LJN Newsletters

What exactly does it mean to interpret claims "in light" of the specification? Do the descriptions and examples in a patent specification affect the interpretation of the patent's claims where there is no express statement that a specialized definition is being given to claim terms? Absent a specific glossary section, is it even necessary to read the specification or should the public be free to read and interpret the claims in a vacuum? Within 4 days, two separate panels of the Federal Circuit delivered seemingly conflicting answers to these questions, highlighting a growing rift regarding the significance of the specification and prosecution history to claim interpretation.

Most find it to be a nuisance. Advertisers consider it to be cutting edge. Either way, spyware (or adware) is receiving a lot of attention recently in the press, in the courts and in legislatures around the country.

eBay Inc.'s savvy user agreement protects it from liability for defamatory postings on its Web site, an appeals court has ruled. But the court's decision left vulnerable other online content providers.

Canada Rejects Music Royalty Plan for Internet Canada's Supreme Court recently struck a blow to the music industry in ruling that Internet Service Providers…

Web search giant Google Inc. recently admitted that it may have illegally issued as much as $3.1 billion in shares after its planned initial public offering (IPO), and offered to buy them back at a significant discount.

Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, recently announced that it is suing dozens of online pharmacies allegedly selling counterfeit versions of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, and its cholesterol-lowering flagship drug Lipitor.

Nearly 2 years have passed since the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Specht v. Netscape Comm. Corp. threw what some thought was a large monkey wrench into online contract formation. The practical effect of the decision, however, has not been as significant as had been feared, and businesses operating in cyberspace continue to successfully reach online agreements with end users and customers.
As a close reading of the Specht ruling and other decisions make clear, "clickwrap" and other online agreements that meet certain basic requirements for contract formation are, indeed, enforceable.

For the second time in 2 years, the Supreme Court suspended the enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) ' in Ashcroft v. ACLU (II) ' sending the case back to the federal district court in Philadelphia for further scrutiny of "plausible, less restrictive alternatives" to restrict minors' access to adult material on the Internet.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court, while sidestepping the ultimate question of whether COPA is unconstitutional, strongly hinted that the statute's speech-restricting effects appeared overbroad in light of less restrictive, technology-based filters available today.