May 4, 2010
Black Hole Swab
Allegra
D. Hemphill was granted
4,557,720 for a "vaginal swab." "Ms. Hemphill has prosecuted a number of
actions and appeals based on the '720 patent, none of which has been
successful." She tried again in 2007 against Kimberly-Clark and Proctor & Gamble
for their sanitary napkins products. Ms. Hemphill unmistakably disclaimed
sanitary napkins during prosecution. DC district court enjoined her from any
further suits against the defendants. The appeals court affirmed (CAFC
2010-1047,
nonprecedential). Another case showing that their are no junk patents, only junk
people.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:01 PM | Litigation | Comments (8)
July 27, 2009
Last Hurrah
Martin
Reiffin was a former patent attorney at IBM, who pulled a patented claim to
multithreading out of the PTO 15 years after his original application filing
date of 1982. A seriously vile junk patent. He then sued Microsoft over Word's
spelling checker. With lack of spec support for his claims in his '82 brew, and
new matter pulling his effective filing date to 1994, Reiffin lost first in
court, leaving but a reexam for residue. Still, he doggedly and shamelessly
pursued it. Today the last dog died, as his CAFC appeal over reexam flew south,
leaving only droppings behind. A disgraceful man got his due.
Continue reading "Last Hurrah"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:54 PM | Litigation | Comments (14)
July 8, 2009
Fishy
The
single claim of
4,781,930 is a method of immersing fresh fish filet in vegetable oil,
draining the oil off, sprinkling crumbs on it, then freezing it. If that sounds
nasty, the patent case behind it is even nastier. Alfred and Paul Fraser, acting
pro se, sued 11 companies over the expired patent. For the Frasers, upon
a trip to the supermarket, having oil in the list of ingredients of a frozen
fish product was enough to accuse infringement.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:20 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
July 6, 2009
Exceptional?
Microsoft
licensed encryption patents from TecSec. The negotiated license included a
proviso, initiated by Microsoft, called the "Reserved Scenario," that would let
it pay a lower royalty for not using a particular technology: encryption of less
than an entire file (sub-file encryption). Microsoft represented to TecSec that
it was not using sub-file encryption. Microsoft then publicly announced that it
would. Microsoft attorney Kevin Luo wrote TecSec to let them know that the
products mentioned, InfoPath and .NET 2.0, "were publicly distributed prior to
the Agreement."
Continue reading "Exceptional?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 3, 2009
Gift from the Dead
5,761,645
claims a "system
for enabling delivery of insurance gift payments" to beneficiaries. Owner
Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance has sued rival American National Insurance
over it, as part of an ongoing enforcement campaign. Other insurance companies
have been taken to task over '645, and settled. The patent is likely invalid,
for mixing claim types (system and method), as well as its obviousness.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (5)
June 26, 2009
Rich-Media Invalidity
Another
junk patent is on the prowl. How Neil Balthaser was allowed
7,000,180, claiming methods for creating and editing rich-media, is beyond
rational explanation. There is a ton of prior art invalidating the patent.
Balthaser has a four suits in East Texas with a slew of defendants. Network
Solutions just settled, terms undisclosed.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
June 21, 2009
Ink Spilled
Printer
makers follow the razor blade business model: the razor is a loss leader to the
highly profitable blades. So, with inkjet printers, the lucre accrues from
selling the ink. To wit, Seiko Epson has just sued six inking infringers over
its ink cartridge patents. Epson recently won a tentative ruling at the ITC over
a few parties in its suite attack against two dozen companies from China,
Germany, Hong Kong, Korea and the U.S. Epson has filed five suits in the recent
past, four in the District of Oregon, a somewhat sleepy but quite competent
district for patent adjudication.
Continue reading "Ink Spilled"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:17 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
June 19, 2009
Unspooled
Emsat has a patent enforcement campaign against
wireless providers such as Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Alltel, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The claimed technology is an FCC requirement: determining the location of cell
phones, one (the required) use being for emergency response networks. Sprint
prompted a reexamination, and won a stay on that basis. In their case, AT&T and T-Mobile sought
a stay for the same reason, expressing confidence: "It is highly likely that the
re-examination by the PTO of the patents-in-suit will substantially narrow or
even eliminate the issues confronting the parties and court in the instant
cases." "Highly likely" turned to mush. The PTO balked at the reexam, for all
but a few claims not asserted. Emsat had been so confidence that it hadn't even
opposed the stay. Sometimes silence is golden.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:27 PM | Litigation | Comments (5)
June 7, 2009
Litigation Bible
The
"Patent
Case Management Judicial Guide" is a stellar compendium covering all
aspects of patent litigation, not just judicial case management. Professor
Peter S. Menell at U.C. Berkeley School of Law headed this collaborative
effort. Highly recommended. And a free download!
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:53 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
June 4, 2009
Double Coverage
Heather
Knox has a 36C breast size, and isn't shy about sharing that fact with the
world. "I'm 40. Gravity has taken its toll on me. Even at 30, gravity had taken
its toll on me." Ms. Knox wanted anti-gravity support, so she combined a
push-up bra with a full coverage bra, and burst a seam with
7,074,108. After getting '108 in July 2006, Ms. Knox allegedly presented her idea to Victoria's Secret's head bra designer, in January 2007. No licensing
came of it. But Victoria's Secret now has a bra for sale, the
BioFit 7-Way, with a two-piece sling design that bears striking resemblance.
Victoria's Secret now also has a patent suit. Ms. Knox appears not shy at all.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (4)
June 2, 2009
Replay
TiVo
bludgeoned EchoStar with its patents, winning at trial in 2006 and on appeal in
2008. EchoStar wouldn't settle, and TiVo got a temporary injunction. EchoStar
supposedly developed a workaround. But TiVo alleged it was a faux workaround. A
bench trial in February has resulted in a
ruling today from East Texas Judge
Folsom that EchoStar is in contempt of court, with an order that the company
stop using TiVo technology (aka permanent injunction). And, oh yeah, add $103
million plus interest through April 2008 for additional damages, on top of the
$105 million previously awarded. The cost of contempt of court will be tallied
and tacked on at a later date.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:56 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
May 29, 2009
Still in Diapers
The
impulse to see what you can get away with strikes infants of all ages. In
Boss Industries v. Yamaha Motor, both sides displayed a touch of the
syndrome. Boss sued Yamaha for infringing three snowmobile seat patents. Boss
lost on claim construction; easily affirmed on appeal. Any decent due diligence
by Boss and they would have never brought suit. On the other side, as the CAFC
opined, "Yamaha's discovery practices were less than commendable... This type of
conduct during litigation is unacceptable and reflects a lack of respect for
both the opposing party and the court." (CAFC
2008-1311)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:50 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 26, 2009
Typo
In
1991, Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum came up with the idea of playing
networked video
games and chatting simultaneously.
5,292,125 resulted. In 2002, Microsoft launched an online Xbox gaming
service that did just that. Litigation ensued in 2004. Living down to its litigation reputation, Microsoft
dumped 143,733 discovery document pages on the other side, five weeks late, with
no index. The delay was prompted by Microsoft objecting to a discovery request
because of a typo, when Microsoft knew all along what was being asked for.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:33 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 25, 2009
Extraordinary No More
"The
writ of mandamus is available in extraordinary situations to correct a clear
abuse of discretion or usurpation of judicial power. In re Calmar, Inc.,
854 F.2d 461, 464 (Fed. Cir. 1998)." Not any more. The high courts are regularly
disingenuous in attempting to maintain a myth of continuity. Before the slippery
slope greased by the Fifth Circuit's
Volkswagen matter, the grease
supplied by perceived political pressure, and the subsequent CAFC patent case of
TS Tech, transfer motions for patent cases away from a plaintiff's
chosen venue regularly failed. Now as often as not they succeed. Herein, a case
in point.
Continue reading "Extraordinary No More"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:28 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 18, 2009
Projecting Junk
The
lament by so-called patent reformers is that pissant patent holders assert junk
patents. Well, so do supposedly respectable companies. Seiko Epson sued
Coretronic for patents related to display projectors for DVD players and
computers. Coretronic counter-claimed with its own patents. Now, thanks to prior
art search by the other side, all seven patents involved have been dropped or
ruled invalid in summary judgment. One of Epson's patents was ruled a clunker in
light of one of its own products.
Continue reading "Projecting Junk"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (4)
Tune Hunter
Tune Hunter has set its sights on Shazam for infringing 6,941,275. Shazam, for many portable devices such as the iPhone, lets a user record a short snippet of a song, identifies the song by comparing the snippet with a database,
and gives song information, including title, artist, and album.
Tune Hunter is targeting a host of prey, including Samsung, Apple, Amazon.com, Napster, Motorola,
Gracenote, Cellco Partnership, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility, and Pantech Wireless
for promoting Shazam. When a company has you in its crosshairs, call Patent Hawk to swoop down and kill the
hunter.
Posted by Mr. Platinum at 10:45 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 15, 2009
Spinach
Going so swimmingly well, it
was getting downright creepy. Claim construction in the can: simple,
straightforward, invincible. After exhaustive search and defendant's invalidity
contentions, no prior art worth spitting on. In the sun on 101.
Still, the chill. It was too easy. Today, thank goodness, divine intervention.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:49 PM | Litigation | Comments (12)
May 10, 2009
Stayed
SP
Technologies started an enforcement campaign for
6,784,873, claiming a graphical touch screen keyboard that automatically
disappears "after the desired input is received." SP sued Samsung and HTC.
Samsung settled. HTC got up on its hind legs, filed an inter partes
reexamination, and motioned to stay litigation, which East Illinois district
court Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan granted.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:03 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
May 5, 2009
This Round
Rivals
Monsanto and DuPont have battled over patents through the years. In the late
1990s, Monsanto went after DuPont for breaching a licensing agreement on
pest-resistant corn, resulting in a revised licensing agreement. In 2002, DuPont
licensed Monsanto's Roundup Ready seed technology, which allows crops to be
sprayed with herbicide Roundup and survive. DuPont came up with its own Optimum
GAT herbicide resistant trait for soybeans and corn, but found out in field
tests it wasn't quite up to snuff. So, DuPont stacked the Roundup Ready trait on
top of the Optimum GAT trait, and found it plow-worthy. Monsanto found it
complaint worthy.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:05 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 17, 2009
27
Gary
Odom was a software developer for 20 years, and had some patentable ideas
beginning in the
late 1980s, but lacked the resources to patent them. When he got a
chance to work in the patent field, he jumped on it. Months after going to work
for a patent boutique in Portland Oregon, he started filing, pro se, patents of
his own inventions, starting with modular software construction, then web
personalization. Looks like his third patent family might worth something. Odom
invented active tool groups, which Microsoft popularized with its Office 2007
Ribbon.
In an ongoing licensing campaign, having previously filed suit against Microsoft
and Autodesk, today Odom
filed against 28 other infringers.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:09 PM | Litigation | Comments (43)
April 16, 2009
Potato Row to be Hoed in Seattle
In
the case of Pace International LLC v. Industrial Ventilation, Inc.,
currently planted in Washington State, Judge Lasnik recently denied Defendants'
motion to transfer the case to Idaho, despite all the spuds
being based there.
Continue reading "Potato Row to be Hoed in Seattle"
Posted by Mark Walters at 3:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
April 14, 2009
Star Crossed
In
2001, smokeless tobacco maker Star Scientific sued R.J. Reynolds over patents
for lower carcinogens while curing tobacco. Maryland district court Judge Marvin
Garbis found Star
guilty of
inequitable conduct. In a landmark ruling, the
CAFC overturned.
Then, in hopes of further delay, RJR tried to put the patents out to pasture on
reexam. But
trial is set for May 18, while the reexam smolders on. The most recent curveball
from RJR: a motion to deny Star a chance to present its damages theory to the
jury.
Continue reading "Star Crossed"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:42 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Low Blow to MoFo
Last
Wednesday, former Morrison & Foerster client
Ecast sued MoFo for no mojo in Ecast's to-and-fro with Arachnid and Rowe, who
had sued Ecast for jukebox patent infringement. Ecast, claiming legal
malpractice, wants its money back: a "staggering" $4.8 million in attorneys fees
for what it considers a hopelessly botched defense.
Continue reading "Low Blow to MoFo"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:30 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 10, 2009
Tagged
Singapore-based
Uniloc sued Microsoft in 2003 over
5,490,216, which claims a system for software product activation, which
Microsoft uses in its Windows operating systems (XP, Windows Server 2003) and
Office (XP version). '216 has a 1992 priority date. Wednesday, a Rhode Island jury found the patent valid, and
Microsoft willfully infringing. The tab: $388 million, with $194 million
attributable to foreign activations.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:22 AM | Litigation | Comments (3)
April 6, 2009
Foto Finish
FotoMedia
is on a tear over web-based photo sharing. Four suits have been filed, two in
mid-2007and two the middle of last year, totaling 66 defendants.
6,018,774;
6,542,936; and
6,871,231 asserted. Defendants are settling like flies on stink. Well over a
dirty dozen have settled, the latest being Kaboose, Bubbleshare, and BabyZone.
Makes you wonder if FotoMedia is giving a discount to companies with goofy
names. All settlements hush-hush and on the Q.T., naturally.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:53 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 2, 2009
Junk Fax
A
decent patent turns junky when its holder sues without due diligence. Joseph
Kirsch had sent letters to Canon and Xerox about his computer fax patent,
4,816,911, in 1995. Canon didn't bother to respond, but Xerox told Kirsch no
license was needed. In 2000, Kirsch sued Xerox, Canon, Ricoh and Toshiba.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:18 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
March 31, 2009
Smokin'
In
its long-running patent battle with Star Scientific, R.J. Reynolds got its butt
snuffed trying to put a jury trial on hold pending reexam of Star's patents.
Maryland Judge Marvin J. Garbis denied RJR's motion. Trial is set for May 18.
The district court had found Star's asserted patents unenforceable for
inequitable conduct, a ruling
overturned on
appeal. Likewise a finding of indefiniteness. With the patents back in play,
RJR filed the reexam, hoping for delay.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 25, 2009
Feeling Taken
Slapped with millions in fees over failed patent litigation,
E-Pass has served a lawsuit on its former
lawyers: primary counsel Moses & Singer,
along with local counsel Squire Sanders & Dempsey.
New counsel
James Rosen of Rosen Saba: "In
advising E-Pass to file and maintain their patent infringement claim, they spent
$10 million in legal fees and costs without a sound basis to make the elemental
case of patent infringement." No mention was made of personal responsibility for
one's own actions.
Continue reading "Feeling Taken"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:08 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
March 18, 2009
Kindled
Discovery
Communications, parent of the Discovery
Channel and Animal Planet, has
asserted
7,298,851 against Amazon's
Kindle electronic reader. '851 was filed in September 1999, a CIP, and
issued November 2007. A goodly amount of cited art. The '851 claims are rather
well drafted, with many various dependent claims, but are nonetheless open to
obviousness attack. Owing to the popularity of the device, the press will be
following what is otherwise a mundane case. Suit filed in Delaware, Discovery's
home turf.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:10 PM | Litigation | Comments (8)
March 5, 2009
Hanging Tree
Software
Tree has asserted the fortified
6,163,776 against HP, Red Hat, Genuitec and Dell. '776 claims data exchange
between an object-oriented system and a relational database. Red Hat is on the
hook for willfulness, as it was aware of the patent as prior art for technology
it's being sued for in another patent suit. Bad juju for Red Hat.
