Patent Opinions, Willfulness and Inducement
June 29, 2009
Recent decisions have begun to fill in the gaps left by <i>In re Seagate Technology, LLC.</i> They suggest that a competent opinion is still an effective defense to a willfulness charge, and that a jury may consider a defendant's failure to obtain an opinion when determining the defendant's intent for purposes of willfulness and inducement. Also, legitimate trial defenses may be sufficient to establish that a defendant's actions at the time of infringement were not "objectively reckless.
Properly Name Inventors on Patents
June 29, 2009
A patent can be held invalid for incorrect inventorship, and co-inventorship of one, even relatively insignificant, claim can entitle a co-inventor to an ownership stake in every claim of the patent. Moreover, failure to join all co-inventors/owners as plaintiffs can prevent the real party in interest from enforcing a patent. A recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, <i>Nartron Corp. v. Schukra U.S.A., Inc.</i>, is illustrative of such risks
Hoping to Write a Happy Ending On Google Books
June 29, 2009
In April, when the federal judge overseeing the settlement involving Google's online book search service gave authors four more months to opt in to, or out of, the deal, many copyright insiders were surprised. Not Allan Adler. For Adler, vice president for legal affairs at the Association of American Publishers ("AAP"), U.S. District Court judge Denny Chin's decision to delay what was a May deadline until September marked just another twist on a long, bumpy road.
Internet Child Porn Search Is 'Knowing Possession' in PA
June 29, 2009
Searching for child pornography on the Internet and following links to make such images appear on a computer screen constitutes knowing possession or control of that material, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled.
Virtual Contacts and Personal Jurisdiction
June 29, 2009
This article analyzes how courts are handling jurisdictional questions attendant to the next generation of technology, such as forms of "cloud computing," including virtual data rooms and social networks. As these technologies continue to develop and opportunities arise to increase revenue, companies risk having to defend themselves in far-off jurisdictions never before contemplated.
Rocket Matter: Case Management for the Small Firm
June 29, 2009
What attorneys are missing is a brand new class of case management programs which, while they seek to replace older programs, also seek to solve many of the concerns law firms face when dealing with digital client data: security, mobile access and backup. As one of the newcomers to this market, Rocket Matter has embraced the new Software as a Service ("SaaS") model of delivering software from the Internet Cloud.
KM Implementation At Reed Smith
June 29, 2009
Despite the fact that our total data creation had increased exponentially, Reed Smith hadn't invested nearly enough in our information infrastructure, and simple processes such as document retrieval were taking far too long. We knew we needed to take control of our data before it took hold of us. Following is an account of the firm's recent implementation of Recommind's MindServer Search platform as the foundation for its Knowledge Management infrastructure.
