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The Court's Proper Role in Construing the Claim of a Design Patent: Should a Picture Be Worth a Thousand Words?
The Federal Circuit has held that, as with utility patents, design patents must be construed by the court. See Elmer v. ICC Fabricating, Inc., 67 F.3d 1571, 1577 (Fed. Cir. 1995). This apparently simple mandate has proven difficult in practice. The single claim in a design patent typically consists only of a series of drawings depicting the patented design. The basic premise of Markman ' that a judge's experience with the interpretation of documents will likely allow him or her to produce a more accurate and consistent claim interpretation ' does not intuitively extend to design patents, nor is it apparent that a judge's interpretation of the drawings will be any more proper and uniform than a jury's interpretation.
Moreover, the design patent infringement tests performed by a jury ' the “ordinary observer” and “point of novelty” tests ' require the jury to compare the drawings of the patented design to the accused device and only find infringement where the accused design appropriates the novel features of the design patent. Neither of these tests requires the jury to have a description in words of the drawings for comparison with the accused design.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
How AI Has Affected PR
When we consider how the use of AI affects legal PR and communications, we have to look at it as an industrywide global phenomenon. A recent online conference provided an overview of the latest AI trends in public relations, and specifically, the impact of AI on communications. Here are some of the key points and takeaways from several of the speakers, who provided current best practices, tips, concerns and case studies.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.