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The Court's Proper Role in Construing the Claim of a Design Patent: Should a Picture Be Worth a Thousand Words?
The Federal Circuit has held that, as with utility patents, design patents must be construed by the court. See Elmer v. ICC Fabricating, Inc., 67 F.3d 1571, 1577 (Fed. Cir. 1995). This apparently simple mandate has proven difficult in practice. The single claim in a design patent typically consists only of a series of drawings depicting the patented design. The basic premise of Markman ' that a judge's experience with the interpretation of documents will likely allow him or her to produce a more accurate and consistent claim interpretation ' does not intuitively extend to design patents, nor is it apparent that a judge's interpretation of the drawings will be any more proper and uniform than a jury's interpretation.
Moreover, the design patent infringement tests performed by a jury ' the “ordinary observer” and “point of novelty” tests ' require the jury to compare the drawings of the patented design to the accused device and only find infringement where the accused design appropriates the novel features of the design patent. Neither of these tests requires the jury to have a description in words of the drawings for comparison with the accused design.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits
In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.