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You're Not Exhausted: U.S. Patent Rights Are Not Exhausted By Foreign Sales
Your client International Marketers, Inc. (IMI) owns U.S. and foreign patents for an improved football. IMI wants to license the patent and make direct sales of identical balls around the world, while making its own sales to the U.S. market. However, IMI knows that the price consumers will pay for its football is much higher in the United States than elsewhere. IMI is concerned that footballs sold by it and its licensees to distributors outside the United States might be purchased by third parties and imported back into the United States at a price below what it hopes to charge distributors in the United States.
IMI wants to know whether it can assert a claim of patent infringement against the third parties despite the fact that the balls were first sold outside the United States either by IMI or under IMI's authority. It is now clear that the answer can be “yes.” Rights under a U.S. patent are not automatically exhausted by the patentee's or its licensee's sales of the patented product to third parties in foreign countries. In other words, a U.S. patent holder's rights are not exhausted unless the authorized sale of the patented item occurs within the United States. This result might be surprising to some because it can be contrary to the first sale doctrine under U.S. trademark laws.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
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.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.