Features
U.S. Supreme Court Narrows Assignor Estoppel Doctrine In Continuation Patent Case
Nearly a century after endorsing the doctrine of assignor estoppel, the Court concluded that it applies "when, but only when, the assignor's claim of invalidity contradicts explicit or implicit representations he made in assigning the patent."
Features
Supreme Court Looking to Resolve Federal Circuit Split In Patent Act §101 Case
The Supreme Court is considering a petition in a §101 case, in which the Federal Circuit split six-to-six in denying rehearing en banc, and in which the Supreme Court recently called for the views of the Solicitor General.
Features
SCOTUS Narrowly Interprets CFAA to Avoid Criminalizing 'Commonplace Computer Activity'
The Court held that only those who obtain information from particular areas of the computer which they are not authorized to access can be said to "exceed authorization," and the statute does not — as the government had argued — cover behavior where a person accesses information which he is authorized to access but does so for improper purposes.
Features
Supreme Court Narrowly Interprets CFAA to Avoid Criminalizing 'Commonplace Computer Activity'
The Court held that only those who obtain information from particular areas of the computer which they are not authorized to access can be said to "exceed authorization."
Features
U.S. Supreme Court Largely Upholds IPR Proceedings In 'Arthrex'
In a decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court ruled that the statutory scheme appointing PTAB administrative patent judges (APJs) to adjudicate IPRs violates the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Features
Fifth Amendment Protection of Cellphone Passwords Remains Murky As Supreme Court Declines to Weigh In
When law enforcement seeks to compel a subject to provide a passcode to allow them to rummage through a cellphone, courts have not spoken with a unified voice. Some, including New Jersey's highest court, have arrived at the dubious conclusion that requiring an individual to communicate cellphone passcodes to the government does not warrant Fifth Amendment protection. Commentators had hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would reject that expansive view, however, the Supreme Court declined to wade in, seemingly guaranteeing that continued uncertainty on this critical issue will continue to bedevil criminal practitioners.
Features
Supreme Court on APIs and Fair Use
Google didn't get an answer from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether the Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) it copied from Sun Microsystems were copyrightable. But it got just about everything else it could have hoped for in a decision that ended its 11-year copyright clash with Sun's successor, Oracle.
Features
Supreme Court Leaves As Many Questions As It Answers In 'Google v. Oracle'
The Court cleared Google of copyright infringement in terminating a 16-year long dispute as to whether Google's Android mobile platform had infringed Oracle's Java programming language's copyright. However, the Court did not answer the question of whether specific components of computer software qualifies for copyright protection at all.
Features
U.S. Supreme Court Allows Repossessing Secured Lender to Hold Collateral Pending Bankruptcy Stay
A secured lender's "mere retention of property [after a pre-bankruptcy–repossession] does not violate" the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Code, held a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in City of Chicago v. Fulton.
Features
Not-So-Incidental Byproducts of 'Kelly'
Early returns are in, and they indicate that the Supreme Court's decision in the so-called "Bridgegate" case will be an effective tool for pruning the wild overgrowth that has built up around the federal fraud statutes.
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