Continue reading "Hanging Tree"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:14 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
March 4, 2009
Jumpy
Northern
California district court Judge Ronald Whyte today upheld the
March 2008
jury verdict that Rambus' failure to disclose its patent plans to a
standards group (JEDEC) meant nothing: "Consistent with the jury's finding, the
court agrees that Rambus made no misrepresentations and uttered no deceptive
half-truths to JEDEC and its members." This in a memory patent enforcement case
against Korea-based Hynix and others. Share prices for Rambus stock shot up 9%
on the news.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:12 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
March 3, 2009
Guitar Zero
High from whiffing its own fumes of patent power, guitar maker
Gibson
threatened, and then sued, retailers selling Activision's
Guitar Hero video game. Activision had
the vision to activate a
declaratory
judgment action. Sizzling with the right riffs, the judge in the case late
last week rocked Gibson's patent potential into the boneyard, as the patent only
applies to analog output, the judge decided. "As a general observation, no
reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the '405
patent as covering interactive video games." Under Gibson's construction,
Central California Judge Mariana Pfaelzer noted, the claims could apply to
pressing a "button of a DVD remote... to a pencil tapping a table." Rock on.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
March 1, 2009
Whoopspool
In
January 2008, Whirlpool put LG Electronics before the ITC, and in Delaware
district court, for infringing five refrigerator patents. The best day for the
plaintiff was the day they filed, at least before the ITC. As the flowers
bloomed in May, Whirlpool's wilted, dropping two, as Whirlpool conceded their
invalidity. September blew in. Leaves fell, as did two more patents before the
ITC, as LG agreed to tweak its design. This past week, the ITC administrative
judge crushed the ice bin patent assertion for noninfringement (6,082,130).
Meanwhile, the district court case remains scheduled for trial March 2010. At
least for now.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 26, 2009
Delay
Companies
are merely individuals acting in concert, with no more scruples than
they have individually. As often as not, group think leads to sinking to a lower
common denominator: scruple lite. Belonging to a larger group empowers little
shitbirds to spread their wings and leave their droppings en masse. A reflection
of the human condition, patent cases too often read as a morality tale.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
February 25, 2009
Drumming
Microsoft
today filed patent infringement suits against TomTom, Amsterdam-based maker of
vehicle navigation GPS systems, both in Washington district court, and the ITC.
Eight patents are asserted: five on navigation, three on file management.
Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez claimed that Microsoft has been trying to engage TomTom in licensing talks
for over a year.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (5)
February 18, 2009
No Noise Reduction
Headphone
makers Bose and Lightspeed haven't come up to speed for a complete
cross-licensing of their noise-reduction technologies, so they keep at each
other. In 2002, Lightspeed settled with Bose over an Oregon court battle,
Lightspeed's home turf. Bose agreed to lay off Lightspeed for improvements to
Lightspeed's headsets. In 2007, Lightspeed came out with its new Zulu
model. So Bose has just plugged Lightspeed into a suit in Boston, Bose's
home boombox, alleging Zulu is not just an improvement, covered under the
previous agreement, but new technology infringing Bose's
5,181,252, which is a rather old patent (filed 1991). Bose is already
blaring at other headphone makers
at the ITC
over '252.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:08 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 3, 2009
Xboxed
Two
years ago, Paltalk sued Microsoft for infringing
5,822,523, which claims group messaging.
Xbox Live, Microsoft's online
gaming service, is accused. Following claim construction, Microsoft sought
summary judgment of invalidity based on prior art. Paltalk retorted that
Microsoft was pitching piss-poor art. Yesterday, district court Judge Folsom (ED
Texas) agreed, finding that a reasonable jury would be skeptical about the prior
art, and "even if the evidence before the court was sufficient to prove
anticipation, this court would still deny Microsoft's motion as that evidence is
not sufficiently corroborated by reliable documentary or physical evidence."
Game on.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:32 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 2, 2009
Foliation
Former
patent office Commissioner Jon W. Dudas has found a home with
Foley & Lardner.
In apparently unrelated matters, former clients of Foley have filed suit against
the firm. The complaint is that the firm failed to adequate represent their
interests in a patent litigation, and overcharged them for the privilege. This
new suit follows on another pending conflict-of-interest assertion, by Vaxiion
Therapeutics, that charges Foley prosecuted its patents while also assisting its
competitor, EnGeneIC.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:11 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
Pyrrhic Victory
In
arguing the right to enforce slavery, Microsoft achieved a pyrrhic victory by
transfer from Texas to Oregon in Odom v. Microsoft. With transfer,
Microsoft has shot itself, delaying further court ruling
that Odom has a valid and enforceable patent infringed by a central feature of Microsoft's
Fluent User Interface. Companies adopting the interface must wonder whether it's
worth the risk adopting a patented technology which Microsoft is ambitiously
marketing and licensing, but over which Microsoft has no control.
Continue reading "Pyrrhic Victory"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:59 AM | Litigation | Comments (11)
January 20, 2009
The Bible
Every
once in a blue moon something incredibly good happens. Now on tap,
in draft, not quite bottled, is the "Patent
Case Management Judicial Guide," a rather incredible compendium covering all
aspects of patent litigation, not just judicial case management.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Nosedive
2008
will be remembered as the crashdown year in the 2nd Great Depression. The old
saw is that patent lawsuits are immune from recession, but the 2008 numbers tell
a different story. 2,605 patent suits were filed in 2008, down 8% from 2007.
2008 through July saw a 2% rise. But in the last five months of 2008, filings
plunged 23% from a year earlier.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:08 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 9, 2009
Oprah
Scott
C. Harris was reputedly booted by Fish &
Richardson for asserting his patent,
7,111,252, against Google. Now Oprah's
Harpo Productions is being sued. The patent claims partial book review over the
Internet. Oprah's Book Club
web site offers book previews.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:54 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
December 26, 2008
Mundane
Indubitably
unbiased, InformationWeek's Microsoft blogger, Dave Methvin,
laments small fry with software patents. "It seems like every few months,
some obscure company is awarded a patent for some relatively mundane idea, then
turns around and sues the companies that have been using it... It's a shame that
companies can exploit the patent system to prevent advances in software."
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:01 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
December 16, 2008
Nipped in the Bud
Anheuser-Busch
settled a lawsuit brought by a Quebec company asserting
6,852,191, claiming a double-sided label technology. The only comment on the
settlement from a relieved A-B attorney was "mutually agreeable terms," and
perhaps a mumbled "it's Miller time."
Continue reading "Nipped in the Bud"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 4, 2008
Rutabaga
Samy
Gharb fell off the turnip truck and wandered into the Federal Circuit Court of
Appeals. After having his patent assertion against Unitronics squashed flatter
than hammered shit, including "a permanent injunction to preclude Gharb from
threatening Unitronics and its customers with infringement litigation," Gharb,
unable to read the legal dictum on the wall, appealed.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:40 AM | Litigation | Comments (3)
November 30, 2008
Frivolous
Triune
Star sued Disney, LG Electronics, and others, for infringing
6,122,521, which claims an infrared cell phone camera. Triune conceded that
defendants didn't have such a product, thus didn't literally infringe. Due to
prosecution estoppel, Illinois district court Judge Mihm blew off the possibility of doctrine of equivalents. He then pitched the case as frivolous, and
sanctioned Triune, granting defendants attorneys fees and costs.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:08 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
November 25, 2008
Zemplar
The
laugh riot of Abbott and Costello quieted when years of drinking rot-gut begat
Costello chronic kidney failure. Interstellar quasar TV transmission from earth
to Qo'noS, Klingon home world, made the comedy duo a cross-species phenomenon.
Few humans could so touch the funny bone of Klingons, owing partly to the fact
that the Klingon funny bone is quite tiny.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:03 AM | Litigation | Comments (2)
October 28, 2008
Venue Chopping
Earlier
this month, a Texas product liability case, over an auto accident, In re
Volkswagen, has raised a specter that venue transfer may be more easily
accomplished in patent litigations. The specific stir is that patents suits may
be pried from the Eastern District of Texas, a "rocket docket" venue popular for
its jurisprudential economy, owing to efficient case management and concentrated
experience with patent cases. For precisely those reasons, and others,
Volkswagen is largely inapplicable to patent suits.
Continue reading "Venue Chopping"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:39 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Belated Inventor
Oren
Tavory might have been a co-inventor in the patents that net NTP $612.5 million
from Research in Motion (RIM). Code he helped write was part of the parent
patent application. Tavory was deposed in the NTP patent litigation, but didn't
state an inventorship claim then. But after NTP won the RIM lotto, which Tavory
found savory, he changed his mind. Too late.
Continue reading "Belated Inventor"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:38 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
October 25, 2008
Money Talks
Aaron
D. Clark, 37, invented the talking poster, which responds to a button touch.
5,548,272 et cetera. Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema and others licensed
the technology, for movies such as Batman, Austin Powers, and music groups such
as 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys. Clark pursued Disney for a license in the
mid-90s, to no avail. This past summer, Clark's mom spotted a singing Hannah
Montana poster while shopping for a gift for Clark's five-year-old daughter.
Hannah Montana is a Disney character. Clark has filed a complaint in his home stomping grounds, Columbus
Ohio.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:25 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 24, 2008
Brewed
Green
Mountain Coffee Roasters subsidiary Keurig invented a disposable single-serving
filter cartridge, suitable for hot drinks such as coffee, tea, and hot cocoa,
invention embodied in
6,607,762 and
7,377,162. Keurig sued Kraft Foods in January 2007 for infringement. Kraft
just settled for $17 million.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:17 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 16, 2008
Shoxing
Wal-Mart
sells a fitness shoe, doubtlessly made in China, that looks strikingly a
knock-off of Nike's patented Shox shoe - D498,914 and D499,248, to be precise.
Oregon-based Nike, doing a bit of venue shopping, filed its
complaint in the Northern District of Illinois. The complaint, replete with
comparative patent drawings to photos, is a beauty of damnation.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:41 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 12, 2008
Persistent
Last
week, Colorado district court Judge Matsch (pictured) got fed up with
McDermott, Will & Emery for its representation of Medtronic against BrainLAB in a surgical instruments patent case. Judge Matsch
ordered the law firm and Medtronic to pay $4.3 million in attorneys fees,
punishment for "abuse of advocacy," namely, arguing to the jury outside of claim
construction.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:43 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 6, 2008
A View from the Court
CAFC
Judge Alan D. Lourie
spoke to the Virginia State Bar IP Section last week.
For the past couple of decades, we have been in the midst of what many of us have called the golden age of intellectual property. Patents and copyrights have been recognized as important contributors to our system of industrial innovation and they have been readily enforced by the courts, which wasn't always the case historically, at least for patents. I used to issue cautionary warnings, though, in speeches to attorney groups, not to press their luck; don't overassert patents because sooner or later the pendulum might swing back. Well, the pendulum has now swung, and how far and to what result no one knows. The press now routinely talks about problems in the patent system, often including our court as part of the problem.
Continue reading "A View from the Court"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:12 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 5, 2008
Just Walk Away PA
PA
Advisors got its hands on
6,199,067, saddled up the palomino, and rode on down to East Texas, aiming
to get a little from Microsoft subsidiaries, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and
others. After chatting with Facebook, PA took a powder, deciding not to pursue
the suit further. No coin changes hands. Each party bears fees and costs.
Continue reading "Just Walk Away PA"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:49 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
September 4, 2008
Old Art Never Dies
A
common patent litigation strategy has been to seek reexamination after losing in
court, as in the case herein. Defendant counsel has more rhetorical power before
the court, as contrasted to a single injection to the PTO for reexam, after
which the patentee tries to hold granted ground while an infringer watches from
the sidelines. And a post-verdict reexam is as much for spite as anything, as it
doesn't necessarily turn back the clock.
Today's CAFC ruling should flip the litigation-first/reexam-last-ditch strategy on its head: scorching prior art search to reexam first, pleading a stay of litigation pending reexam outcome. That's because court validation is not subject to reconsideration from PTO invalidation, but a PTO kill terminally damns. Further, previously cited art can be rehashed in reexam.
Laying yet another brick of fortification against junk patents, the CAFC clarifies the power of reexamination as a "quality check."
Continue reading "Old Art Never Dies"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:44 PM | Prosecution | Comments (1)
September 2, 2008
Down with the Docket
With
its natural panache of rip and snort for the court, the Statistics Division for
the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts released its annual report: "Judicial
Business of the United States Courts." Using the hoary Roma
system, the latest stats run in a calendar year skewed to September 2007. 2,896 patent
complaints in 2007, up a 2.3% bit from 2006 (2,830), with 250 filed in the
Eastern District of Texas. 2004 was the bumper crop, at 3,075. 408 patent suits
celebrated 3 years on the docket in 2007, up from 353 in 2006. 34 USPTO BPAI
decisions pending appeal before the CAFC, down from 51 the previous year. The
reversal rates on appeal ran less than 20% in 2007, both from district court and
BPAI, quite a dip from earlier times.
Continue reading "Down with the Docket"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:17 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 26, 2008
High Stakes High Definition
Orinda
has filed against Sony for its Blu-ray high-definition DVD players.
5,438,560 claims basic optical disk recording, accounting for bad disk
sectors.
Complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
Continue reading "High Stakes High Definition"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:16 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Unsettling
The
application of statistics is relatively simple. Statistics is taught at
college for many fields. But properly applying statistics seems to elude many. A
recent
patent reexamination analysis by lawyers is exemplary: a small sample size
of biased data, rendering it rather meaningless. But the
statistically-challenged authors reported the results as conclusive. Another
study, on civil lawsuit settlements, suffers the same flaw. There at least the
authors admit the data base as flawed, but regardless paint a brave face on
tainted data.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:07 AM | Litigation | Comments (6)
August 20, 2008
The Marshall Plan
Crucial
reading for those interested in the notable docket of rocket, the Eastern
District of Texas, in this week's
Texas
Lawyer. With 232 patent cases filed in Marshall in the past year, trial
dates for filing there are now running to 2012. Judge T. John Ward's patent
litigation mill is slowing, but faring.
Continue reading "The Marshall Plan"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:11 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
Tool Groups
Inventor
Gary Odom, founder of Patent Hawk, has asserted
7,363,592 against
Microsoft. '592 claims a feature of the tool groups used
in the
Office 2007 tool ribbon. '592 has a priority date of November 2000.
Complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
Odom is represented by Susman Godfrey.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:13 PM | Litigation | Comments (10)
Googled
GraphOn
has sued Google in the Eastern District of
Texas for infringing four patents related to network servers:
6,324,538;
6,850,940;
7,028,034; and
7,269,591. GraphOn has sued before with this portfolio, and wrestled a
settlement recently out of hapless AutoTrader.com. Other defendants, including
Yahoo! and Match.com, fight on.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:15 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 12, 2008
Blue Ray
Acacia
subsidiary Digital Security Systems likes the high-definition Blu-Ray DVD
technology so much, it wants a piece of the action.
6,052,780 claims copy protection which the patent holder considers
incorporated into Blu-Ray players. Complaint filed in the Eastern District of
Texas, seeking reasonable royalty. Defendants for the action flick include
Samsung, Best Buy, Denon, Funai, LG, Matsushita, Panasonic, Phillips, Pioneer,
and Sharp.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:57 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 8, 2008
Sensation
Kazuhiro
Okada, inventor of
6,512,364, assigned the patent to Saitama, Japan-based Wacoh last month.
'364 claims methods for testing sensors. Wednesday, Wacoh filed a
complaint in the Western District of Wisconsin against auto makers GM, Ford,
Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Honda, Mazda, and Suzuki. Toyota is
notable by its absence. The prayer for relief is "no less than a reasonable
royalty."
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
August 2, 2008
Tossed Salad
Sollami
sued Kennametal over three patents. Kennametal was granted a stay pending USPTO
examination of a reissue application of one of the asserted patents. Sollami
appealed. In a non-precedential decision, CAFC ruled that a stay is not
appealable, unless it puts the patent owner "out of court."
Continue reading "Tossed Salad"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:45 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 16, 2008
Slow
Dr.
Olivia N. Serdarevic claims she was an inventor in six patents for laser eye
surgery, owned by VISX, a subsidiary of Advanced Medical Optics. Serdarevic
contacted VISX in 1998, and got an appropriate response, but failed to follow
through until 2006, when she sued. Serdarevic pussyfooted long enough for laches
to kick in.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:14 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 15, 2008
Tipsy Stipulation
Dr. G.
