The Supreme Court’s decision in MedImmune v. Genentech, 127 S.Ct. 765 (2007), permitted MedImmune to challenge Genetech’s drug patent before breaching its patent license with Genentech.

Historically, breach of a patent license restrained licensees from challenging patents on invalidity grounds since patent holders could retaliate against those who willfully breached a patent license with an injunction and seek money damages. The new standard in MedImmune removes that risk. However, this new threat to patent holders is offset by the expense of challenging a patent in court.

Mark Sever and Debbie Hays were invited to speak at the November 2006 Invention to Venture Forum.  Please click on the link below to view a copy of their PowerPoint presentation.

 Technology-Business-Legal Some Critical Intersection

With larger numbers of common language trademarks working their way into our daily lives, normal communication would become very difficult if courts gave absolute property rights to trademark owners.  Section 33(b)(4) of the Lanham Act outlines the fair use defense to trademark infringement. Read the rest of this entry »

John Letchford was invited to speak at Rowan University in October, 2006. Please click on the link below to view a copy of his PowerPoint presentation.

Patent or Perish

The International Trade Commission (ITC) was created under the 1930 Tariff Act to prevent U.S. merchandise knockoffs from entering the country in violation of patent rights. U.S. companies with foreign manufacturing operations can fall into the commission’s jurisdiction. Read the rest of this entry »

A Texas federal district judge recently denied Z4 Technologies Inc.’s request to enjoin Microsoft from selling, making and using its infringing Windows and Office products. The ruling appears to be the first case to apply the holding in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 126 S.Ct. 1837 (2006).  The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in eBay ended the presumption that an injunction should be issued almost automatically when a patent infringement is found.  Read the rest of this entry »

In the early days of the Internet, enterprising and oftentimes unscrupulous persons would reserve domain names that were the same as or similar to the trade names and trademarks of others and then offer to sell those domains, at high fees, to their “rightful” owners. This practice was known as “cybersquatting.” The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999 (ACPA) was enacted to combat such activity. Read the rest of this entry »

When a person dies, attention must be paid to the decedent’s intangible assets, such as Internet assets, as well as his/her tangible assets. Email accounts, online gaming property, Internet based bank and credit/debit accounts are all intangible property of the decedent’s estate. Care must be taken to assure that such property is recognized, categorized, quantified and properly administered.

As traditionally used, “watermarks” are embedded text or images on a work of authorship, photograph or the like that identifies the author of the work. Their modern equivalents, “digital watermarks,” are used to fingerprint electronic media such as photographs, music and movies. Digital watermarks should be considered mandatory for artists and others who routinely post content on the Internet.