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Boundaries of Patent Exhaustion Defense Explored, Decided (For Now) In <i>En Banc Lexmark</i> Decision
Despite over 150 years of Supreme Court precedent, even the most basic precepts of patent exhaustion doctrine remain unsettled. In Lexmark Int'l, Inc. v. Impression Prods., Inc., No. 2014-1617 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 12, 2016) (en banc), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit grappled with the very foundations of the so-called “first sale” defense in deciding that: 1) a patent owner's sale of an article abroad does not exhaust its U.S. patent rights; and 2) post-sale use restrictions imposed at the point of sale can preserve the patent owner's right to sue downstream users when those restrictions are violated.
Lexmark attracted enormous attention from amicus curiae. In the over 30 briefs submitted to the Federal Circuit, there was a clear demarcation along industry lines. Biotechnology and life sciences companies urged the court to maintain its limited exhaustion rules to permit price differentiation practices that benefit consumers who do not want, and cannot afford, the full bundle of rights associated with a patented product. Computer and high technology companies, in contrast, generally urged adoption of a broader exhaustion rule to ensure freer flow of component parts at every level of their international supply and distribution chains.
Background of Lexmark
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Yachts, Jets, Horses & Hooch: Specialized Commercial Leasing Models
Defining commercial real estate asset class is essentially a property explaining how it identifies — not necessarily what its original intention was or what others think it ought to be. This article discusses, from a general issue-spot and contextual analysis perspective, how lawyers ought to think about specialized leasing formats and the regulatory backdrops that may inform what the documentation needs to contain for compliance purposes.
Hyperlinked Documents: The Latest e-Discovery Challenge
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Turning Business Development Plans Into Reality
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