David Jang assigned
5,922,021 and
5,954,743 to Boston Scientific and SciMed Life Systems. The companies were
supposed to pay royalties on products "covered by" (i.e., infringing) the
patents. Jang sued because he thought he wasn't getting his share. Central
California district court issued a claim construction. Before appeal, they all
stipulated that Jang was out of luck if the claim construction held. But the
agreed stipulation was ambiguous on crucial points. The appeals court threw up
its hands, vacated the judgment, and remanded "for clarification." (CAFC
2007-1385)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:45 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 7, 2008
Replay
The
CAFC heard oral arguments today in the jury-trial fantasy $1.5 billion award to
Alcatel-Lucent from Microsoft for infringing two MP3 audio patents. The district
court judge pitched the jury verdict, finding non-infringement on one, and lack
of standing on the other. Microsoft claims it licensed the patents from a German
research institute for $16 million, which Alcatel terms impossible. The high
award figure was based on worldwide Windows sales, an engorgement of revenue
base that the Supreme Court disallowed in
AT&T v. Microsoft.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:51 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 4, 2008
Silver Bullet
Playing
catch-up to Apple's QuickTime and
Adobe Flash,
Microsoft has been pushing Silverlight,
its multimedia offering to let users watch video through their web browsers.
Massachusetts-based Gotuit Media, a multimedia vendor, is
having a go at Microsoft for infringing three patents, in the Northern District
of California, which is usually considered defendant-friendly.
Continue reading "Silver Bullet"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:28 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 3, 2008
Pacing
Paice
successfully
sued Toyota for infringing hybrid vehicle drive train patents. Toyota
couldn't get the verdict overturned on appeal, and SCOTUS blew them off. Not
having the sense to settle, Toyota now faces a new suit.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:55 PM | Litigation | Comments (4)
July 1, 2008
Fishing Expedition
France-based
Gillet Outillage sued Taiwan competitor Fisher Tool in central California over
6,189,190, claiming automobile pliers. Gillet suffered a narrow claim
construction, so dropped the suit. Fisher lashed out for malicious prosecution
under California law, and antitrust. The district court granted summary judgment
for Gillet. Fisher appealed.
Continue reading "Fishing Expedition"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:21 AM | Litigation | Comments (2)
June 29, 2008
Doubled Over
Boehringer Ingelheim sued Barr and Mylan for infringing 4,886,812 after
the two
filed ANDAs seeking to market generic versions of
Mirapex, used to treat
Parkinson's disease. Delaware district court Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. penned a
careful decision, invalidating the patent over nonstatutory double patenting.
Continue reading "Doubled Over"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:23 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 8, 2008
Enough
In a lucrative win-win only for respective law firms representing nimrod
HP and upstart Acer, HP, with more to lose, backed down. The two computer firms
have settled their patent spat. Terms undisclosed. HP had asserted ten patents against Acer in East
Texas in March 2007, as well as sprouting an ITC investigation. Taiwan-based
Acer counterclaimed in July with its own East Texas suit of seven patents.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 7, 2008
Chorus
Patent
licensing company Rembrandt IP cut its
teeth in 2004, buying a nine-patent portfolio from Paradyne for $1 million. Paradyne was an
AT&T spinoff. Eight of those patents went to cable modems, one to digital TV.
Rembrandt then started an enforcement campaign, suing Comcast, Time Warner,
Cablevision, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications, as well as the TV
channels ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:49 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 6, 2008
Demo Derby
Brian
L. Evans let his oversized ego get in the way of a grab at the brass ring of
patent payout.
4,398,735 claims a truck assembly for roller skates and skateboards. Evans
was the inventor. Evans insisted in acting as his own attorney in convoluted
litigation over a licensing agreement dispute with Roller Derby Skate, in
violation of the "longstanding rule that corporations and other unincorporated
associations must appear in court through an attorney."
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:16 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 3, 2008
Slow Boat Arrives
After seven years of pretrial jockeying,
Cornell University stuck HP with a $184 million tab, capping an eight-day jury trial in
North New York, CAFC Judge Randall R. Rader slumming as presiding judge.
Cornell succeeded with all five claims of the asserted patent. HP failed with
its invalidity, patent exhaustion, and implied license defenses.
Continue reading "Slow Boat Arrives"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:51 PM | Litigation | Comments (6)
May 29, 2008
Malicious
The
common approbation "junk patent" is typically stuck on "patent trolls," that
is, inventors asserting their rights. Only rubes buy that. Companies regularly
pitch junk at each other. Case in point: Dow Chemical,
whose advertising tripe is "responsibility begins here," found guilty of malicious
patent assertion.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:38 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 28, 2008
Bow to Light
Gertrude
Neumark Rothschild developed a process necessary for making blue, green, violet
and ultraviolet (high spectral) LEDs, used in many products, including
flat-screen TVs, cell phone screens, computers, and traffic lights. All told, a
market estimated at $7.2 billion.
4,904,618 and
5,252,499 were Rothschild's reward. Several semiconductor makers have
licensed the technology, including Sony. From an ITC complaint filed in
February, over 30 companies are still under the gun, including Hitachi, LG,
Nokia, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba. More settlements are in the offing.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:40 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Another Piece
Most junk patents are created by incompetent prosecutors,
with an assist from incompetent examiners granting bad claims. Example in point -
Arthur A. Collins got a couple of junk patents:
4,701,907 and
continuation
4,797,589. '907 sunk by §112 ¶2,
an unconstruable claim term. '589 down on non-infringement over missing a
limitation, and claims "invalid for improper reexamination amendment." Appeal
offered no real reprieve.
Continue reading "Another Piece"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:16 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 27, 2008
Such As
CAFC
caprice is further confirmed in today's non-precedential Lawler v. Bradley. Bradley
settled a patent infringement suit by Lawler by taking a license which was too
complicated and unclear in its terms. 10% royalty on the actual selling price of
infringed values. 10% on "average" selling price of products combined with the
infringed valves. Lawler tried to terminate the agreement on a pretext that the
district court blew off, but that a 2-1 CAFC majority, eschewing dictionaries
and common sense, read differently.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:18 AM | Litigation | Comments (2)
May 25, 2008
Enhanced Execution
After
seven years of preliminaries, trial began last week. Cornell University, one of
the eight Ivy League colleges, is suing Hewlett-Packard in Northern New York for
infringing
4,807,115, claiming enhanced CPU execution. A judge experienced with patent
cases flew in from Washington, D.C. Cornell says that HP reaped $36 billion in
the 1990s selling infringing supercomputers. Cornell wants damages through the
life of the patent, though "laches bars a patent holder's claim for damages
accrued prior to suit." A.C. Aukerman v. R.L. Chaides Construction, 22
USPQ2d 1321 (Fed. Cir. 1992). Laches may also apply in Cornell's failure to
timely bring suit.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:32 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
May 23, 2008
Rattled
Rattler
Tools sued Bilco Tools and William Coyle for patent infringement, trade secret
misappropriation and unfair competition. A Louisiana district court judge
conducted a bench trial. Not even close. Rattler, rattled, appealed.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:03 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Self-Inflicted
Tessera
Technologies is crowing over its "battled-tested" (sic) victory in getting Micro
Electronics to take a license under threat of ITC action. Micro Electronics
didn't hire Patent Hawk, so was unable
to squash Tessera's assertion. Those well-equipped with Patent Hawk ammunition
are successfully fighting back.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:17 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
Careful Assertion
Overreaching
patent assertion can foil the whole venture, and foul the asserted patents in
the process. Being circumspect about claim construction, infringement analysis,
and prior art, can turn a problematic case into a winner.
Continue reading "Careful Assertion"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:03 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 16, 2008
Dispositive
CAFC
Chief Judge Paul R. Michel graphed a signifying, that petitioning appeal upon
appeal don't amount to more than just jivin'. En banc and certiorari
might as well be in a dead language as to anyone's chances of being granted.
Continue reading "Dispositive"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:42 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 4, 2008
Righting Whitening
Procter
& Gamble sued Johnson & Johnson
for patent infringement over
Listerine Whitening ® Quick Dissolving
Strips, marketed as superior to P&G's
Crest Whitestrips
®, because they dissolve more quickly. You wouldn't
want to have patience in whitening your teeth, because you need a smoke, or cup
of coffee, or some other neurotransmitting tooth-staining jones you can't shuck
off, you vain but weak-willed Pavlovian simian.
Continue reading "Righting Whitening"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:14 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
April 17, 2008
Bank Holdup
Wells
Fargo inked a software license agreement with WMR in December 2003. In 2004,
a patent license agreement (PLA) followed. In early February 2006, WMR sold four
patents to DataTreasury:
5,265,007;
5,583,759;
5,717,868; and
5,930,778, patents encompassing what would become federally-mandated digital
check processing under the law known as Check 21. DataTreasury then embarked on
a massive patent enforcement campaign against a slew of banks, including Wells
Fargo. Wells Fargo thought that DataTreasury was bound by the PLA it had with
WMR.
Continue reading "Bank Holdup"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:37 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
Dropped Dish
The
CAFC brushed off an en banc appeal rehearing request from
Dish Network for a $74 million award
to TiVo for patent infringement, as well as a
permanent injunction. Dish had also gone the reexam route, but that only
bullet-proofed the patent (6,233,389).
Denial is a long, lonely road. Dish is going to hoof it to the Supreme Court.
Continue reading "Dropped Dish"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:02 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 7, 2008
Only If, Take 2
O2
enforced its DC-to-AC converter patents against Beyond Innovation and others.
Construction of the claim term "only if" sparked a slight disagreement among
defendants, but was only "two simple plain English words" to O2. The district
court judge agreed with O2: no construction needed. The appeals court did not.
Continue reading "Only If, Take 2"
Posted by Patrick Anderson at 7:45 PM | Claim Construction | Comments (0)
April 6, 2008
Sporting
Friday,
a San Diego jury decided that Microsoft owes Alactel-Lucent $368 million for
infringing patents related to form entry (4,763,356
= $357.7m) and handwriting gestures (5,347,295
= $10.4m). Microsoft dodged the bullets of a couple video patents (4,439,759;
4,958,226). The two are playing a few hands of "Patents: Sport of Kings."
Microsoft will appeal this round. The game continues, with claims and
counterclaims flying in separate trials. The word "settle" does not appear on
the game board for these two.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:51 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 4, 2008
Presumed Valid
Microsoft
and its counsel, including
Theodore B. Olson, repeatedly employ deception in petitioning the Supreme
Court to lower the burden of proof for invalidating patents, twisting SCOTUS'
own words. As the Supreme Court observed, efforts by Microsoft and other
mega-corporations of its ilk to decimate patent protection "stifle, rather than
promote, the progress of useful arts." KSR, 127 S. Ct. at 1746 (citing
U.S. Const., art. I, § 8, cl. 8).
Continue reading "Presumed Valid"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:11 PM | Prior Art | Comments (2)
April 3, 2008
A Call for Justice, Texas Style
Seasoned litigators, and former colleagues, Bill Abbatt and Bob Tuttle, both of Brooks Kushman, PC, recommend in a recent article that the Eastern District of Michigan adopt local rules for patent cases similar to those in effect in the Eastern District of Texas. Ipls Proceedings, Vol. 19, Issue 2 at p. 5 (2008) A fine idea, gentlemen, but why stop there?
Continue reading "A Call for Justice, Texas Style"
Posted by Patrick Anderson at 7:06 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 27, 2008
Busybody
Mother
hen AIPLA is clucking over the Eastern
District of Texas.
28
U.S.C. §1391, the venue statute, grants broad latitude: any district where a "defendant
is subject to personal jurisdiction at the time the action is commenced."
Not good enough for AIPLA.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:33 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 25, 2008
Killing the Crap Shoot
Over
a third of patent cases are reversed and remanded on
appeal.
Faulty claim construction is the reason half the time. As it is, district court
trial resembles a $3-$5 million roll of the dice.
Hal Wegner's
prescription: "One of the single most important reforms of the patent system is
a direction from the legislature that all patent cases should be handled by a
pool of patent-experienced trial judges. No reform is more critical, nor glaring
in its absence from Leahy S. 1145." What this country needs is a dedicated
patent trial circuit, preferably with shortcut arbitration capability.
Continue reading "Killing the Crap Shoot"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:26 PM | Litigation | Comments (6)
March 17, 2008
Drama
Professor
Dennis
Crouch: "Over the past two decades, the number of patents being litigated
has risen dramatically." Crouch then shows a graph that's clear as mud: one axis
labeled "Patent Count;" the other "Year Complaint Was Filed." One has no way of
knowing, either by graph or explanation, whether "patent count" represents
number of complaints; or number of litigated patents total, irrespective of
number of complaints. Regardless what "patent count" means, most damning is
failure to normalize: to take into account the number of patents granted.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:22 PM | Litigation | Comments (7)
March 14, 2008
Litigation Trends
What
litigators already know: rocket dockets are the best bet; jury trials trump
bench trials for awards; being plaintiff is advantageous. East Virginia and
Western Wisconsin have the fastest rockets in their dockets, but offer only an
average 50-50 chance of success. Mid-Florida and East Texas report the highest
patent holder success rate, 67% & 55% respectively. Overall, East Virginia rates
the top jurisdiction.
Continue reading "Litigation Trends"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:27 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
March 13, 2008
Davids Against Goliaths
Digital
media, digital imaging, and wireless communications are the patented
technologies owned by three small inventors who have recently filed lawsuits
against major corporations.
Continue reading "Davids Against Goliaths"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:11 AM | Litigation | Comments (3)
March 2, 2008
Practice Makes Perfect?
Statistics
is a craft; running the numbers is the easy part. The tough bit comes down to
data quality: how reliable is the base of data employed? Heterogeneity is the
bane of statistical reliability: comparing apples to oranges tells you nothing
about either apples or oranges.
By definition, every patent is supposedly novel. So, statistically comparing patent litigations inherently prances into a minefield. Only prudence, that numbers can lie, but that the smell test of sensibility grants good guidance, makes numbers truly meaningful.
Straight faced, Dave Schwartz concluded: "data do not reveal any evidence that district court judges learn from prior appeals of their rulings. There is no suggestion of a significant relationship between experience and performance." Schwartz, by example, empirically reminds that statistically inclined and logically challenged are stochastically independent.
Continue reading "Practice Makes Perfect?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:23 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
New Rules
While
not to date considered a rocket docket, the patent litigation rulebook crafted
in the Northern District of California
has been an inspiration for other districts: the Eastern District of Texas and
Southern District of New York included. Effective March 1, 2008, North
California has a
revised rulebook in play. The change is focus on groundwork early in
litigation, into claim construction.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:25 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 26, 2008
Down Boy
Medtronic's
lawyers were hammered for
malpractice in patent suit against BrainLAB last week. Now a different legal
crew barking for Medtronic has been slapped a $10 million fine for similar
malfeasance.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:38 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
February 25, 2008
Exuberance Rewarded
Last February,
the
appeals court found Medtronic's
four-patent assertion against
BrainLAB
worthless, upholding Colorado district court Judge
Richard Matsch overturning a duped jury verdict of infringement. Back before the
district court, entertaining a post-trail motion by BrainLAB to recover all
attorneys fees and costs, Judge Matsch raked Medtronic's attorneys over the coals,
particularly
Terrence McMahon and
Vera Elson of McDermott Will & Emery.
Continue reading "Exuberance Rewarded"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:06 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
February 22, 2008
Retractable
6,733,328
has been treated like a commodity. It was originally assigned to Ultra Products,
then transferred to Taiwan-based Transpower Technology. Transpower made
Retractable Technologies LLC exclusive licensee, capable of enforcing the
patent; although Dallas-based Data Drive claims to be exclusive licensee, but
that Retractable could license the patent with permission. Retractable cracked
the whip in Wyoming Tuesday, against Belkin, RadioShack, Fry's Electronics,
Targus, and others.
Continue reading "Retractable"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:08 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 21, 2008
Rocket Dockets
The
Eastern District of Texas has become the most popular court for patent
litigation. As a result, with stuffed docket, time to trial has stretched to
about two years. Other districts are taking up the slack, notably the Western
District of Wisconsin and the Eastern District of Virginia, but there is a
potential drawback to the also-rans.
