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March 31, 2006
Booked
On
Demand Machine Corporation (ODMC) owns
5,465,213, an invention of Harvey Ross, which goes to on-demand book
publishing. Lightning Source, Ingram Industries and Amazon, sued by ODMC, were
found to have infringed '213, and so appealed (CAFC
05-1074), based upon
what they asserted was an erroneous claim construction provided to the jury at
trial.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:23 PM | Claim Construction
March 29, 2006
Skeptical
The
eBay-MercExchange patent roadshow put on its dog-and-pony act for the Supreme
Court today in oral arguments lasting an hour or so. Besides expressing the
normal skepticism of jurists trying to dig to the essentials, some patent
surreality was on display.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:08 PM | Litigation
March 27, 2006
Tying
Phillips
offers its pool of patents covering manufacturing compact discs (CDs) to
licensees. Princo was one, starting in 1997, until it stopped paying the license
fees. So Phillips sued.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:34 AM | Antitrust
March 26, 2006
Crushing Small Innovators
Roy
Mark provides a knowing take on the perspective of Silicon Valley corporations
towards patent licensers in his
March 24,
2006 commentary for internetnews.com.
Continue reading "Crushing Small Innovators"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:37 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (5)
March 24, 2006
Patent Transmission
Toyota
and Antonov, a Dutch patent licensing company, have been going at each other
over Antonov's patents for hybrid car transmission technology. It's a good
illustration of how international corporations fight patent enforcement.
Continue reading "Patent Transmission"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:31 PM | Litigation
March 23, 2006
Claim Construction Nightmare
Hillerich
& Bradsby (H & B) went to bat for a declaratory judgment action against
5,415,398, owned by Wilson Sporting Goods, and got a solid hit with the
trial court: noninfringement, plus costs & fees. Then it was Wilson's time at
the plate in the appeals court (CAFC
05-1103). Owing to
district court incompetence, this case is another log on the fire for a national
patent court.
Continue reading "Claim Construction Nightmare"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:28 AM | Claim Construction
March 22, 2006
Obviousness
Leonard
Kahn, trying to patent a reading machine for the blind, appealed his §103
rejection by the patent appeals board (PBAI) to the appeals court. The CAFC (04-1616)
in this case further clarified the ground rules for obviousness rejection.
Continue reading "Obviousness"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:01 PM | Prior Art
Founding Father Foolishness
Law
professor Adam Mossoff has written an excellent, well-researched paper: "Who
Cares What Thomas Jefferson Thought About Patents: Reevaluating the Patent
"Privilege" in Historical Context" (available
here).
Continue reading "Founding Father Foolishness"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:19 AM | The Patent System
March 21, 2006
Patent Reader
A free, and most welcome, patent search and retrieval site is up: Patent Reader. Its .pdf patent number retrieval is wonderful, as you can get multiple .pdfs in a single throw. But, for power, Patent Reader's text search won't lose Delphion any customers.
Continue reading "Patent Reader"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:36 AM | Patents In Business
March 20, 2006
Claim Construction Implant
Diro,
owner of
5,749,731, sued Straumann for infringement of its dental implant apparatus.
The Massachusetts district court tossed the case via summary judgment for
noninfringement. Diro appealed (CAFC
05-1168). Part of
Diro's problem was what was implanted in the preamble of the claim.
Continue reading "Claim Construction Implant"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:14 AM | Claim Construction
March 17, 2006
Computer Automation Not Patentable
An aspersion often cast towards business method patents is that such patents simply claim a known process that's been computerized. A common misconception is that automating a known process using a computer is per se patentable. It's not.
Continue reading "Computer Automation Not Patentable"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:03 AM | Prosecution
March 16, 2006
Preemptive Strike
Azul
Systems sued Sun Microsystems yesterday,
seeking "declaratory relief" from fear of being sued by Sun for patent
infringement and trade secret misappropriation.
Continue reading "Preemptive Strike"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:19 AM | Litigation
March 15, 2006
Declaratory Judgment
Microchip
makes garage door opener (GDO) microprocessors and associated firmware.
Chamberlain makes garage door openers. The two had tangled in the past over
Chamberlain's patents, but settled into "patent peace". Then Microchip got
paranoid and sought a declaratory judgment against Chamberlain.
Continue reading "Declaratory Judgment"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:00 PM | Declaratory Judgment
March 13, 2006
Generating Claim Construction
Michael Scroggie et al filed 09/401,198, and have had a hell of a time with prosecution, so bad they had to take it all the way to the court of appeals (CAFC 05-1370). The '198 claims go to generating a web page. Given that, what do you suppose the limitation "generating page data" means? The patent office examiner and appeals board couldn't get a clue.
