December 10, 2009

Proviso Surgery

The four-corners rule for contract law is straightforward. What is often not straightforward is the clarity of contracts. Thus hinges the case of Tyco Healthcare v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery. The upshot, in a contentious dispute over patent assignment & license, was that Tyco lacked standing to sue, and so the case was dismissed without prejudice. Ethicon wanted it dismissed with prejudice.

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Posted by Patent Hawk at 7:37 PM | Standing | Comments (0)

October 1, 2009

The One That Got Away

Leland Stanford Junior University and Cetus researched HIV in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Written "agreements provided Cetus with licenses to technology that Stanford created as a result of access to Cetus's materials." In December 1991, Roche bought the part of Cetus's business involved in that research [the PCR division], and started making HIV detection kits. Stanford filed the parent to the patents at issue in May 1992. In 2005, after getting multiple patents in the family, Stanford sued Roche for infringement. Roche's winning counter-punch was that Stanford lacked standing.

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Posted by Patent Hawk at 9:13 PM | Standing | Comments (0)

September 19, 2009

Stood Up

AsymmetRx sued Biocare over cancer detection patents which Harvard owns by assignment. AsymmetRx had a conditional exclusive license, while Biocare had its own conditional non-exclusive license. Before asserting the patents, "AsymmetRx was to 'give careful consideration to the views of Harvard and to potential effects on the public interest in making its decision whether or not to sue.'" AsymmetRx did no such thing. At issue was standing.

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Posted by Patent Hawk at 1:33 AM | Standing | Comments (0)

August 22, 2009

Standing

Sky Technologies sued SAP over an e-trade patent portfolio it had acquired through a foreclosure and associated contractual conniptions. Because litigation lawyers argue almost anything regardless of merit, SAP pitched lack of standing and lost, so it appealed, desperately trying to break the chain of title.

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Posted by Patent Hawk at 12:46 PM | Standing | Comments (7)