Continue reading "Rocket Dockets"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:57 AM | Litigation | Comments (2)
February 20, 2008
Wireless & Witless
BlackBerry
maker Research in Motion (RIM) and Moto Q
maker Motorola sued each other Saturday
for patent infringement. Illinois-based Motorola chose Delaware and the Eastern
District of Texas, while Ontario-based RIM chose the Northern District of Texas.
No venue shopping there.
Continue reading "Wireless & Witless"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 13, 2008
Wage Slave to Own
Back
in 1991, the Barstow brothers, David and Daniel, patented a way to include
computer events within a live broadcast. Being sports fans, the Barstow boys
dreamt up the idea from wanting to watch baseball games simulated on a computer.
They went after MLB Advanced Media, who got the matter tossed in district court
over subject matter jurisdiction. Problem was that David worked, under
employee contract, for Schlumberger
when the patent was filed, leaving title under a cloud. The district court wouldn't
hear the Barstows out, so the Barstows appealed.
Continue reading "Wage Slave to Own"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:20 PM | Litigation | Comments (4)
February 12, 2008
Stent for Rent
Over
a decade ago, radiologist Dr. Bruce Saffran invented a drug-eluting porous
sheet, and was granted
5,653,760. Boston
Scientific liked the idea. Imitation resulted in flattery costing $431.9
million, an 8% royalty on U.S. sales, and 6% on foreign sales, from 2004 through
last September. The award was reputedly the sixth largest in history. Hard-nosed
BS will try to get presiding Eastern District of Texas Judge T. John Ward to
overturn the jury verdict; barring that, appeal.
Continue reading "Stent for Rent"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:31 PM | Damages | Comments (10)
February 11, 2008
It's a Dud, Dude
Patent
monger Alcatel-Lucent
sued Dell in 2003 over 15 patents; Dell
counterclaimed with
6,038,597 and
6,182,275, related to Internet computer product ordering. Jury trial found
Dell's patents valid and non-infringed. Dell was ordered to pay costs.
Continue reading "It's a Dud, Dude"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:43 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 8, 2008
Klingon Attack
WARF,
the Klingon who once served on the Starship Enterprise, has resurfaced on earth
as a patent troll, albeit oversized, as patent trolls are normally dwarfish.
Whatever. WARF is bashing Intel for CPU patent infringement after negotiations
understandably failed: Intel does not speak Klingon.
Continue reading "Klingon Attack"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:03 AM | Litigation | Comments (3)
February 6, 2008
Why Litigate?
Patent
litigation is tremendously expensive. And noisy. The ruckus has stirred quite a
crowd: fat geezers with political heft to match are jostling to shuffle the
seating arrangements in the patent spat ballroom. The stakes for infringers can
stray to six to nine figures or more. Microsoft keeps a small army of patent
litigators marching on the defense of 30 to 40 contemporaneous assertions.
Though not as bad a barrage as Microsoft, quite a few large firms face regular
patent battles. Why not take a more civilized path?
Continue reading "Why Litigate?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:55 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (4)
February 5, 2008
Bad Seed
Dakota
farmer Loren David tried to cheat Monsanto
by saving and replanting patented soybean seeds, a breach of contract as well as
patent infringement. Monsanto caught him, and it's going to cost David in the
neighborhood of $700,000.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:03 PM | Litigation | Comments (7)
January 31, 2008
Trustworthiness
In
January 2005, Rambus sued memory chip
makers Hynix,
Micron, and
Nanya for infringing more than a
dozen patents. The defendants fought back with a goon ringer: the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC, among
other things, produced
a scathing
120-page liability opinion, which the memory makers wanted entered into
evidence for their patent litigation. The judge said
no,
finding the report neither the product of an investigation nor reliable.
Continue reading "Trustworthiness"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:21 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
January 30, 2008
On the Clam
Barracuda
Networks is crying for a lifeline from the open source software community in
its patent infringement fight with Trend Micro.
That cry
is being answered with lofty words; factual ballast not in evidence.
Continue reading "On the Clam"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:24 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
Troll This
In
the semiconductor patent litigation of Rambus versus Hynix, Samsung, Nanya and
Micron: Judge Ronald Whyte in the Northern District of California ruled in favor
of Rambus's in limine motion "to preclude the use of derogatory
characterizations of patents and patentholders, granting the motion as to the
term “patent troll” and limiting the use of the term “submarine patent.”" The
pejoratives may still be used during closing argument.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
January 24, 2008
Heavy Drinking
Having
wet its whistle on everyone's favorite VOIP patent whipping post, Vonage,
Sprint Nextel is ringing the bell
for more rounds against an itty-bitty bevy of mobile phone service providers:
Big River Telephone, Broadvox, NuVox, and Paetec Communications were plastered in four separate lawsuits.
Continue reading "Heavy Drinking"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 4, 2008
Here We Are Now
Intertainer
had its business model hammered, shuttering operations in 2002 and launching an
antitrust suit against major players in the TV industry. What little it had left
in assets became video-on-demand patent
6,925,469, which it asserted at the end of 2006 against Apple, Google, and
Napster. The three defendants counterclaimed for declaratory judgment. Apple has now settled.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:41 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Tracking Trucking
Patent
enforcer Acacia manages a
four-patent portfolio, owned by Telematics, for combining wireless communication
with GPS tracking. The portfolio was asserted against UPS, @Road, Xata, Verizon,
Ryder Truck Rental, Motorola, Teletrac, and Sprint Nextel. While a few others
fight on, Sprint has settled.
Continue reading "Tracking Trucking"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:59 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 2, 2008
Dip
IP
Law 360 reports IP lawsuit filings dipping 8% in 2007 from 2006. With last
year's declaratory judgment rulings encouraging litigation at the expense of
negotiation, and the patent office unlawfully sphinctering allowances, patent
court filings may rally in 2008.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 20, 2007
Strapped
4,976,388
claims a shoulder strap with a bit of give. John Wleklinski, dba Comfort Strapp, sued
Targus for infringement. Targus got a
summary judgment of non-infringement, its strap not meeting two claim
limitations; easily upheld on appeal in a non-precedential decision.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:26 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 18, 2007
VoIP
As
Vonage is learning, VoIP is an acronym for "voice over intellectual property." After acquiring Digital Packet Licensing last year, which had its own patent
assertion going against Nortel Networks, Vonage unwisely let it continue. Slow on the
uptake from its expensive losses to
Verizon,
Sprint-Nextel and
AT&T, Vonage now faces
a counterclaim from Nortel.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 13, 2007
Covered
Randi
Black's
7,152,606 covers a nipple cover, one that got good coverage from Eastern
District of Texas Judge John Love's Markman hearing, adopting most of the
language the plaintiff preferred on the crucial term "nipple cover." The
defendants had argued for an unreasonably narrow construction.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:48 AM | Claim Construction | Comments (1)
Buy It Now
Judge
Jerome Friedman of Eastern Virginia district court put the final tab of eBay
infringing MercExchange's
5,845,265 with eBay's "Buy It Now" feature at $30 million. The case spawned
a muddled
SCOTUS ruling in May 2006 scotching the prospect for injunctions in many
cases, to a nominal regime of payoff for infringement. Post-trial continuing
infringement is not covered in the eBay case, and MercExchange hopes to squeeze
more for it; while eBay likely appeals.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:14 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 12, 2007
The Borderline
MPT
successfully sued Marathon Labels and Polymeric Converting for patent
infringement, and even got a permanent injunction, but an extra-territorial
injunction that didn't withstand appeal.
Continue reading "The Borderline"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:00 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 7, 2007
The Polka
Fulbright
& Jaworski has released its fourth annual survey of companies getting pipped
and waltzing others in that toe-tapping polka affectionately known as
litigation. In the patent department, F&J finds infringement claims rising like
yeasty bread, with the big boys flinging more dough as well as being more
frequently flung upon. Speaking of dough, the cost of the attending the polka
parlor is worry number one, not the prospect of injunctive relief. Yet spend to
dance they do.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:40 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 30, 2007
Cold Case
As
reported last
year, Keith Whittle got heated and sued an old friend, Theo Cummings, who
had prosecuted a heated body pad patent for him gratis, for doing a bad job of
it; namely, leaving out the heated part. Whittle also sued Proctor & Gamble,
where Cummings used to work, and Theo's wife, for no good reason that the
presiding judge could figure. Tuesday
the judge pitched the case under
Federal
Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6) for failing to state a claim upon which relief
can be granted, the "what are we talking about?" rule. The judge will allow
Whittle to refile a more cogent complaint. Cogency does not appear to be Keith
Whittle's long suit.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:16 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
November 29, 2007
Time Warp
6,233,389,
owned by TiVo, claims a TV time warp: recording a program while playing back
another. Suing EchoStar for infringement, EchoStar pulled the reexamination
trigger. All that got was a bulletproof patent.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:18 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 18, 2007
Blown Bubble
In
1996 Apotex sued Merck for infringing high blood pressure medicine patents
5,573,780 &
5,690,962. The outcome was invalidity via
§102(g), Merck having done beforehand what Apotex claimed; that withstood
appeal. Apotex then argued that Merck concealed its invention; that too shot
down. Then Apotex charged fraud; laughed out of district court. Never-say-die
Apotex sulked, then belatedly appealed.
Continue reading "Blown Bubble"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Infringing Activation
Serial
patent infringer Microsoft, who bitches mightily about having to pay patent
"taxes," got nailed $115 million in damages, plus a $25 million kicker for doing
it when they should have known better, and attorneys fees, for willfully
infringing z4 patents that cover Microsoft's product activation feature, used in
both Office and Windows. Microsoft was denied JMOL, which it appealed.
Continue reading "Infringing Activation"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:02 PM | Litigation | Comments (6)
October 31, 2007
Called Card
AT&T
won a reversal of the stunning $156 million tab for infringing TGIP calling card
patents. Judge Ron Clark in the Eastern District of Texas
cast aside
a doctrine of equivalents (DOE) jury verdict based on non-infringement, given
claim construction.
Continue reading "Called Card"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:27 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
Madison Blues
AT&T
sued Vonage Wednesday in the Western District of Wisconsin for infringing
6,487,200, of 1996 vintage, claiming basic VOIP using a regular telephone.
This on the heels of
settling with Sprint, and still wrangling with
Verizon.
AT&T and Vonage had been negotiating for some time prior to AT&T losing its
patience.
Continue reading "Madison Blues"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:44 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 17, 2007
Flawed Gem?
Gemstar,
which has a patent portfolio of over 200 patents, mostly related to online TV
guides, has sued Toshiba for infringing one of its Japanese variants. Gemstar
also has a current case against Digeo in the Central District of California.
Continue reading "Flawed Gem?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:33 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 15, 2007
Patent Malpractice
The
appeals court ruled in two patent malpractice cases today:
AMT v. Akin Gump
and Immuocept v.
Fulbright & Jaworski. Patent malpractice is found a federal issue under
28 U.S.C. § 1338.
Continue reading "Patent Malpractice"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:51 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
October 11, 2007
Necessary Medicine
GlaxoSmithKline is attempting to vaccinate inventors
from the examination limits pandemic about to hit, which inexorably will lead to
digestive distress and headaches for prosecutors, as well as depression for
inventors who cannot adequately protect their inventions. GSK's medication was
injected in the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday against Jon Dudas as USPTO
honcho.
Continue reading "Necessary Medicine"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:04 PM | The Patent Office | Comments (2)
October 5, 2007
Not Extortion
Judge Marsh Pechman in the Western District of Washington
sanctioned Eon-Net for
its swing at Flagstar and others for infringing
6,683,697. "The Court was shocked to learn" that Eon-Net had an enforcement
campaign going, Pechman diddled. She then got hammered for her naiveté by the CAFC: Eon-Net deserves some
respect.
Continue reading "Not Extortion"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:58 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
September 24, 2007
No Seizure
Warner
Lambert holds
6,054,482, covering the active ingredient of
Neurontin, which treats epilepsy. Warner
sued generic drug makers to toss their versions off the market. The district
court granted summary judgment of noninfringement. The appeals court said there
were "genuine issues of material fact," so summary judgment was premature. A
little claim construction tiff that Warner had was settled by reading the claim
as anyone with a lick of sense would have. The CAFC decision (06-1572)
is long and boring; that could be why the district court wanted to see the
backside of the damned thing, but it got remanded for more mucking around. The
ruling was inscrutably precedential; the case is stale, having dragged on for
years, and everything about the decision was moldy.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:21 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 23, 2007
Blood Money
The American Red Cross (ARC) counterpunched against
Johnson &
Johnson's trademark infringement suit Friday, filing
a motion that J&J's
complaint was legally defective. The ARC crossed J&J by licensing the famous Red
Cross emblem to other health product makers. The ARC seems determined not let
historical facts, nor long-standing comity, act as proscription in its drive for
licensing lucre.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:47 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
Infringing Parties
Paymentech
sought declaratory judgment of non-infringement after BMC demanded licensing of
5,718,298 &
5,870,456; patents claiming processing debit transactions without using a
personal ID number (PIN). BMC's problem, besides being dumb enough to provoke a
DJ action, was that Paymentech by itself did not infringe the process claims; it
took firms downstream, unrelated to Paymentech, to complete the claimed
invention. The district court granted summary judgment of non-infringement. In a
thoughtful no-brainer, the appeals court affirmed, marking guidelines for
infringement when multiple parties are involved, and a cautionary note for
claims drafting.
Continue reading "Infringing Parties"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:32 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 19, 2007
Skirting Privilege to Evade Sanctions
Heller
Ehrman lawyers, who face sanctions for allegedly
concealing
documents during discovery in Qualcomm patent assertion against Broadcom,
asked the court Monday to let them present privileged attorney-client documents
in their defense. Another firm facing the same prospect,
Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder, was
vicarious, but did not participate in the motion. The conflict runs deep.
Continue reading "Skirting Privilege to Evade Sanctions"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 13, 2007
Tits-Up?
Victoria's
Secret has filed a
summary judgment motion to pinch
7,152,606, claiming a nipple cover. The motion accuses the USPTO of abusing
its discretion in reviving the application that led to the patent after it was
left abandoned for five years. It's shocking to even consider that the patent
office would spark any controversy, particularly face an accusation of flaunting
its authority. The only thing Miss Victoria wants the patent pushing up is
daisies (but not those pictured).
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:22 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
Locked Out
ACCO
Brands sued ABA Locks and Belkin for infringing patents claiming locks stopping
computers from getting legs. Without legs, no traction, ACCO discovered. The
lesson from the CAFC: "In order to prevail on an inducement claim, the patentee
must establish “first that there has been direct infringement, and second that
the alleged infringer knowingly induced infringement and possessed specific
intent to encourage another’s infringement.”"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
Imclone Settles
With
trial looming, ImClone Systems settled its patent woes with Repligen and MIT,
forking out $65 million to keep selling its Erbitux cancer treatment. Repligen
badly needed the boost.
Continue reading "Imclone Settles"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:07 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 5, 2007
Calibration
4,743,902,
owned by Mitutoyo, claiming a
device for electronically measuring an object's movement, has been a hex to
Central Purchasing. Central settled with Mitutoyo in 1994 over a 1992 assertion
of '902, agreeing not to further infringe. Central lost a declaratory motion in
1995 that sought to invalidate the patent. In a suit filed in 2003, Central got
collared for infringing again. Of course, Central appealed. Mitutoyo also
appealed, as its pitch for willful infringement got tossed by the trial court.
Continue reading "Calibration"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 31, 2007
An End to Denial
The
Eolas patent infringement win over Microsoft, for infringing
5,838,906, garnered
a $520 million damage award, and became a cause célebre for those howling that the patent system had run amok. In alchemic
transformation, amok turned into bucks.
