SWOT-ting Yourself ' and Your Competition
January 26, 2011
One tool used by for-profit and non-profit firms alike to plan to achieve specific goals is SWOT analysis. At its most basic level, a firm identifies its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats when decision-makers ' and others, if the process is planned that way ' thinking about how to achieve one goal, or more.
IP News
December 20, 2010
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Fast or Slow?
December 20, 2010
A threshold question for each patent filing is the speed at which a patent is desired.
New Math for the Entire Market Value Rule
December 20, 2010
A recent order from the Eastern District of Texas shows that patentees may not be able to calculate damages under the entire market value rule using a simple (<i>market value base ' royalty rate</i>) formula. Such damages calculations may be excluded from trial, leaving the patentee seeking to recover a fraction of the original damages figure.
Ninth Circuit Holds That Even Brats Deserve Equitable Treatment
December 20, 2010
Many companies require their employees to sign agreements that any inventions they create "during the course of their employment" will belong to the employer. A recent case decided by the Ninth Circuit, however, illustrates why companies should revisit such agreements in order to ensure that the ideas developed by their employees may not be exploited by those employees to the detriment of their employer.
IP News
November 23, 2010
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Joint Infringement Liability After Golden Hour Data Sys. v. emsCharts, Inc.
November 23, 2010
The Federal Circuit recently revisited the issue of joint infringement in <i>Golden Hour Data Sys. v. emsCharts, Inc.</i> The court's decision in that case illustrates one way in which vicarious liability may not close the loophole for liability avoidance through the use of multiple actors. Further, the decision shows that claim drafting alone does not end the joint infringement problem for patentees.
Stauffer v. Brooks Brothers
November 23, 2010
On Aug. 31, 2010, the Federal Circuit rejected a procedural attempt to stem the recent flood of "false patent marking" lawsuits and provided guidance on the standing requirements for pursuing false marking claims under 35 U.S.C. § 292.
Copyright Lessons from the Fourth Circuit
November 23, 2010
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently affirmed a judgment in excess of $11 million entered against a furniture manufacturer found liable for copyright infringement. Although the Fourth Circuit's judgment has not yet become final, unless it is reversed or overruled this opinion establishes, for the first time in that Circuit, certain significant principles of copyright law.