Continue reading "Generating Claim Construction"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:04 PM | Prosecution | Comments (1)
Hotheads
Mercury
is the planet closest to our sun; very hot. Hotheads from Mercury immigrated
here, settling in hot and sunny San Jose, California, and started their own news
organ: The Mercury News. Having been on Earth for a while now, the hotheads are
starting to form opinions, often not very good ones.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:53 AM | The Patent System
March 12, 2006
Injunction Provocateur
On
Friday, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Federal Government's
lawyer, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme court in the MercExchange v. eBay case,
where the center ring issue is granting an injunction for patent infringement,
particularly in the instance when the patent holder has indicated a willingness
to license, and the patent holder arguably has not practiced the invention. Arguing on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), Justice
Department, and USPTO, the brief called on the Supreme Court to grant the injunction,
a notable flip-flop from the NTP v. RIM case, where its self-interest ran the
other way.
Continue reading "Injunction Provocateur"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:52 PM | Litigation
March 11, 2006
Harvesting Fruit
"[P]atents don't stimulate innovation; they stifle it. The notion of "intellectual property rights" is spurious. The principle of property is needed for physical objects because they are finite; hence property rights prevent conflicts over the use of things. But ideas can be reproduced infinitely and used simultaneously without conflict. Hence, as Thomas Jefferson realized, "Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."" [from The Free Liberal, March 9, 2006]
Continue reading "Harvesting Fruit"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:30 AM | The Patent System
March 9, 2006
Blue LED
Back in 1990, Shuji Nakamura, working for Nichia in Tokushima, southwest Japan, developed the blue
LED. It was a crucial breakthrough, paving the way for LED screens, and with
other uses as well. Nakamura was compensated
¥20,000 ($170) for the patent that came from his work. He wasn't satisfied.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:29 AM | International | Comments (1)
March 8, 2006
Conflict of Interest
Andrews Corp. sued Beverly Manufacturing for patent infringement. While there is no presumption of willful infringement, a clearing opinion commonly provides evidence against such allegation. In this case, a law firm merger soiled Beverly's clearing opinion.
Continue reading "Conflict of Interest"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:59 AM | Litigation
March 6, 2006
Agere Shoots
Chip
maker Agere Systems is suing
Sony for infringing eight patents [5,599,739;
5,670,730;
5,989,637;
6,153,543;
6,452,958;
6,472,304;
6,707,867;
6,992,972], targeting Sony's profit engine PlayStation video game player, as
well as wireless LAN cards and other products.
Continue reading "Agere Shoots"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:02 AM | Litigation
March 3, 2006
RIM Off Hook
In
a measure of graciousness, NTP let RIM off the hook for patent infringement for only
$612.5 million, granting a perpetual license to NTP's patented wireless email
technology. The whispered figure for settlement had been closer to $1 billion.
RIM's graceless Jim Balsillie whined, "It's not a good feeling to write this
kind of check."
Continue reading "RIM Off Hook"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:48 PM | Litigation
Blinking Claims
Fiber
Optic Designs sued Seasonal Specialties over
6,830,358, for festive LED light strings. Fiber Optic Designs wanted a
preliminary injunction, but the trial court wasn't sure, so turned them down.
Dissatisfied, Fiber Optic Designs appealed (CAFC
05-1488). The appeals court was dissatisfied too.
Continue reading "Blinking Claims"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:17 PM | Claim Construction
March 2, 2006
Claim Construction Myopia
Aspex
Eyewear sued Miracle Optics for infringing
RE37,545, over an eyeglass frame held together with magnets. The district
court limited claim scope owing to prosecution estoppel. The CAFC (04-1138)
reminded that a prosecution disclaimer of claim coverage required "reasonable
clarity and deliberateness."
Continue reading "Claim Construction Myopia"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:43 PM | Claim Construction
The Blame Game
Awakened
from my slumbers reporting settlements between patent-laden computer companies
and a Supreme Court ruling that patents by themselves weren't so great as
to grant market power, I find blogging attorneys bit by Wall Street
Journal venom.
Continue reading "The Blame Game"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:32 AM | The Patent System
Gateway Cowed
Gateway,
the company that thinks dairy cows make an effective high-tech marketing logo,
got milked $47 million by HP, in a settlement that promises to let a lot of
lawyers get a good night's sleep.
Continue reading "Gateway Cowed"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:09 AM | Patents In Business
March 1, 2006
Settlement Drive
In
a last-minute fit of rationality, just before trial was to begin, computer disk drive maker
Quantum agreed to pay Sun Microsystems $25 million to settle patent infringement
of two StorageTek patents; Sun bought StorageTek last summer for $4.1 billion.
Continue reading "Settlement Drive"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:56 PM | Patents In Business
Market Power
In a nod to economic reality, and catching up with perceived Congressional intent, in Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink, the Supreme Court (04-1329) ruled that a patent does not necessarily confer market power.
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