Continue reading "An End to Denial"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:31 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 28, 2007
Email Interpretation
On
Monday, Polaris IP pulled its lever on the patent slot machine, suing AOL,
Google, Yahoo!, A9, Borders, Amazon, and others in the Eastern District of Texas
for infringing
6,411,947, which claims automated email message classification using a
combination of a case base knowledge engine and rule base.
Continue reading "Email Interpretation"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:20 PM | Litigation | Comments (2)
August 17, 2007
Discovery
Every
Penny Counts (EPC) is suing Bank of America (BOA) in Florida for infringing
6,112,191, which claims automated account transfer of "excess funds" with a
retail transaction. EPC wanted hundreds of thousands of documents as part of
discovery. BOA agreed to roll them out gradually, but then stalled. Judge Sheri
Polster Chappell told BOA to bust a move, giving it until the end of the year to
get it done. BOA ought to pay attention; and their attorneys, even closer
attention; take Qualcomm as a very bad example.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:31 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Slow on the Draw
"The
value of effort is timeliness." - Lao Tzu
Microsoft got sued for patent infringement for the upteenth time; this time, by Computer Acceleration Corporation (CAC), a unit of Acacia. The horse CAC rode was 5,933,630, carrying cargo that reduces program launch time. Microsoft aimed to hog-tie the rider, and shoot the horse, but was a tad tardy.
Continue reading "Slow on the Draw"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:57 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
August 12, 2007
Sloppy Vonage
Predating
the
Verizon-Vonage spat that has garnered much ink, Sprint sued Vonage in
October 2005 over seven patents related to interfacing a old-style PSTN telephone network with the Internet variety (VOIP). Vonage filed a sloppy
summary judgment motion, which
Kansas district court Judge Lungstrum pitched. Trial starts in September.
Continue reading "Sloppy Vonage"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:09 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
August 10, 2007
This Lawsuit's For You
Unless
you're a Pabst Blue Ribbon lowlife, you've
doubtlessly marveled over the new Budweiser
beer bottles, with shiny printing on both sides of the label. It's enough to
make you guzzle. Why, that label is so chillin' that it's patented; alas, not by
Bud brewer Anheuser-Busch. On
Thursday, a Quebec company uncorked a cool complaint in East Michigan for
infringing
6,852,191.
Continue reading "This Lawsuit's For You"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 7, 2007
Stiffed
Bad day for Qualcomm.
First, President Bush turned a deaf ear to Qualcomm's plea to overturn an ITC injunction against importing chips infringing Broadcom patents. Now Qualcomm is heading back to the appeals court for a stay, to let it plead some more.
Second, in a separate battlefront, Qualcomm had asserted two video compression patents (5,452,104 & 5,576,767) against Broadcom that covered the H.264 standard, set by the Joint Video Team (JVT). By adopting the standard, Broadcom infringed, Qualcomm snorted; a jury found otherwise. In Southern California Judge Rudi Brewster ruled Monday that Qualcomm engaged in "aggravated litigation abuse" by concealing over 130,000 documents during discovery. Qualcomm lawyers "participated in an organized program of litigation misconduct and concealment throughout" the case, as well as "widespread and undeniable misconduct of Qualcomm." The judge granted attorneys fees to Broadcom. Fooling the standards committee (JVT) in the first place cost Qualcomm its right to enforce the patents, Brewster ruled.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:14 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Unplugged
In
a detailed
43-page decision, Judge
Rudi Brewster in San Diego district court pitched the $1.5 billion damage award
to Alcatel-Lucent from Microsoft for two MP3 audio patents,
5,341,457 and
RE39,080. Judge Brewster
overruled the jury verdict, finding non-infringement in one patent, and a
question of ownership on the other. "The jury's verdict was against the clear
weight of the evidence," Brewster wrote.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:41 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 31, 2007
Injunction & Reexamination
Hal
Wegner reports: "More than fourteen months after the Supreme Court decision
in eBay
Inc. v. MercExchange, the eBay case continues in Norfolk. Just this past Friday,
the court denied a permanent injunction while offering interesting observations
on the interplay between patent reexamination and litigation."
Continue reading "Injunction & Reexamination"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:10 AM | Injunction | Comments (0)
The KSR Trend
KSR
is taking a mounting toll on patents and patent applications. To soon for hard
statistics, but the trend is palpable. The
Wall Street
Journal today notes the killing fields that courts are becoming in patent
litigations. The patent office has become an obviousness connoisseur, savoring
the many ways of snuffing applications like wind-blown candles, based on KSR-provided
attack angles.
Continue reading "The KSR Trend"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:26 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 26, 2007
Patents Ahoy
Transocean
has a four-patent portfolio that constitutes a working rig. Having drilled
GlobalSanteFe (GSF) for infringement a few years back, Transocean now aims its
bit at Maersk Contractors.
Continue reading "Patents Ahoy"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
July 20, 2007
Bad Timing
Broadcom
kept the pressure on Qualcomm with the looming ITC injunction of Qualcomm chips
for infringing Broadcom patents. Qualcomm and it customers: phone makers and
service providers, tried to block the ITC ban by appealing to the CAFC. The ITC
and Broadcom countered that CAFC intervention was untimely given that the 60-day
presidential review period, by which the President may veto the injunction, is
still underway. The CAFC concurred. (CAFC
07-1392)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:43 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 16, 2007
Riding Herd
Eastern
District of Texas Judge T. John Ward has made it clear to Toshiba that it was a
mistake to mess with Texas patent court. On the defense from Juniper Networks
for infringing
5,418,924, claiming a memory controller with programmable timing, Toshiba got
caught committing "discovery abuse": lying about source code it had, and in
contempt for disobeying a court order to produce it. Ward imposed harsh
sanctions. (Eastern District of Texas case
2:05-cv-00479-TJW-CE)
Continue reading "Riding Herd"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 7, 2007
This Week in Patents
A
roundup of this week's top patent news: battles won and lost, as well as
settlements and ghosts given up. The top stories involved a pair of 2-1 CAFC
rulings, and waiting with bated breath whether OMB will stop the USPTO from
capricious rule making.
Continue reading "This Week in Patents"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:24 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
July 2, 2007
Introspection
The
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) meditated, awakening anew, bathed in
the shimmer of KSR, deciding to review an administrative judge's decision that
two dozen companies infringed Seiko Epson ink cartridge patents. The kinder,
gentler ITC was in with the Zen of reflection on claim construction,
infringement, and invalidity by obviousness, where the light-headedness of KSR
hindsight makes so much obvious that otherwise wouldn't be. Oh yes, the ITC has
a new mantra: "If the Commission contemplates some form of remedy, it must
consider the effects of that remedy upon the public interest." [ITC
notice]
Continue reading "Introspection"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:55 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 28, 2007
Dark Passage
In
April of last year Netflix sued Blockbuster for infringing its patents for user
wish lists and "no late fees" features, leading to a bruising battle. In a
surprise announcement, the two settled earlier this week, terms undisclosed; so
hush-hush that the judge in the case washed his hands of it all, even if the
settlement agreement falls apart.
Continue reading "Dark Passage"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Middle Ground
Considering
the injunction facing Vonage from
infringing Verizon patents, an injunction that could effectively force Vonage
out of business, in oral arguments today before a CAFC three-judge panel, Judge
Timothy Dyk wondered aloud about a middle ground.
Continue reading "Middle Ground"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:18 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 25, 2007
Tuned In
Rembrandt
Technologies sued 15 media companies for infringing patents related to HDTV and
high-speed Internet standards. Defendants include Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time Warner, Adelphia, and Comcast. To the dismay
of Rembrandt, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the
cases into a single suit (ruling).
The cases had been spread from New York (2) to Delaware (6) to the Eastern
District of Texas (7).
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 12, 2007
Standing
Atmel
sued AuthenTec for infringing
6,289,114, claiming a fingerprint reader. AuthenTec filed a summary judgment
motion, that Atmel was not the owner of the patent, hence did not having
standing to sue. The district court in Northern California (4:06-cv-02138-CW),
following CAFC precedent, set standing: an exclusive licensee has a right to sue
if joined by the patent owner.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 4, 2007
Concealment
Wireless
patent maven Qualcomm started a patent war with Broadcom in July 2005. The
ongoing confrontation, involving a wide-ranging slew of patent assertions from
both sides, has been a multi-faceted complexity on multiple fronts.
One patent family stands out: 5,452,104 and 5,576,767, claiming a video codec that Qualcomm figures is part of the H.264 video compression standard. Qualcomm tried to nail Broadcom for adhering to the H.264 standard.
Broadcom accused Qualcomm of participating in the standard setting as part of the Joint Video Team (JVT), and in the process violating JVT's policy requiring participants to disclose related patents. Qualcomm repeatedly denied during trial that it had any relationship with JVT during the standard-setting process, and fought to exclude any evidence related to "a list of subscribers to a JVT ad hoc working group." Qualcomm categorically denied any participation: "There are no e-mails."
Continue reading "Concealment"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:10 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Another Bite with a Fresh Rabbit
Giving large corporations
every opportunity to
treat the patent system as their own private reserve, the USPTO will give
Microsoft another chance to invalidate the Eolas web browser plug-in patent,
which Microsoft was found to have expensively infringed with its ActiveX technology. This
episode, provoking an interference, Microsoft pulls a rabbit out its hat that
claims that it, Big Genius, invented the technology, not the puny patentee.
Continue reading "Another Bite with a Fresh Rabbit"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:19 PM | The Patent Office | Comments (0)
May 29, 2007
Motionless Litigation
Motionless
Keyboard (MKC) sued Microsoft, Nokia and Saitek Industries for infringing
"motionless" keyboard patents
5,178,477 and CIP
5,332,322. The district court figured out non-infringement based upon a
proper claim construction, but missed on public use invalidity, and
misunderstood terminal disclaimers. The appeals court set it straight (CAFC
05-1497).
Continue reading "Motionless Litigation"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:10 PM | Prior Art | Comments (0)
May 27, 2007
Streamline Expert
Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for Northern California is
developing a taste for independent expert witnesses to help sort out patent cases
with complex technology. It makes the losing side sore, tempting appeal, but
does seem to sweep tidy.
Continue reading "Streamline Expert"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:39 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
Dead in the Dust
EchoStar
shot Forgent's video recorder patent dead. In 2005, Forgent sued 15 companies
for infringing
6,285,746, which claims a multitasking video machine, allowing playback
while recording. Nine settled, with Forgent raking in $20 million. EchoStar had
the nerve to admit infringement, and played straight invalidation poker. The
Eastern District of Texas jury liked Echostar's cards.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:15 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Non- En Banc Cacophany
Pfizer
appealed the CAFC obviousness invalidation of
4,879,303 (see
The Salt of Obviousness), asking for an en banc review. A majority rolled it
as no dice (CAFC 06-1261o),
but there was a brouhaha of dissent, focused on the court overstepping its
bounds, both in disregarding trial courts and in finding obvious that which was
not, further withstanding the momentous repercussions.
Continue reading "Non- En Banc Cacophany"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:31 PM | Prior Art | Comments (0)
May 16, 2007
Another Bite at the Apple
Microsoft
wants another chance to escape the $1.5 billion punishment for infringing
Alcatel-Lucent's streaming media patents, asking for a new trial in light of the
SCOTUS rulings in Microsoft v. AT&T, and especially KSR v. Teleflex. The claims
are obvious "under the KSR Standard," Microsoft toots. Hell, everything's
obvious under the KSR Standard.
Continue reading "Another Bite at the Apple"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:26 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 24, 2007
Vonage Off Hook
A
few hours after hearing oral arguments, the appeals court (CAFC) granted Vonage
reprieve from an injunction for infringing Verizon patents.
Continue reading "Vonage Off Hook"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:34 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
April 11, 2007
Sweetness & Light
Sucralose,
essentially chlorinated cane sugar, has one-eighth the calories of sugar by
weight, but is 600 times sweeter. Splenda
is the trade name for this wildly popular sugar substitute. Maker and patent
holder Tate & Lyle, having successfully sued for patent infringement before,
are caning three Chinese manufacturers before the ITC, along with 18 importers.
Continue reading "Sweetness & Light"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:48 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
April 9, 2007
DVD Standard
DVD
technology is, needless to say, standardized, and aspects of the technology
patented. Toshiba and eight other companies created the DVD6C Licensing group as
a ready means for DVD player or recorder companies to obtain the necessary
licenses. So far, over 220 companies have signed on. Toshiba has rounded up 17
companies, mostly Hong Kong and China based, that allegedly use the official DVD
logo, but do not have paid-up licenses; the venues: Northern California district
court & the ITC.
Continue reading "DVD Standard"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:06 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
April 8, 2007
Reprieve
The
appeals court granted Vonage a stay late Friday afternoon from a
district court
injunction against accepting new customers. Verizon has until the end of
this week to respond, then the appeals court will decide whether to let Vonage
continue to peddle itself.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 6, 2007
Hung Up
District
court Judge Claude Hilton slapped a odd order on Vonage today, stopping it from
signing up new customers. Vonage had been found to have
infringed
three Verizon patents. Verizon gave the judge the idea. Besides the
headache, this gives Vonage one more thing to appeal.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:55 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Nokia Dials It In
Nokia
and Qualcomm are tussling over patents.
On Thursday, Nokia squeaked that it would pay Qualcomm $20 million for a
quarterly license for Qualcomm patents related to CDMA wireless technology. In
reply, Qualcomm snorted: "They have no right to do that."
Continue reading "Nokia Dials It In"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:27 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
April 5, 2007
Kickboxing
Reebok
has sued Nike in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing
7,168,190,
claiming a collapsible shoe. Nike launched the allegedly infringing line of
shoes, called "Free," in 2004.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 4, 2007
Blowback Dynamics
The
appeals court
SanDisk ruling regarding declaratory judgment has a least one commenter
consternated.
David Fox of
Fulbright & Jaworski whines in
IP Law 360: "SanDisk is
likely to have a very strong adverse impact on small technology companies and
universities that may not have the means to defend their patents in declaratory
judgment actions. The decision will likely result in the inability of of such
patentees to license patents, especially to large companies. This could have a
profoundly negative effect on the development of technology in the United
States." If there's a kernel of truth in Fox's Chicken Little declaration, it's
good news disguised as bad news.
Continue reading "Blowback Dynamics"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:09 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007
Aced
Acer
Computer has been doing fine: sales are up, and Acer is now ranked fourth in
computer product sales in the U.S. So what does competitor
Hewlett-Packard do? Saddle up the palomino;
ride on down to the Eastern District of Tejas (HP-207-cv-00103-TJW);
draw the pistolero out of its holster, and make Acer dance.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:09 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
Hatch-Waxman Extension
Merck
sued Hi-Tech Pharmacal for patent infringement. Hi-Tech replied: patent expired.
Merck said it had an extension, and the district court agreed. So Hi-Tech
appealed (CAFC 2006-1401).
The CAFC ruled:
[As to] whether a patent term extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act, 35 U.S.C. § 156, may be applied to a patent subject to a terminal disclaimer under 35 U.S.C. § 253, filed to overcome an obviousness-type double-patenting rejection[: b]ecause the language of § 156 is unambiguous and fulfills a purpose unrelated to and not in conflict with that of § 253, we hold that a Hatch-Waxman term extension may be so applied.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:23 AM | The Patent System | Comments (0)
March 23, 2007
Vonage Whacked
Verizon
pressed for an injunction against Vonage, after a jury found three patents
infringed of five asserted. East Virginia district court Judge Claude Hilton indicating he would
consider signing a permanent injunction on the affected technologies was like a toilet
flush on Vonage stock, which dropped 26% today, to $3.
Continue reading "Vonage Whacked"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:17 PM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
March 22, 2007
Pressure Drop
Liebel asserted four patents against Medrad. In the second appeal of the
litigation, the appeals court (CAFC
06-1156) concurs with a
district court ruling that Liebel had not enabled broadened claims in two of the
four patents, thus invalidating the patents under
35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 1.
Liebel had broadened its claims to ensnare Medrad, and so tripped itself up over
its own greed. The full scope of claims must be enabled. As the CAFC tooted:
"The motto, “beware of what one asks for,” might be applicable here." Concurring
again with the district court, the other two asserted patents were found invalid
by prior art; cited prior art; in summary judgment, with no factual dispute.
