Television has changed the American city from top to bottom. In the days of Lucy and Ricky, antennas covered apartment rooftops. Then came the cable lines buried under the streets or snaking along utility poles. Now, a device once identified with the countryside is showing up in urban landscapes: the satellite dish."

The latest rulings of importance to you and your practice.

The most recent rulings of importance to your practice.

Highlights of the latest intellectual property cases and news from around the country.

The ability of patents to encourage innovation by granting exclusive rights is well-recognized. However, patents can serve an antithetical role as well by, in certain circumstances, deterring, rather than encouraging, innovation.

The practice of "reverse engineering," whereby one company obtains the product of a competitor and works backwards "to divine the process which aided in its development or manufacture," has long been accepted as a legitimate (and sometimes wholly necessary) practice in the computer software marketplace. <i>Kewanee Oil Co. v Bicron Corp.</i>, 416 U.S. 470, 476 (1974).

When the plaintiff in a patent litigation contends that it has never made or sold the product protected by its patent, alarm bells should start clanging in the ears of defense counsel. For the odds are that the plaintiff is angling to take advantage of a little-used aspect of the law of patent damages that can lead to a windfall recovery for patent infringement. It is the <i>Wine Railway</i> exception to the well-known "notice" provision of the patent statute. Created by the Supreme Court in <i>Wine Railway Appliance Co. v. Enterprise Railway Equipment Co.</i>, 297 U.S. 387 (1936), the exception can lead to catastrophic and unforeseen patent damage awards. Such damages are unforeseen (and, some would argue, unfair and undeserved) because they arise without any notice of infringement, actual or constructive.

Faced with the most difficult economic conditions in years, many law firms are looking for ways to maintain a competitive edge ' without negatively impacting cost structures. Investing in client service is a strategy that reaps both long- and short-term benefits.