The Intellectual Property Strategist

Columns & Departments

New Patent Litigation Reform Bills Introduced <br>U.S. Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Burden Of Proof for Licensee-DJ Plaintiff<br>A Split Federal Circuit Denies En Banc Rehearing In Case Involving Finality Of a Judicial Decision<br>Federal Circuit Explains Exhaustion of Method Patents

Features

Section 504(b) of the Copyright Act allows a copyright owner to obtain both the owner's actual damages as well as an infringer's profits attributable to the infringed work that weren't included in the actual damages award. What are the burdens of proof when a copyright infringement plaintiff seeks this recovery after a pre-trial summary judgment motion has been filed? How does an expert's report work into this?

Features

On Oct. 25, 2013, the Federal Circuit, by a vote of six-to-five, denied rehearing <i>en banc</i> in <i>Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc.,</i> (<i>Commil II</i>). That decision left intact the panel's holding, in a case of first impression, that an alleged indirect infringer's "good-faith belief of invalidity may negate the requisite intent for induced infringement."

Features

ICANN has been busy reviewing applications for new generic top-level domain name registries (new gTLDs), and the first four new gTLDs were delegated to the Root Zone on Oct. 23, 2013.

Columns & Departments

Federal Circuit Upholds Permanent Injunction in 'Design Win' Market <br>Federal Circuit Upholds Inequitable Conduct Ruling<br>EFF Files for <i>Inter Partes</i> Review of Podcasting Patent

Features

These days, it is commonplace for companies to license multiple parties in various distinct geographical areas to use the same trademark. Because different licensees may be competitors of one another in different product lines, the question often arises as to whether one licensee may challenge another's right to use a licensed mark and, if so, where.

In <i>TecSec, Inc. v. IBM Corp., et al.</i>, the Federal Circuit explained the effect of Federal Circuit Rule 36, under which the Federal Circuit may "enter a judgment of affirmance without opinion" if certain conditions are met. Fed. Cir. R. 36. The decision highlights the impact of a Rule 36 affirmance on related issues in subsequent litigation, particularly where the Federal Circuit summarily affirms a district court decision that is based on multiple, independent grounds.

Features

In September of last year, the America Invents Act introduced a number of powerful tools for challenging the validity of an issued patent at the USPTO ' Inter Partes Review (IPR), Covered Business Method Review (CBMR), and Post-Grant Review (PGR). By a large margin, however, the most popular of these procedures has been the IPR.