Continue reading "Pressure Drop"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:29 PM | § 112 | Comments (0)
March 18, 2007
Whipping Post
The
patent flogging of Vonage continues, this time by patent holding company Web
Telephony, which asserted two patents against a slew of VOIP players and
wannabes, including Vonage nemesis Verizon, as well as AT&T, Earthlink and
SunRocket.
Continue reading "Whipping Post"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:29 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Chalk One More
Microsoft
won a small victory Wednesday in fending off Alcatel-Lucent's patent onslaught,
when the San Diego district court judge refereeing the conflict pitched
4,763,356, claiming touch-screen form entry, in summary judgment as not
infringed.
Continue reading "Chalk One More"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:07 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 16, 2007
Recent Settlements
The
vast majority of patent cases settle, often when facing trial, or after a
preliminary ruling, such as Markman (claim construction). With trial scheduled
for Monday, Broadcom and Qualcomm have settled another of their multifarious
cases against one another. Software security maven McAfee settled with Acacia
over a patent on Internet hyperlinks on CDs and DVDs. And the Orlando Utilities
Commission settled with Emergis Technologies for a patented online payment
system.
Continue reading "Recent Settlements"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:33 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 14, 2007
Green Alert
Aiming to get security screening equipment free, the U.S. Airport Police
State, officially known as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), has
aimlessly wandered into a patent infringement suit, among other charges, between two
competitors, over ads on "divestiture bins" and "composure tables."
Continue reading "Green Alert"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 9, 2007
Charge
Consumer
products whiz 3M has sallied forth in Minnesota district court and the ITC over
its lithium-ion battery patents (6,964,828
&
7,078,128). The targets are computer laptop makers: Sony, Lenovo Group (who
bought the IBM PC line), CDW, Batteries COM, Hitachi, Matsushita Industrial
Electronic, Panasonic, Total Micro Technologies, and a host of subsidiary
siblings. Hint to defendants: save yourself grief & take a license.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:52 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 8, 2007
Earth Escapes
Google
Earth escaped an infringement assertion by Skyline Software Systems over
6,496,189, which claims zooming through three-dimensional terrain. Earth herself had no comment.
Continue reading "Earth Escapes"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:46 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 6, 2007
Bloodless
Roche
sued Apex Biotechnology and Hypoguard, then Home Diagnostics, over its diabetes
test devices, patented under
5,366,609 &
RE 36,268. Apex and Hypoguard filed summary judgment motions, mooted by
subsequent settlement under confidential terms. Last Friday, Home Diagnostics
won a summary judgment of non-infringement.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 5, 2007
Strained Silicon
Amberwave
asserted
5,158,907 against Intel in July 2005 in
the Eastern District of Texas, later adding
7,074,655. Intel rebutted, and various lawsuits arose in a running battle.
Intel continually cried wolf with non-infringement, while Amberwave was a wolf
snarling willful infringement. Now the posturing is history. Amberwave scored a
settlement from hard-nosed Intel, who laid down like a lamb, getting a 10-year
license to Amberwave's patent portfolio in return for undisclosed big green.
Continue reading "Strained Silicon"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 4, 2007
Game Over
In a stunning concession, Sony agreed to pay Immersion $150 million to settle
a five-year litigation battle. Sony puts behind it a string of courtroom defeats.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Speechless
A
week after getting handed a $1.52 billion tab for infringing MP3 digital music
patents, Microsoft, in a district court ruling Thursday, dodged a different
Alcatel-Lucent patent bullet over speech recognition.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 1, 2007
Patent Enforcement Trends
PricewaterhouseCoopers
released its 2007 survey of patent enforcement. It found less business method
action, more alternative dispute resolutions, and, owing to rising costs, the
first decline in litigation filings in 16 years.
Continue reading "Patent Enforcement Trends"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:23 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
February 24, 2007
A Ring of Settlement
Cell
phone chip impresario Qualcomm and rival Broadcom inked a partial settlement
that puts only part of their herds of thundering lawyers grazing.
Continue reading "A Ring of Settlement"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 22, 2007
High Roller
Microsoft
would like nothing more than to eviscerate patent enforcement. Unlike its erstwhile
hardware brethren, IBM, Microsoft has struggled rather fruitlessly monetizing
its own patents. Constantly hammered for infringement, astonishingly dim in
handling settlement negotiations, Microsoft as town crier may have found a willing
audience in its
appeal to the Supreme Court
of its loss to AT&T, though no credit to the bozo Microsoft had as
its mouthpiece. Now it's lost the first round in its wide-ranging battle against
Alcatel-Lucent, nailed with a tab of $1.52 billion. But that's just the start of
it.
Continue reading "High Roller"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:23 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
All Bets Are Off
For
all appearances at oral arguments today before the Supreme Court, AT&T looks
unlikely to be able to enforce
35 USC § 271(f) against Microsoft, who ships infringing code overseas.
Justice Stephen Breyer outright told Seth Waxman, AT&T's attorney, "I don't see
how to decide for you." More significantly, the patentability of software
itself may be at risk.
Continue reading "All Bets Are Off"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:37 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
Litigation Trends
IP Law 360 reported 2006 litigation trends in the computer technology
and
financial services industries, from its survey of court dockets. As
might be expected, Microsoft was hammered hardest. Telecom companies are now
just starting the IP tussle over VOIP, the nascent revolution. And financial
service companies are just now getting into the game.
Continue reading "Litigation Trends"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:31 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 13, 2007
Check Please
DataTreasury,
owning patents for auotmated check processing that has become Federal law, sued
and settled with EDS, at least in part one of their two-part dispute. EDS had
counterclaimed. EDS wanted to see the counterclaims through in its preferred
venue, going for the kill in the second, separate, unsettled matter. The
district court said no, and the CAFC concurred.
Continue reading "Check Please"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:27 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 9, 2007
Deep Freeze
Dippin' Dots owns 
5,126,156, which claims a process for making ice cream.
"The Dippin’ Dots brand is known to patrons of amusement parks, stadiums, shopping malls, and the like." After Dippin's distributors turned competitors, Dippin' flipped into patent
enforcement, suing left and right. Counterclaim included antitrust, on what defendants called a fraudulently acquired patent. Claim construction, infringement, prior art
(including a newly minted definition of "obvious"), inequitable conduct; it's all in the dip. (CAFC 05-1330)
Continue reading "Deep Freeze"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:14 PM | Claim Construction | Comments (0)
February 5, 2007
FTC Reins in Rambus
The
Federal Trade Commission issued its
final opinion in
the Rambus antitrust case, setting maximum licensing royalty rates for Rambus'
DRAM patents.
Continue reading "FTC Reins in Rambus"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:15 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 27, 2007
Heartthrob
Lipitor
is the best-selling drug in the world, having raked in worldwide sales last year
approaching $13 billion. Thursday, an Ottawa district court judge invalidated
one of the Canadian patents protecting Lipitor. (T-507-05)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:23 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 26, 2007
Check
Claiming
methods for "enhancing the security of negotiable documents," Toronto-based
Advanced Software Design (ASDC), exclusive licensee of
6,233,340;
6,549,624; &
6,792,110, owned by inventor Calin Sandru, Monday filed a complaint
in the patent litigation hotbed Eastern District of Missouri (huh?). ASDC
asserts that competitor FiServ's check fraud product, sold to Federal Reserve
branch banks, infringes. (4:07-cv-00185-MLM)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:56 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 11, 2007
ITC Pummeling on Appeal
Jazz
Photo refurbished and sold the shells of disposable cameras made by Fuji Photo
Film. Fuji took Jazz to the ITC for patent infringement and won. Not entirely
satisfied with the pummeling, Fuji appealed (CAFC 04-1618).
The Jazz COO, Jack Benun, was dissatisfied with being pummeled, so he appealed.
Continue reading "ITC Pummeling on Appeal"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 8, 2007
Overall Design
Amini Innovation sued Anthony California for infringing dresser furniture design patent D488,936. Anthony got a district court summary judgment of non-infringement. The appeals court: "not so fast." (CAFC 06-1096).
Continue reading "Overall Design"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:39 AM | Claim Construction | Comments (0)
January 5, 2007
Phillips v. AWH Turnabout
Phillips v. AWH was last year's CAFC claim construction classic. Remanded, the district judge in the case has overturned the $1.85 million willful infringement jury award, entering JMOL of non-infringement. The case has lasted a decade.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:01 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 3, 2007
Say Cheese
Back
in March 2004, Kodak sued
Sony for patent infringement of
digital imaging technologies. Sony duly replied with its own ten-patent
counterclaim. They then upped the ante with 24 Sony patents and 7 Kodak patents,
for things like printers and film development. Folks couldn't keep track of the
score, even reputedly changing the channel to snappy dance competitions. Faced with dropping
ratings, the series was threatened with cancellation. So they gave it a happy
ending by settling at the end of the year in a cross-licensing deal, with a bit
of royalty to Kodak.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:23 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 27, 2006
Sloppy Assertion
Engate
asserted its court reporting patents, and in doing so, showed that clown time is
not over at the courthouse. Atkinson-Baker & Esquire, defendants in the case,
got summary judgment of "what was the plaintiff thinking?!" Ditto on appeal
(CAFC 06-1140), and then
some.
Continue reading "Sloppy Assertion"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:56 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Texas Smart
District
judges in Texas smell a new crude that looks profitable: patent litigation.
Judge Ward in the Eastern District penned rules that made that district seem the
patent litigation capital of the U.S. Now other Texas districts are making a
draw from the same deck.
Continue reading "Texas Smart"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:01 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
Patent Boxing
IBM
sued Amazon. Alcatel-Lucent sued Microsoft. Both defendants have lashed out in
retaliation. Patent business as usual.
Continue reading "Patent Boxing"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:30 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
On-Sale Bar Kiosk
Plumtree
Software sought, and got, a declaratory judgment against Datamize, convincing a
district court to summary judgment invalidity under the on-sale bar doctrine, 35
U.S.C. § 102(b), killing
6,460,040 and
6,658,418, continuations of
6,014,137. Two issues on appeal (CAFC
06-1017): whether
Plumtree had "reasonable aprehension" to file for declaratory judgment, and whether the on-sale
bar doctrine had been met.
Continue reading "On-Sale Bar Kiosk"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:59 AM | Prior Art | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
ITC Relief
The
International Trade Commission (ITC) has
become the preferred backdoor to get an injunction, now that the Supreme Court
put glue on the hinges of the judicial front door in its
eBay
decision.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 21, 2006
Alcatel
French
monopolist Alcatel, sucking in $18 billion
in annual revenues, is unabashedly aggressive. Alcatel has an ongoing patent
battle with Foundry Networks, and has now added Microsoft as a mark for some of
the same patents. This is in addition to the patent suit over video-decoding
technology that Lucent
Technologies, an Alcatel acquisition, has asserted against Microsoft for its Xbox
video game machine.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:36 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 6, 2006
NTP Pops Palm
NTP,
who
successfully squeezed $612.5 million from Blackberry-maker Research in
Motion in the patent drama of the year, has slapped
Palm with an infringement suit for email
delivery to its Treo handheld. The quick odds assessment by the market left Palm
shares down 8%.
Continue reading "NTP Pops Palm"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 5, 2006
Rightfully Burned
Furnace
Brook owns
5,721,832, and is slinging it to see what it will stick on. After getting
tossed in summary judgment for its overreaching assertion against Overstock.com,
Furnace is on fire, sending out lowball solicitations to license. These clowns
are going to give patent trolls a bad name.
Continue reading "Rightfully Burned"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:42 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 29, 2006
Amazon Bows
Amazon's
2006 Q3 earnings report, filed with the SEC last Thursday, revealed that Amazon
settled with Cendant in its infringement assertion of
6,782,370, an ecommerce recommendation patent. A year ago, Amazon settled a
similar suit from Soverain Software for $40 million, another settlement revealed
through SEC filing. Is this an omen for the
IBM assertion against Amazon? Does the pope wear a robe?!
Continue reading "Amazon Bows"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
Big Blue Whacks Amazon
Patent
powerhouse IBM has filed suit against Amazon in the Eastern District of Texas.
IBM first notified Amazon in September 2002 of its "licensing opportunity", but
Amazon balked. As IBM isn't exactly known as Mr. Sloppy, Amazon is either out to lunch, has hidden cards to play, or a bit
of both.
Continue reading "Big Blue Whacks Amazon"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:36 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 12, 2006
Low Power
At
the turn of the century, Silicon Valley debutante Transmeta shipped a low-power
microprocessor, the Crusoe, a promising debut for the laptop and portable device
market. The product promise was never realized. Intel's Pentium III shipped
shortly before, making billions to Crusoe's millions. Now Transmeta claims Intel
tucked into its Pentium Transmeta's patented technologies.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:17 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 8, 2006
Xapped
Xap
got xapped by CollegeNet
last week for patent infringement and violating federal antitrust law by
lying to its customers: colleges & universities, about keeping student data
private.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:32 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 6, 2006
Unthreaded
Martin
G. Reiffin, a former IBM patent attorney, claims to have invented computer
software multi-threading in two patents:
5,694,603 &
5,694,604. They're now deservedly dead. (CAFC
06-1063)
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Extortion
Among
many others, Eon-Net sued banker Flagstar Bancorp for infringing
6,683,697. As the court put it, "In this case, as in its various other
infringement actions, Eon-Net followed services of the complaint with a cheap
offer of settlement." (Western District of WA
C05-2129MJP).
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:03 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 5, 2006
Hung Up
Broadcom
and Qualcomm have been entangled in litigation for years, filing suits and
countersuits in venues all over the country. Broadcom tried to get the ITC on
its side, but the issues are so complex, the assigned administrative judge
backed off, postponing a decision. Down in San Diego, Qualcomm home court, Judge
Anthony Battaglia asked the chairmen of the two companies, Broadcom's Henry
Samueli and Qualcomm's Irwin Jacobs, to hunker down and reach an agreement for
10 pending lawsuits. To naught.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:22 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Jet Ski Smash
Kawasaki
Heavy Industries just sued Sea-Doo jet ski manufacturer Bombardier Recreational
Products for infringement of five patents - a broad spray of claims. Kawasaki doesn't just want damages -
they want trebled damages for willful infringement, preliminary and permanent
injunctive relief, attorneys fees, and a court order impounding and destroying
the infringing products.
Continue reading "Jet Ski Smash"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:01 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 28, 2006
Malocclusion Mended
It's
unusual that a plaintiff in a patent infringement suit settles by paying the
defendant. But that's the teeth of the agreement for
Align Technology
settling against OrthoClear for infringing Align's patents for
non-metal dental braces, as well as a mouthful of other business malpractices
which Align accused OrthoClear of.
Continue reading "Malocclusion Mended"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:00 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 24, 2006
The Eastern District of Texas
The
New York Times reviews Marshall, Texas and the patent litigation scene there in
So Small a Town, So Many Patent Suits.
Continue reading "The Eastern District of Texas"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:24 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 17, 2006
Memory Resolution
Japan's
Toshiba settled Friday with Micron Technology over a flash NAND memory chip
battle that had raged for four years. While the settlement figure went
undisclosed, Toshiba walked away from a lot of trouble with a smile.
Continue reading "Memory Resolution"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:21 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 7, 2006
Katz Claws
Ronald
A. Katz Technology Licensing LP is a patent tiger. Time Warner Cable and a
slew of other companies are feeling the bite of 17 communications patents; suit
filed in Delaware. Also snarled on are AOL, Cablevision, and Qwest, for
patents related to automated customer service, conference calling, voicemail,
and pay-per-view, with a flock of claims like a murder of crows.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 30, 2006
Obviousness Aligned
One
might get the impression, for all the ruckus over KSR v. Teleflex in front of
the Supreme Court, that 35 U.S.C. §103(a), the prior art obviousness clause, is
broken. Not so. §103 is badly drafted, but it has teeth as currently interpreted
by the Appeals Court. If you think its teeth need further straightening, consider this
orthodontics case: Ormco v. Align (CAFC
05-1426).
