By Porter Wright on On May 8, 2019, the Review Board of the U. S. Copyright Office issued a decision stating that Yeezy 350 Boost Version 1 and Yeezy 350 Boost Version 2 sneakers each include copyrightable subject matter. The Adidas Yeezy sneakers are a collaboration between Adidas AG and Kanye West which has been wildly popular and as … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers valuable IP-related business resources through an intellectual property (IP) attaché program. The program is structured to generally improve IP policies, laws and regulations abroad for the benefit of U.S. businesses and stakeholders, while providing country-specific IP-related materials and services to teach and inform. However, the program … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On July 1, 2018, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began a 3-year pilot program known as The PCT Collaborative Search and Examination Pilot (CS&E) Program, to streamline examination and search procedures for patent examiners in multiple countries. The program is a coordinated effort with patent offices from around the world, together known … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Patent infringement lawsuits are rather unusual in the fashion industry in part because design patents are difficult, expensive, and slow to obtain. In an industry that is constantly evolving to keep up with consumer trends, the year+ length of time from application filing to design patent registration is a lifetime. The latest development gaining momentum … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on About two decades ago, Amazon.com, Inc. revolutionized e-commerce transactions with the innovation of single click buying. Single click buying is a checkout process that enables customers to bypass the shopping cart to make an online purchase with a single click based on payment and shipping information previously provided by the customer. Amazon received U.S. Patent … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on Four years after fully embracing international copyright exhaustion in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court has finally taken up the issue of patent exhaustion. In Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International Inc., the Court has been asked to answer two questions: Whether a sale that transfers title to the patented … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Companies across industries – from tech to transportation – should be paying careful attention to Friday’s executive action signed by President Obama. Our colleagues at Antitrust Law Source, Jay Levine and Chris Yook, wrote an article discussing the order’s requirements and what we can expect as it is implemented. Check out the article: “Breaking: President Obama’s executive order … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on Earlier this year, the Supreme Court finally resolved an issue that divided the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) for nearly 20 years. In Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 831, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a trial court’s underlying factual determinations with respect to extrinsic evidence … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Probably the most important takeaway from the second installment of Porter Wright’s Technology Seminar Series was this: No single thing defines a so-called patent troll — and if (or when) you get a letter accusing infringement, there’s no uniform way to respond. Instead, stop and take a breath. Then, be tenacious about collecting information about … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on In one of its only pro-patentee decisions in recent years, the Supreme Court held last week that an accused infringer’s good-faith belief of patent invalidity is not a defense to a claim of inducing infringement. Even though the court reaffirmed that a good-faith belief of non-infringement is a defense to inducement, the court’s decision benefits … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on President Barack Obama has called on the U.S. Congress to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba and normalize trade relations. French President François Hollande recently urged the same of the U.S., saying there is growing interest in doing business with Cuba. When the embargo is lifted, U.S. companies should be prepared to enter the Cuban … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on Google has been one of the most vocal critics of so-called patent trolls, more formally referred to non-practicing entities (NPEs) or patent assertion entities (PAEs), as well as a proponent of measures designed to improve software patent quality. At the same time, Google is one of the largest patent holders in the world. Though Google … Continue Reading
By Holly Kozlowski on If manufacturing or selling goods in China is part of your current or future business strategy, it is not too early to ensure protection of your intellectual property in China. On May 8, Porter Wright is holding half-day seminar titled Strategies for protecting IP rights in China to discuss U.S. businesses’ experiences as they enter the Chinese … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on Though the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has reduced patent prosecution time a bit during the past five years, it still takes, on average, at least 18 months before the patent examiner acts upon an application. Throw in two or more office actions, and the average pendency of a patent application is more than … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on As we reported last year, one of the issues that has divided the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the CAFC) for nearly 20 years is the proper standard of appellate review of patent claim construction rulings. No less than four CAFC en banc decisions addressed the issue. In each instance, the majority … Continue Reading
By Holly Kozlowski on The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released its revised Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 on Dec. 16, 2014. For the life sciences industry, the revised guidance provides significant relief from the previous guidance released March 4, 2014. However, just one day later, the joy that many life science … Continue Reading
By Allen Carter and Jay L. Levine on The FTC sent a message to “patent trolls” earlier this month, though how well that message will resonate remains to be seen. On Nov. 6, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection concluded its investigation into MPHJ Technology Investments, LLC’s practices involving its so-called “inquiry letters” by agreeing to accept a consent order. The consent order … Continue Reading
By Jay L. Levine and Allen Carter on Have to give them an “A” for effort. “Patent troll” MPHJ Technology Investments, LLC sued the FTC hoping to shut down its investigation into the company because the investigation violated MPHJ’s First Amendment rights to petition. A West Texas federal judge recently ruled that MPHJ could not “derail” the FTC investigation with such a claim. … Continue Reading
By Jay L. Levine on Last week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget approved the FTC’s request to study how patent assertion entities (PAEs or, less charitably, patent trolls) operate and to what extent they affect competition and innovation. The study was originally proposed in September 2013 and modified this past May in response to public comment. As … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Ohio may become the next state — after Virginia, Georgia, and thirteen other states — to take on the fight against patent trolls. A bill pending in Ohio’s General Assembly, H.B. 573, would provide additional tools to thwart abusive tactics by patent trolls. But how useful those tools may prove in the battle against the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Supreme Court issued two decisions Tuesday that will no doubt have interesting consequences for patent trolls and businesses that have been the target of patent trolls. Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are companies that do not sell a product or service, but instead acquire patents for the purpose of monetization by way of licensing and/or suing … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on In a recent blog post, we reported that a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) had reaffirmed that appellate review of patent claim interpretations is de novo, without any deference to the trial court even for factual matters. As we stated in that post, the 6-4 en banc decision by the … Continue Reading
By Marty Miller on The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has once again reaffirmed that appellate review of patent claim interpretations is de novo, without deference to the trial court even for factual matters.1 The 6-4 en banc decision in Lighting Ballast Control LLC v. Philips Electronics N.A. Corp.,2 by the only appellate court having … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on You may have just recovered from all the patent law changes that have occurred since passage of the America Invents Act (AIA) a couple of years ago, but we now have a new wave of changes prompted by the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (PLTIA), which became effective Dec.18, 2013. The PLTIA implements … Continue Reading
