Federal Circuit Remands PTAB Decision Due to Claim Construction Change
Supreme Court Restricts Challenges to PTAB's Institution Decisions and Upholds Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Standard in IPR Proceedings
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect between May 1 and July 1, 2016, as well as some recent cases of interest.
The Federal Circuit decision in Medtronic highlights the tension faced by alleged patent infringers, who must balance invalidity issues where a broad construction is desirable, against non-infringement issues, where narrow constructions are desired.
Analysis of a recent ruling in which a New York appeals court reversed the dismissal of a suit brought by a tenant seeking recission of his commercial lease and a declaration that he was not bound by it.
June 23's verdict for Led Zeppelin in the copyright trial over the 1971 hit song 'Stairway to Heaven' reaffirms the creative rights of songwriters while demonstrating the difficulties in pursuing infringement over sheet music, according to legal experts following the case.
New changes to rules for post-grant administrative trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) went into effect on May 2, 2016, after much public comment and gnashing of teeth. Among the plethora of rule changes that were announced, two in particular stand out as most substantive for both patent owners and their challengers.
Federal Circuit: A Computer Database Logical Model Is Not an Abstract Idea If Directed At a Specific Implementation of a Solution to a Problem In the Software Arts
Federal Circuit: In Claim Construction Analysis, Plain Term Meanings and Presumption of Claim Differentiation Get Outweighed By Intrinsic Evidence and Prosecution History
One of the motivations for enacting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was the acknowledgement by Congress of "the ease with which pirates could copy and distribute a copyrightable work in digital form was overwhelming the capacity of conventional copyright enforcement to find and enjoin unlawfully copied material." Among the provisions created to redress this rampant infringement were the prohibitions against: 1) removing copyright management information (CMI); and 2) circumventing technological measures in place to prevent infringement. Each is controversial.
The legendary and now deceased Prince ' singer, songwriter, producer and man of myriad other talents ' kept a bevy of high-profile lawyers busy during the past three decades. Prince developed a somewhat complicated relationship with the Internet, and fought to protect his brand and music against unauthorized use. And for that he needed lawyers, lots of them.
