Features
Advising e-Commerce Business Startups: Beyond the Crib Sheet
The legal risks associated with operating an online business are largely hidden to many people who are lured by the dream of making their fortunes with the apparent ease of opening a virtual storefront.
Features
Document Discovery
In today's litigation world, corporate counsel struggle to contain the ever-increasing costs of document discovery. The explosion of electronically stored information ('ESI') is often a huge contributor to the expense of discovery. Consultants, vendors, and e-discovery software can help bring greater efficiencies and cost-savings to the process. But while there is a dizzying array of options available, they are not all created equal. Finding the right solution requires that you do your homework.
COPA Struck Down By Federal Judge
A federal judge sitting in Philadelphia has struck down the 1998 Child Online Protection Act ('COPA') on March 22. The Act was challenged as unconstitutionally vague by health Web sites and the American Civil Liberties Union ('ACLU').
Features
Medimmune: New Rules for Patent Licenses?
The Supreme Court's <i>Medimmune</i> decision relates directly to the federal courts' jurisdictional requirement of case or controversy, but by overruling the Federal Circuit's <i>Gen-Probe</i> decision it may also have changed the balance of power between patentees and licensees.
Features
LG Electronics, Inc. v. Bizcom Electronics, Inc.: Guidance on Extending a Patent Holder's Rights to Reach Downstream Parties Who Assemble Components into a Patented Combination
In <i>LG Electronics, Inc. v. Bizcom Electronics, Inc.</i>, 453 F.3d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2006), the Federal Circuit held that a license to a patent covering a combination of elements, that authorized the licensee to sell components of the invention, but disclaimed a downstream license or implied license to the licensees' customers to practice the combination, constituted a conditional sale, thus defeating the application of the patent exhaustion doctrine. It further held that a downstream point of sale notice that no implied license was conveyed similarly defeated the first sale doctrine. In addition, it held that no implied license could be found on those facts. As a result, the patent holder was free to assert a claim of patent infringement against parties who were authorized purchasers of components of its invention, when such parties assembled the resulting combination. This decision provides the clearest guidance to date on how a patent holder whose patents cover a combination of components can extend its rights to reach downstream parties who assemble those components into the patented combination. This article discusses this case in the context of pre-existing authority on patent exhaustion and implied license, and highlights some of the considerations associated with drafting agreements to avoid patent exhaustion and implied licenses.
Features
Inside Blogging
Although online blogging has gone mainstream in some professions, there's one group of people mostly absent from the blogosphere: the in-house bar. That said, a few in-house blogs do exist, and their numbers are growing steadily.
Features
Use of Incorporation By Reference in Patents: A Shortcut Tool and Possible Consequences
In drafting a U.S. patent application, the patent applicant may refer to a prior publication to aid in describing the background or some other facet of his or her invention. The applicant may incorporate this prior public information expressly into the specification of his or her application, or as a shortcut may incorporate this information by explicit reference. This seemingly innocuous shortcut may be a useful tool for the patent applicant or patentee; however, patent infringement litigants — whether plaintiff or defendant — should be keenly aware not to overlook subject matter that has been incorporated by reference either in the patent at issue or in relevant prior art when validity of the patent is challenged.
Features
e-Lawyering Is Not for the Faint-Hearted
Today, the pervasive role that technology has assumed in business and legal practice, as more and more of our daily lives are lived online, provides a more fundamental challenge to how attorneys practice business law. In an age when 'paper file' has become an anachronism and an oxymoron, business law and the way it is practiced have required more than just tinkering with particular rules.
Features
e-Commerce Docket Sheet
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
Features
e-Commerce Holds Strong in Fourth Quarter
The federal government last month put its estimate of e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2006 at $29.3 billion, up 6.3% from the third quarter, and up 24.6% from the fourth quarter of 2005, with the increase in total retail sales from late 2005 to late 2006 estimated at 4.6%.
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