In this trademark case, the Federal Circuit considered the impact of the “reasonable manner” doctrine—the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) infringement analysis tool it rejected in last year’s Citigroup decision. This time the Federal Circuit decided that the TTAB got the infringement issue right, even though it used this doctrine in its analysis. In [...]
Girls everywhere will soon be forced to say goodbye to Guess® bags with an interlocking “G” logo. That’s because Gucci® won a big trademark infringement suit against LA-based Guess yesterday. Judge Shira Scheindlin, a district court judge in New York, finally ended a three-year trademark war between the companies with a payout to Gucci. But [...]
Marine Polymer Technologies, Inc. v. Hemcon, Inc. , No. 2010–1548 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 15, 2012) (en banc) We first wrote about this case last year. The issue is a pretty narrow one: if a patent owner doesn’t have to literally amend its claims during a reexamination, can that still create intervening rights? That is, can argument alone [...]
Zoltek Corp. v. United States, No. 2009–5135 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 14, 2012) (Chief Judge Rader and Judges Plager and Gajarsa; court sat en banc with respect to Part I-B) When can you sue the U.S. government for patent infringement? In general, the federal government has sovereign immunity (that is, immunity by right of being the [...]
After 5 years of fighting for trademark registration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (COC) might feel like it faced a basilisk, but it was actually a Federal Circuit panel. (The Federal Circuit’s opinion came out 5 years to the day after the COC filed its application.) Unfortunately, the COC didn’t have the Sword of Gryffindor [...]
ActiveVideo Networks, Inc. v. Verizon Communications, Inc., Nos. 2011-1538, -1567, 2012-1129, -1201 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 2, 2012) (Judges Bryson, Mayer, and Linn) (per curiam) (nonprecedential order) If you’re a Verizon FiOS® customer, pay attention. You might have heard about Verizon’s huge patent lawsuit with ActiveVideo, which resulted in Verizon having to pay $115 million in [...]
In this claim construction analysis, the Federal Circuit panel disagreed about what the holes were in Advanced Fiber Technologies’ (AFT) patents—literally. Advanced Fiber Technologies (AFT) Trust v. J&L Fiber Services, Inc., No. 2011-1243 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 3, 2012) (Judges Lourie, Prost, and Dyk) This patent infringement case involves AFL’s patent for screening tools in the [...]
Decoding IP™ blog readers: You’re invited to attend a special (and free) panel discussion this week that is focused on decoding recent changes to the U.S. patent laws. Join other government and private sector legal practitioners, business owners, and entrepreneurs at Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law as we unpack the 2011 America [...]
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. v. Monsanto Technology LLC, No. 2011–1285 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 28, 2012) (Judges Prost, Clevenger, and Reyna) This case involves an interference, on appeal from the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The issues aren’t complicated, but I thought it might be easier to explain the case visually. With that introduction, please [...]
Remember learning about shapes and counting on Sesame Street? Those basic skills still come in handy, even in complex patent cases. Express Yourself … Genetically Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH v. Genentech, Inc., No. 2011-1397 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 22, 2012) (Judges Newman, Lourie, and Prost) (nonprecedential) This case involves 2 patents—5,849,522 (the ’522 patent) and 6,218,140 (the [...]
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