Continue reading "Obviousness Aligned"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 PM | Prior Art | Comments (0)
August 27, 2006
Blackboard Rattles
The
Washington Post reports today "an angry backlash from the academic computing
community" for Blackboard
asserting its freshly minted
6,988,138 against
Desire2Learn. The worry is, of
course, the broad claims of '138. Not reported is whether the academic computing
community has enrolled for anger management help.
Continue reading "Blackboard Rattles"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:12 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
August 25, 2006
Patented News Vans
This
is but the first shot of what may become an all-out patent war on news vans:
those mobile TV studios-in-a-van, with a satellite uplink, for on-the-spot news
coverage. Indiana-based Trans Video Electronics (TVE) sued
Echostar Tuesday in Northern California for infringing
5,903,621 & continuation
5,991,801. The entire TV news business is worried.
Continue reading "Patented News Vans"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:29 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 23, 2006
Memory Mudfight Stayed
The
ongoing DRAM brouhaha between Hynix and patent-holder Rambus is chilling out,
pending a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decision in its antitrust investigation
against Rambus.
Continue reading "Memory Mudfight Stayed"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 22, 2006
The Microsoft Way
On
Friday, Eastern District of Texas Judge Leonard Davis upped the ante by $25
million that Microsoft must pay for
willfully infringing z4's product activation patents, as well as paying an
additional $2 million towards z4 legal fees.
The judge's
opinion, largely
unreported in the press: Microsoft is an incredible weasel.
Continue reading "The Microsoft Way"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:59 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Timeline Grinds Microsoft
In
1999, Microsoft took a limited license with Timeline for its patented database
technology. The scope of that agreement has been contentious, the term
"agreement" used loosely, as Timeline & Microsoft have wrangled in court over it
ever since. Now Timeline has terminated the license, accusing Microsoft of
breaching its terms by inducing infringement, and is suing Microsoft for
damages.
Continue reading "Timeline Grinds Microsoft"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:02 AM | Patents In Business | Comments (0)
August 15, 2006
Carded
In
a classic case of overreaching, E-Pass
Technologies was shot down for the second time for trying to pose a
multi-function electronic card, claimed in
5,276,311, as a personal digital assistant (PDA), first suing Palm
unsuccessfully, then Microsoft and HP. In the Southern District of Texas, Judge
Hoyt ruled in favor of Microsoft & HP, that PDAs were not "cards," that
non-infringement was so obvious as to be a matter of law, and thus granting
summary judgment.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:10 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 5, 2006
Selective Memory
Reportage
is a tricky business. Situations are often not as they first appear. Corruption
being endemic, intrinsic to human nature, news and history often prevail from
power, either to enforce or deny. On that happy note, we turn to the domestic
computer DRAM market, which seems to be a large-scale exercise in manipulation
all around.
Continue reading "Selective Memory"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:01 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 1, 2006
U2 Plays At The ITC
In
a rare infringement assertion, Microsoft
filed a complaint today with the International Trade Commission (ITC) against
Belkin over patented U2 peripheral
interface technology.
Continue reading "U2 Plays At The ITC"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Ericsson Unleashes on Samsung, Again
Filing
in the Eastern District of Texas Friday,
Ericsson slammed Samsung with another infringement suit, asserting 11 mobile
phone patents, in a continuing string to sting the Korean company into
submission.
Continue reading "Ericsson Unleashes on Samsung, Again"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:39 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 24, 2006
East Texas Prospecting
Dusty
from riding down to Marshall to file against some patent rustler in the
Eastern District of Texas, you'll
want a place to take off your boots and sleep, a livery for your horse, and a
saloon to ease the tension. Oh, and maybe some temporary office space.
Continue reading "East Texas Prospecting"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 23, 2006
DirecTV To Appeal
DirecTV,
its
ticket punched a couple of weeks ago for $78.9 million for infringing a
Finisar patent, follows in the fubar footsteps of
Research In Motion and
Boston Communications, vowing to appeal.
Continue reading "DirecTV To Appeal"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:13 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 14, 2006
Aussie Wi-Fi Strong-arm
Australia's
national science agency, CSIRO (Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), fumbled all over in trying to
license
5,487,069, which claims IEEE
standards 802.11a & 802.11g, Wi-Fi, for wireless LAN (local area networks).
When its U.S. corporate targets Dell, Intel, HP, Microsoft and Netgear sought
declaratory judgment, CSIRO tried to evade court action by declaring itself
immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). [CAFC
06-1032]
Continue reading "Aussie Wi-Fi Strong-arm"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:21 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 13, 2006
No Rest
Flex-Rest
sued Steelcase for infringing patents
for computer keyboard rests (5,709,489
&
5,961,231). Flex-Rest's case followed the nightmare cliché: "The plaintiff's
best day is the day they file."
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:42 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
Vonage's Patent Woes & Weapon
Klausner
Technologies slapped Vonage with its third
patent infringement suit in less than a year, filing in the Eastern District of
Texas for $180 million in damages, for
5,572,576, on Internet voicemail services technology. Separately, Vonage
acquired counterclaim capability in its infringement suits from
Verizon
and Sprint, its other patent nemeses.
Continue reading "Vonage's Patent Woes & Weapon"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:48 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 28, 2006
Unistroke Payoff
Palm
has agreed to pay Xerox $22.5 million to settle its long-running unistroke
patent infringement suit.
Continue reading "Unistroke Payoff"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:44 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 26, 2006
Becoming Less Obvious
This morning, the Supreme Court granted KSR's writ of certiorari in its
appeal from infringing Teleflex's patents. At issue is whether prior art
anticipation is obvious absent any suggestion or motivation to combine
references. Many patented inventions are combinations of what had been
previously been known, but the combination applied in a way hitherto unknown.
Continue reading "Becoming Less Obvious"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:44 PM | Prior Art | Comments (4)
June 25, 2006
On-Sale Bar
Gemmy
Industries and Chrisha Creations compete in the holiday decoration business.
Oddly, being competitors, both companies used the same independent sales
representative, who tipped Chrisha off to Gemmy's newest products.
Gemmy went after Chrisha for imitating Gemmy's inflatable holiday figures,
charging copyright and patent infringement (6,644,843), as well as tort claims. Chrisha rebounded with claims of unfair competition
& commercial tort, plus
winning a summary judgment of patent invalidity owing to the one-year on-sale
bar, after Gemmy filed a statement by its president testifying
to selling the product over a year before filing for the patent.
Continue reading "On-Sale Bar"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 23, 2006
Busy Day at the CAFC
While the Supreme Court lazily demurred in the LabCorp
appeal on
Thursday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (CAFC) let loose with four patent
rulings.
Continue reading "Busy Day at the CAFC"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:19 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 22, 2006
Patentability Unanswered
Labcorp's
appeal to the Supreme Court (in Metabolite v. Labcorp) was closely
watched by all involved in patent law, as it may well have decided the limits of
patentability. In a peculiar hush, the Court brushed it aside; the dissent (SC
04-607) was deafening.
Continue reading "Patentability Unanswered"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
June 20, 2006
Time Warner Strikes Back
Late
week, USA Video sued Time Warner
for infringing
5,130,792. Now Time Warner retaliates, seeking declaratory judgment of
non-infringement in Delaware district court.
Continue reading "Time Warner Strikes Back"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
Game Call Totality
Primos
sued Hunter's Specialties for infinging
5,520,567 &
5,415,578, for a product used by "outdoor enthusiasts" to deceive wildlife.
Trial didn't go well for Hunter's: literal infringement, willfulness, inducement of infringement ('567), and infringement under the doctrine of
equivalents ('578). The appeal didn't go well either. [CAFC
05-1001]
Continue reading "Game Call Totality"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:56 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Blockbusting
Facing
down a patent infringement suit by Netflix for online video rentals, on Tuesday,
Blockbuster Video threw a temper tantrum in a 44-page counterclaim.
Continue reading "Blockbusting"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:04 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 12, 2006
Contract Dispute
Panduit sued HellermannTyton for infringing 5,998,732. They settled. Then HellermannTyton pushed Panduit's button with a modestly revised design of the original infringing product.
Continue reading "Contract Dispute"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:10 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
June 4, 2006
Net2Phone Dials Skype
6,108,704
has some broad claims for point-to-point network communication. Its owner,
Net2Phone, is embarking
on an enforcement campaign that promises to be center ring of this season's
patent press circus, now that the NTP v. RIM match has folded its tent. First
shot, Net2Phone dials eBay-owned Skype
in a NJ court filing.
Continue reading "Net2Phone Dials Skype"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:59 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
May 19, 2006
Snow Plow
Frank
Iraci received
4,807,375 for a electronic adjustment device to automatically raise a
snowplow when a truck with an attached snowplow backed up. The device has had considerable
market acceptance, but Frank had a tough time plowing his way through court to a
meager return against infringer Meyer-Diamond.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 17, 2006
Xboxing
Monday,
Microsoft counterclaimed with 10 software patents against Lucent in its
Xbox
patent suit. Constantly barraged for patent infringement by non-product
companies, Microsoft howls for patent reform. A quieter affair, this is just
business as usual.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:33 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 10, 2006
Discovery Chill
The wake of the
CAFC ruling May 4 regarding privilege & discovery in TiVo v. EchoStar
is even now being felt. The trend will be for law firms and in-house counsel to
be very circumspect in their communications, even internally, surrounding patent
infringement opinions; a lot less will be discoverable documentation, email
included.
Continue reading "Discovery Chill"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:48 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 9, 2006
Up the Creek
Old
Town Canoe sued Confluence Holdings for infringing
4,836,963, which goes to a process for making plastic boat hulls by
rotational molding. Confluence got a summary judgment of non-infringement based
upon claim construction, but lost counterclaim motions on invalidity and
enforceability. So the parties appealed the rulings that went against them. The
CAFC (05-1123) found
the district court had been hasty in some of its summary judgment rulings, glossing
over disputable facts. And a well-reasoned dissent argued that the whole case
was overdone.
Continue reading "Up the Creek"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:24 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 5, 2006
The Post Office, Patent Infringer
Paymaster
Technologies sued the U.S. Post Office in 2002 before the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims for infringing
5,292,283. Like any ornery patent infringer, USPS fought tooth and nail,
finally losing before the appeals court yesterday (CAFC
05-5025).
Continue reading "The Post Office, Patent Infringer"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:05 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 3, 2006
RIM's Countermove
Wednesday,
RIM filed a countersuit against Visto in a different Texas district, seeking
declaratory judgment, and attempting to change venue. Huh?
Continue reading "RIM's Countermove"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:10 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 2, 2006
Canon's Cheap Shot
St.
Clair Intellectual Property Consultants, with a portfolio of 22 U.S. patents,
many oriented towards digital cameras, is having much success in its enforcement
campaign, racking up jury wins against Fuji for $3 million, Sony for $25 million, and
most recently Canon for $34.7 million. Eastman Kodak, HP, and Nokia are on the docket. The
Canon case was nothing short of outrageous.
Continue reading "Canon's Cheap Shot"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:34 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 1, 2006
RIM Shot Again
Visto,
a maker of wireless email software, has asserted four patents against hapless
Research In Motion (RIM). RIM is already
blathering about non-infringement and invalidity. NTP, which successfully pinned
a
$612.5 patent infringement tab on RIM, holds a minority stake in Visto.
Continue reading "RIM Shot Again"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:26 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
z4 Downs 2
David Colvin of Michigan-based z4, owner of software piracy patents 6,044,471 and 6,785,825, scored a preliminary $115 million dollar judgment against Microsoft, and an $18 million tab against Autodesk. It is shocking to think that an innocent waif like Microsoft could have been found to have willfully infringed, as did Autodesk, and so still faces the prospect of treble damages.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:56 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
Confidence Game
Today
MicroChip Technology sued rival Luminary
Micro in Arizona court. What's odd is that the three asserted patents:
5,847,450,
6,483,183 and
6,696,316, are all currently under reexamination in the patent office.
Continue reading "Confidence Game"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:21 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Spilling More Ink
Seiko
Epson continues to hammer competitors with infringement suits over its
ink cartridge patents. Having
recently forayed towards two dozen companies, Epson now adds two dozen more,
in a fourth lawsuit of a prolonged and multi-pronged enforcement campaign.
Continue reading "Spilling More Ink"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:28 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 6, 2006
Gateway Really Cowed
As
reported a few days ago, Gateway got slammed for bad faith conduct facing IP
theft from Phillips Adams. After opening arguments in the trial, Gateway lawyers
approached opposing counsel and offered to settle on Adams terms. The judge
warned they better close the deal by the next morning, or trial would continue.
Deal done.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:05 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 5, 2006
Replay
For
the second time, Lucent and Microsoft are heading to court over Lucent's
5,227,878. A typo prevented a showdown the first time. Now xBox 360 is in
the dock.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:11 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Full Service Patent Evasion
TradeCard owns 6,151,588, "Full service trade system," which claims online trading of goods and services. TradeCard sued Bank of America and rival S1 Corporation in March 2003 for patent infringement over S1's Purchase Order Processing Systems (POPS), which B of A uses. Yesterday came a surprising verdict.
Continue reading "Full Service Patent Evasion"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:41 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 3, 2006
Gateway Cowed Again
March
was a bad month for Gateway Computers. First we hear that
Gateway
paid $47 million to solve their patent infringement problems with HP. Then,
in another case of intellectual property theft, we learn that Utah District
Court Judge Ted Stewart slammed Gateway for destroying evidence "in bad faith."
Continue reading "Gateway Cowed Again"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:48 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
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 | Comments (0)
February 24, 2006
RIM's Horns of Dilemma
In
the long-awaited NTP v. RIM hearing before Virginia district judge James
Spencer, Spencer lamented RIM's bullheaded refusal to settle, and admonished RIM
for providing an "inconsistent" argument against ordering an injunctive shutdown
of wireless email for Blackberry devices. Fueled by the combative ego of leader
Jim Balsillie, RIM just doesn't get it.
Continue reading "RIM's Horns of Dilemma"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:53 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
Settling
While the number of patent litigations has doubled between 1991 and 2004 before dropping 11% last year, the percentages of outcomes remain steady: most cases settle.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:08 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 17, 2006
On The Good Foot
Why
pay $160 for a pair of Nike AirMax 360 running shoes? So cushy. What cushions
the shoe so well is covered in at least 19 patents that comprise Nike's "Shox"
cushioning technology, launched in 2000. Now Adidas is about to take a lesson in
patent infringement. Class opens (where else) in patent plaintiff paradise: the
Eastern District of Texas.
Continue reading "On The Good Foot"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:20 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 12, 2006
Never Reset, Never Surrender
China
Daily reports a woe-is-me story of Zhejiang Dongzheng Electrical, a
self-proclaimed innovator being pummeled by U.S. running dog Leviton over
6,246,558, covering fault protection of resettable circuit devices. Like a
raccoon on the highway at night, taking a page from the playbook of patent
litigation-savvy Research In Motion (RIM), Dongzheng vows to fight on.
Continue reading "Never Reset, Never Surrender"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:19 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 8, 2006
Issa's Rocket Docket
Some details are emerging of Rep. Congressman Darrell Issa's
nascent bill to
accelerate and improve patent litigation quality in U.S. district courts. In
essence, beginning with a pilot program, the plan is to create voluntary patent
rocket dockets in districts, an extension of what has already
occurred through supply and demand.
Continue reading "Issa's Rocket Docket"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:32 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
February 7, 2006
Litigation Big Fish
IP
Law 360 reported the patent firms with the most new litigation cases in 2005.
The purely quantitative statistical survey looked at the number of times a firm
was hired as patent counsel in new cases.
Continue reading "Litigation Big Fish"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 6:22 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 30, 2006
RIM in the Mail
Saturday,
the Toronto-based Globe and Mail
posted an excellent history of the NTP v. RIM case titled, naturally, "Patently
Absurd," though the absurdity does not lie with the patents.
