by the statute of limitations, [...]
Merial Ltd. v. Cipla Ltd., Nos. 2011-1471, -1472 (Fed. Cir. May 31, 2012) (Judges Lourie, Schall, and Reyna) Jurisdiction questions at the Federal Circuit usually relate to subject matter jurisdiction—whether the case encompasses issues that court has the authority to decide. In Merial, however, the jurisdiction question gets personal: how does the court determine if [...]
3M Company v. Avery Dennison Corp., No. 2011–1339 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 26, 2012) (Chief Judge Rader and Judges Lourie and Linn) When is a threat of patent infringement not a threat? If a patent owner makes too much noise, the target may file a declaratory judgment action to get to court first (and get to [...]
Last year, the U.S. Congress and Korean National Assembly approved the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. This new free trade agreement is expected to increase trading between the U.S. and South Korea and increase this Asian country’s status as a major hub for trading across Asia. South Korea exports many industrial goods to the U.S. such [...]
Here are a couple of recent cases involving claim construction issues. In both, the patent owner tried to argue that a term meant something different than what seemed to be the term’s plain meaning. In re Transaction Holdings Ltd., No. 2011–3061 (Apr. 23, 2012) (Judges Bryson, Schall, and Prost) (nonprecedential) This case combines an appeal [...]
Savvy litigators care about social media. Or at least they should care about social media. From employment to criminal cases, popular media coverage and court opinions have already demonstrated that social media may be relevant in a wide variety of litigations. The value of social media as a tool in the evidence arsenal is becoming [...]
The opinion and order in this post take a look at whether the Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction over legal malpractice claims in patent prosecution matters reaches too deep and too far. Just a couple of weeks ago, I discussed Judge O’Malley’s concurrence on this topic in the USPPS case, in which she concluded that the Federal [...]
Mintz v. Dietz & Watson, Inc., No. 2010-1341 (Fed. Cir. May 30, 2012) (Chief Judge Rader, Circuit Judges Newman and Dyk) I’ve never paid much attention to the patterns on the outside of ham. But I’m not as discerning a ham-eater as Liz Lemon: For Liz (presumably) and the folks in the meat-encasing field, these [...]
It’s been a while since we’ve had a false marking case at the Federal Circuit. That’s probably due to the America Invents Act’s (AIA) amendments to the false marking provision, which took effect the day President Obama signed the bill. Under the new law, private individuals can only bring suit for false marking if they have suffered “competitive injury.”
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