OVERVIEW OF PREGIS CORP v. KAPPOS: In this case Free-Flow and Pregis are competitors in the air-filled packing cushion industry. Essentially, these companies make the air packaging fillers you find in boxes when receiving packages. During the 1990’s, air-packaging became more prevalent over the peanut packaging or using crumpled paper. Free-flow holds 3 patents relating [...]
OVERVIEW: This case deals with the standards for Rule 11 sanctions for patent cases. Rule 11(b) states by presenting to the court a pleading, written motion, or other paper—whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating it—an attorney or unrepresented party certifies that to the best of the person's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after [...]
OVERVIEW: This is an interesting case that deals with several different components of intellectual property law including: patents, trademarks, and civil procedure. Prior to the court of appeals ruling for this case, the district court of Minnesota dismissed this case based on claim preclusion reasoning that Superior’s prior trademark action raised from the same operative [...]
I recently read an interesting article (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121116-phone-patents-an-absurd-battle/print) regarding just how many mobile device patent applications there currently are, and difficulty that the quantity of mobile patent applications create. The article estimates that there are about ¼ of a million active patents in the united states that have relevance to the mobile applications. The article further [...]
AN AUSTIN PATENT ATTORNEY’S OVERVIEW: This case is an appeal/cross-appeal resulting from a patent infringement lawsuit brought by ePlus against Lawson Software, Inc. (“Lawson”). Lawson appealed the district court ruling and the jury’s finding that Lawson infringes ePlus’s method and system claims. FIGURE 1B of US 6,023,683 ePlus is the assignee of United [...]
OVERVIEW: This case deals with the limits on standing to bring a Walker Process antitrust lawsuit. A Walker Process antitrust lawsuit can be brought when a party procured a patent through intentional fraud, and uses the patent to create a monopoly on the patented technology. The question in this case is directed towards whether a [...]
Living in Austin, Texas many people here have tattoos, and there are several different areas of intellectual property law that are relevant to tattoos. The three main areas of intellectual property law that are associated with tattoos are copyright law, trademark law, and patent law. These areas of law also affect an average person. However [...]
OVERVIEW Transocean and Maersk are both deep water drilling companies. In this case, Transocean appealed the decision of the US district court granting summary judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that Maersk did not infringe on the claims of three of Transocean’s patents 6,047,781, 6,085,851, and 6’068,069 because the claims in these patents are [...]
A common question I get as a patent attorney located in Austin, Tx, is "will my prototype infringe on a patent, trademark, or copyright if it includes patented/trademarked/copyrighted elements?" This question arises when inventors create prototypes that includes elements that have already been patented/trademarked/copyrighted. For example, if an inventor’s invention is directed towards a more [...]
Does the American Invents Act that goes into effect in spring 2013 favor large companies or start-ups/inventors? The most crucial consequence of the America Invents Act is that the United States is moving from a first to invent rule (current US standard) to a first to file rule (current standard everywhere else). Essentially, this act [...]