Continue reading "RIM in the Mail"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:11 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 25, 2006
Nellcor Bites The Bullet
Facing
a permanent injunction, and so biting the patent infringement bullet that
delusional RIM (v. NTP) still thinks it can miraculously dodge,
Nellcor, a division of Tyco Healthcare,
itself a subsidiary of industrial conglomerate Tyco International, has agreed to
fork over $330 million for infringing medical device patents owned by
privately-held mighty mouse Masimo.
Continue reading "Nellcor Bites The Bullet"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:59 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 20, 2006
Judge Shopping
The
CAFC is letting Microsoft appeal its request for a new judge in the Eolas case,
where Microsoft still faces being dinged one-half billion dollars. Trial judge
James Zagel had refused Microsoft special treatment. How dare he.
Continue reading "Judge Shopping"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:06 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 19, 2006
Greedy Grad
Back in the late 1970s, Fredric Stern was a medical student at Columbia University. He approached a long-time faculty member, Lazlo Bito, about doing a single semester ophthalmology research elective in his laboratory. Bito agreed, and directed Stern to begin his project by reviewing Bito’s numerous papers on prostaglandins and glaucoma. Then Bito had Stern run some experiments.
Continue reading "Greedy Grad"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:45 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 9, 2006
SeaChange Downstream
nCube
sued SeaChange for infringing
5,805,804. In a jury trial, SeaChange got nailed badly: SeaChange had to pay
double the damages for willful infringement, and two-thirds of nCube's attorneys
fees. So SeaChange asked for a new trial, was turned down, and so appealed (CAFC
03-1341); to no
avail.
Continue reading "SeaChange Downstream"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:24 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 5, 2006
InterVideo Persuades ITC
Following up on an earlier story, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to investigate InterVideo's patent infringement accusation against computer maker Dell and three other companies. Intervideo seeks a permanent injunction.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:28 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
January 3, 2006
Patent Suits Drop in 2005
2005 witnessed an 11% decline in new patent lawsuits from 2004, breaking a decade-long trend, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Eight out of the top ten IP case payouts were settled out of court, indicating that companies continue to use the courts to put the writing on the wall, but then settle when that writing becomes clear.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:01 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 27, 2005
Poker-Faced Injunction
Shuffle
Master sued VendingData for infringing
6,655,684 claim 20, for a card shuffling and dealing device. The two sides
differed over a crucial claim construction term: what constitutes forming a "set
of cards". VendingData was found by the district court of Nevada to be holding
the wrong set of cards, and slapped it with a preliminary injunction. Not so
fast, cried VendingData to the appeals court (CAFC
05-1203).
Continue reading "Poker-Faced Injunction"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:19 AM | Claim Construction | Comments (0)
December 20, 2005
Sunburned
Dr. Nicholas V. Perricone was granted
5,409,693 and
5,574,063 for
a vitamin C lotion to prevent and treat sunburn. In suing Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation for
infringement, the patents got singed.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:59 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 19, 2005
Used Where?
RIM
continues to grasp at straws to avoid paying NTP for patent infringement. Late
last week RIM again
appealed to the Supreme Court to save its bacon.
Continue reading "Used Where?"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:03 AM | Litigation | Comments (1)
December 17, 2005
Patent Office Plays Politics
Defying
its own regulations, the patent office is only giving NTP 30 days, instead of
the customary 60 days, to reply to the non-final rejection of its patents in the
re-examination initiated by infringer Research in Motion (RIM). In case you just
dropped in from another planet, NTP sucessfully sued RIM for patent infringement, and RIM has been fighting that reality tooth and nail.
Continue reading "Patent Office Plays Politics"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:21 AM | Prosecution | Comments (4)
December 15, 2005
Gorilla Warfare
After
slapping a lawsuit against Microsoft for patent infringement Wednesday, wireless
email provider Visto CEO Brian
Bogosian, doing his best King Kong impersonation, thumped his chest and
bellowed, "They're going to have to satisfy our requirements for playing in this
market. Really, more important than money at this point, is receiving an
injunction." Look at that little monkey go after the 800-pound gorilla!
Continue reading "Gorilla Warfare"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:40 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Yahoo! Licenses JPEG Patent
Walking
away from further litigation with a lighter wallet, Yahoo! is inking a patent
licensing agreement with Forgent Networks over the notorious JPEG patent (4,698,672),
which has raked in $105 million in licensing fees.
Continue reading "Yahoo! Licenses JPEG Patent"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:26 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
BIAX Rides Again
Riding
into the popular showdown corral in the dusty Eastern District of Tejas,
semiconductor maker BIAX draws against rival Phillips Semiconductor for
infringing four of its patents for digital processing systems. The patent
infringement bookie puts the odds heavily in favor of BIAX.
Continue reading "BIAX Rides Again"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:07 PM | Litigation | Comments (1)
December 9, 2005
NTP & RIM Chat For A Bit
NTP
and RIM had been talking settlement with each other through a court-appointed
mediator this week over RIM's infringement of NTP's patents. RIM shares surged on the news. But the talks seem to have
short-circuited, at least for now. Snorted Dan Stout, NTP co-founder,
"It's so far off, it's not negotiation."
Continue reading "NTP & RIM Chat For A Bit"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 3:01 PM | Litigation | Comments (3)
December 7, 2005
Taking It To The ITC
Intervideo
is seriously trying to pistol-whip Dell with
6,765,788. First, Intervideo sued Dell for patent infringement. Now it's
taking it to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
Continue reading "Taking It To The ITC"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:36 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 6, 2005
Getting Carded
1986 vintage
4,777,354
doesn't have much life left, but it's going out like a kicking mule. Inventor
Barry Thomas is going for the gusto.
Continue reading "Getting Carded"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:08 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
December 3, 2005
Microsoft Bows to Eolas
In perhaps the final of a series of about-faces for implementing a workaround to infringing the notorious Eolas patent (5,838,906),
Microsoft notified multimedia content providers, OEM partners and ActiveX control vendors Friday that the way that ActiveX controls work is going to change, slightly.
Continue reading "Microsoft Bows to Eolas"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:29 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 30, 2005
RIM Down
Research
in Motion (RIM) was dealt a double blow today in its attempts to settle its
infringement fiasco with patent holder NTP. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer
"finds the parties do not have a valid and enforceable settlement". RIM had
hoped that a half-page term sheet signed by both parties in March, allegedly
settling the dispute for $450 million, was legally binding. That supposed deal
fell apart in June. Neither RIM nor NTP have disclosed details of that tentative
settlement agreement or why it broke down.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:30 AM | Litigation | Comments (6)
November 29, 2005
Patent Visibility
Frank
Hayes of Computerworld and
Peter Zura of 271 patent blog have caught patent visibility fever. The
concept is creating a public database of software prior art. Frank went so far as to
suggest that Microsoft waste money on it. Hey guys, get a clue.
Continue reading "Patent Visibility"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:53 PM | Litigation | Comments (5)
November 20, 2005
Dirty RIM
Presiding
over the current phase of the NTP v. RIM patent infringement imbroglio, fed-up
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer may rule this week whether the $450 million
unconsummated settlement between NTP & RIM was, in fact, consummated, and if
not, within a short time thereafter, whether to proceed with an injunction
against RIM to halt its Blackberry wireless email service to lesser mortals,
excluding, of course, U.S. government workers, who rely on their Blackberries
for "essential government services", as if those exist in the form of wireless
email.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:37 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
Clonetech Gets Clobbered
Invitrogen
v. Clonetech Labs is a patent law ecosystem unto itself: conception, enablement,
written description, and infringement. The factual bases are extensive, resulting in
a CAFC 47-page opinion (04-1039), but teasing out the legal reasoning in evaluating the facts
is the focus here.
Continue reading "Clonetech Gets Clobbered"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005
Smug RIM
Research
In Motion (RIM) is claiming satisfaction with its workaround to patent
infringement of NTP patents, claiming that an injunction would not affect its
Blackberry customers from receiving their wireless emails.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:02 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
U.S. Crybaby
Supreme
Crackberry Uncle Sam cried to the district judge in the NTP v. RIM case today:
"please Daddy, don't take my Blackberry." The U.S. government claimed that
"essential government services" could be impaired if wireless services for
Blackberries were cut off because of a patent infringement injunction.
Continue reading "U.S. Crybaby"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:44 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 9, 2005
RIM's Silver Lining
Yes, it looks grim for RIM. U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer began this morning the process of deciding whether to enforce an injunction against Research in Motion Ltd. for its Blackberry handheld devices. "I intend to move swiftly in this," Spencer said. "I've spent enough of my life and time on NTP and RIM." But ultimately, it's most likely that RIM will pay NTP and settle the matter.
Continue reading "RIM's Silver Lining"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 10:13 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 7, 2005
Removably Attached
Child's play over a child's car seat goes awry. The Court of Appeals made a rather bizarre ruling in Dorel v. Graco (05-1026), agreeing with the district court in crucial claim construction, but then overruling non-infringement on summary judgment.
Continue reading "Removably Attached"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:15 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
November 2, 2005
Chief Oops
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recused himself from further proceedings in the appeal of the Laboratory Corp. of America v. Metabolite Laboratories patent suit, after taking part in the early stages. Big John acknowledged he shouldn't have touched the case to begin with.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 11:32 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 31, 2005
Microsoft Not Supreme
The Supreme Court declined to consider the Eolas-Microsoft imbroglio. While Microsoft largely won a March 2005 Appeals Court ruling, the company is still open to damages as the case heads back to district court on remand.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:51 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 26, 2005
Supreme RIM Shot
Discovering a hitherto untapped sense of humor in quoting W.C. Fields, newly appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts told Research in Motion (RIM), in its appeal to stay the lower court ruling of infringement of NTP patents: "get away from me kid, you bother me."
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:53 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 21, 2005
RIM Shot
The BlackBerry boys - Research In Motion, got shot down by the CAFC refusing to hear its appeal plea to suspend proceedings towards an injunction for infringing NTP patents.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 8:16 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 17, 2005
Fosamax Has Patent Osteoporosis
Fosamax fights osteoporosis, bone loss, while contributing $1.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2004 to its maker, Merck. Today, Fosamax suffered its own bone loss, as the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Merck.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:38 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
October 14, 2005
Patent Litigation Statistics
Jay Kesan and Gwendolyn Ball of the University of Illinois performed a biased axe-grinding coupled to a limited statistical study of patent litigation. Given the results, their whining that "there is growing concern that the number of overbroad or so-called “bad” patents may be increasing" was unsubstantiated.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:30 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
September 23, 2005
What can you do?
Every now and then I get a call from an independent inventor with a valid, issued utility patent who feels that his patent is being infringed. Upon review of the patent, file history and scrutiny of unlicensed products for sale in retail settings, a prima facia case of infringement can be made.
What can be done? I'd like to open a discussion.
Of course, cease and desist, followed by infringment lawsuit. But the economic realities often preclude an all out confrontation. Typically, all the client wants is a fair royalty payment....
Ideas?
Posted by Peter Haas at 6:06 AM | Litigation | Comments (4)
August 30, 2005
On A Treadmill
This case is so typical: an inventor presents an idea to a company, who, after a while, says it's not interested. The inventor applies for and gets a patent. Meanwhile, the company puts the invention into its product. Then, when faced with patent infringement, shrug and claim that the company invented it.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:07 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
Wafer Thin
MEMC Electronic Materials (MEMC) sued Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corporation (SUMCO) for infringement and inducing infringement of 5,919,302, related to silicon wafer manufacture. The District Court found the plaintiff's case wafer thin, and dismissed it. MEMC appealed (CAFC 04-1396, August 22, 2005).
Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:57 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
Microsoft Grovels For Longhorn
The way to get Microsoft to bend over and pay out in a patent case is to flash some strong cards on a technology that Microsoft really cares about. The two gazillion-dollar money-spinners that Microsoft really cares about: its OS, and Office. Alacritech had a decent patent poker hand to play against Microsoft, holding patents for faster networking that were being sewn into Longhorn, Microsoft's upcoming OS.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:21 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
Incredible Weasels
Make no mistake - Microsoft regularly exhibits psychopathic behavior, with little regard for the comity of corporate social responsibility. Here we have another little chip on the pile of evidence for that characterization.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 5:45 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
Translogic Zaps Hitachi, Renesas
As of last Friday, 5,162,666 "Transmission Gate Series Multiplexer" wears a price tag of $86.5 million to Hitachi & Renesas Technology America for infringing it. Worse for the infringers, a permanent injunction is imminent.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:00 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
Extreme Networks, Patent Infringer, Declares Victory
Extreme Networks, found guilty of infringing a Lucent patent, practically laughed out loud at the Delaware jury verdict, concluding a two-week trial. "We view this as a total victory," said Gordon Stitt, president and CEO of Extreme Networks.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 4:18 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 6, 2005
Patent Marking Fraud - No Biggie
Invitrogen appealed a district court ruling that it had falsely marked some of its products with patents notifications, arising from a case where Clonetech Laboratories alleged false marking against Invitrogen under 35 U.S.C. §292. (CAFC ruling 03-1464)
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:02 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 5, 2005
Linux's Free Ride
Heather Meeker and Peter Zura are impressed that open source software, typified by Linux, has been patent litigation free. There are two possible reasons for that: Linux isn't sophisticated enough to infringe patents, and/or whoever owns patents being infringed isn't going to assert them against the companies distributing Linux. Both are true.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:14 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
May 3, 2005
HP & EMC Bury the Hatchet, Buy Flowers
In 1999, Hewlett-Packard (HP) switched to Hitachi from EMC for high-end storage products, proclaiming EMC's technology old and proprietary. Little did they know at the time, they at least got the proprietary part right.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:05 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Spinal Tap
The medical device maker Medtronic announced that it had a chiropractic adjustment, and is feeling much better. The condition arose from patent infringement, and, apparently, sitting on a fat wallet. Oh, what a relief it is.
Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:23 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Jackass Kicked in Texas
Kermit Aguayo and Khanh Tran are having a bad day. Their patent, 5,283,943, claiming automated surface mount placement of components on printed circuit boards, got shot down by a jury in South Texas. Every stinking claim invalid.
For those of you holding a patent grant and dreaming of El Dorado, before sallying forth for an enforcement action, hire a professional prior art searcher first to suss out whether the patent color is gold or brown (and reeking).
Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:51 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
Microsoft - Serial Patent Rapist
If you flinched at the title, well, me too. The truth hurts. Alas, there's only one way to connect these dots. As Southside Johnny would say, "sad story, but every word is true."
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:00 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
April 7, 2005
Back From the Dead & Bigger Than Ever
Shot down in cold court Monday, badass Mosaid Technologies is back in the saddle and blazing hot patent lead again.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:35 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
Setting the On-Sale Bar - Ping!
Sparton Corporation developed and sold sonobuoys to the U.S. Navy. A sonobuoy is an electroacoustic device for listening to and locating underwater sounds, such as submarine noise.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:31 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 21, 2005
Bad Memories
Rambus Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG settled their long-running patent battle, agreeing to cross-license. Under the deal, German memory chip maker Infineon will pay Rambus $23.4 million a year for two years in quarterly installments, but gets to drive it away today. After that, Infineon could continue to pay up to $100 million under certain conditions. Rambus generously agreed to treat Infineon as a "most-favored customer."
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:11 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 18, 2005
Sticking It In Apple's Ear
Apple Computer may soon think that iPod is an acronym for “ignominious Patents - oh dear”. Two U.S. patents are being asserted against the 21st century Walkman®: 6,587,403 and 6,665,797.
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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:01 AM | Litigation | Comments (0)
March 16, 2005
On the RIM and in the Heartland of Patent Infringement
A settlement in a widely watched patent infringement case - Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), a Canadian-based maker of BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices, will pony up $450 million to NTP, a Virginia company, for infringing NTP's patents.
Continue reading "On the RIM and in the Heartland of Patent Infringement"
Posted by Patent Hawk at 2:46 PM | Litigation | Comments (0)
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