Law Commons^™

Exclusion Confusion? A Defense Of The Federal Circuit's Specific Exclusion Jurisprudence, Peter Curtis Magic

Michigan Law Review

Specific exclusion has become a controversial limitation on the doctrine of equivalents, which is itself an essential and controversial area of patent law. The doctrine of equivalents allows a patentee to successfully claim infringement against devices that are outside of the literal reach of the language used by the patentee in her patent to describe what she claims as her invention. The Supreme Court has prescribed some of the outer limits of the doctrine of equivalents and articulated the underlying policy concerns that inform its analysis-noting that courts should balance protection of the patentee's intellectual property with the public's reasonable …

Asserting Foreign Patent Claims In U.S. Federal Courts: What’S Left After Voda V. Cordis?, Eric D. Chan

Eric David Chan

Patent law is inherently territorial; a patent covers infringing activity only within the borders of the nation in which it should granted. However, this makes enforcing patent rights worldwide a daunting challenge. Rather than recklessly extending the extraterritorial reach of U.S. patent law, a better alternative would be to assert claims for infringement of multiple foreign patents in a single, U.S. forum.

This paper focuses on the new barriers raised to the prospects for such consolidated, multinational patent infringement proceedings by Voda v. Cordis, decided by the Federal Circuit in February. Voda held that federal supplemental jurisdiction should almost never …

Significant Developments In Veterans Law (2004-2006) And What They Reveal About The U.S. Court Of Appeals For Veterans Claims And The U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Michael P. Allen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Nearly twenty years ago, Congress for the first time created a system for judicial review of decisions denying veterans benefits. Specifically, Congress created an Article I Court: the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Veterans dissatisfied with actions of the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding benefits could appeal to the Veterans Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit provided appellate oversight of the Veterans Court. There simply is nothing like the Veterans Court elsewhere in American law. Yet, despite its uniqueness, there has been little scholarly attention to this institution.

This Article begins to …

Reconsidering In Re Technology Licensing Corporation And The Right To Jury Trial In Patent Invalidity Suits, Andrew W. Bateman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Over the past decade, the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court have lessened the role of the jury in patent cases, both by classifying patent issues as questions of law for the judge, and by limiting the situations in which jury trial is available as of right. Recently, In re Technology Licensing Corporation, the Federal Circuit held that there is no right to a jury trial in a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration of patent invalidity, where the defendant counterclaims with alleged infringement and seeks an injunction as the sole remedy. In line with Supreme Court precedent, the …

Extraterritorial Reach Of U.S. Patent Law: Has The Federal Circuit Gone Too Far?, Robert W. Pierson, Jr.

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Survey Of The Federal Circuit's Patent Law Decisions In 2006: A New Chapter In The Ongoing Dialogue With The Supreme Court, Gregory A. Castanias, Lawrence D. Rosenberg, Michael S. Fried, Todd R. Geremia

American University Law Review

In 2006, the Federal Circuit decided only one portion of one patent case en banc, and that was done mainly as a procedural matter (the entire case was not argued to an en banc court) in order to reconcile prior conflicting precedent on the issue of induced patent infringement with the recent Supreme Court decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., involving induced copyright infringement. But in light of the Supreme Court’s much more muscular review of the Federal Circuit’s patent cases—which may not even reflect the full extent of the Court’s interest in the Federal Circuit’s patent decisions—the …

2006 Government Contract Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, David W. Burgett, William F. Ferreira, Allison D. Pugsley, Deborah A. Raviv

American University Law Review

In 2006, the Federal Circuit issued over two hundred and fifty precedential opinions and orders. This article discusses sixteen precedent-setting opinions involving government contract law issues, setting forth the relevant facts, the Federal Circuit’s analysis, and key points for practitioners to glean from each case. This article also includes a discussion of the Federal Circuit’s September 2006 opinion regarding the TRICARE Pharmacy Benefits Program (“TPBP”) refund program, a case that the pharmaceutical industry watched closely. The decisions have been grouped into the following categories: jurisdiction, contract interpretation, costs, contract termination, bid protests, and patent rights.

Ksr's Effect On Patent Law, Stephen G. Kunin, Andrew K. Beverina

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Supreme Court in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. clarified its 1966 decision in Graham v. John Deere, avoiding the sea change to a synergy- based standard that many had expected—and perhaps feared. KSR has raised the bar set in Graham for seeking patent protection—by providing a flexible test for obviousness—while simultaneously making it easier for accused infringers to defend themselves. Moreover, KSR will change the strategies of both patent prosecutors and litigators. Before KSR, the Supreme Court’s last major decision on nonobviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103 was Graham, in which the Court established three factual inquiries for …

Restoring The Genetic Commons: A Common Sense Approach To Biotechnology Patents In The Wake Of Ksr V. Teleflex , Anna Bartow Laakmann

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In this Article, I argue that a new approach to biotechnology patenting is necessary to fully realize the tremendous potential of recent advances in our understanding of the human genome. Part I places the gene patenting debate in context by highlighting the key landmarks that have shaped the biotechnology industry and outlining the products and stakeholders that comprise the industry. Part II describes the current state of the law on biotechnology patents, summarizing the Federal Circuit's application of the various doctrines that collectively define the patent landscape's parameters. In this Part, I explain how the Federal Circuit's jurisprudence is tied …

Patent Injunctions And The Problem Of Uniformity Cost, Michael W. Carroll

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In eBay v. MercExchange, the Supreme Court correctly rejected the Federal Circuit's general rule requiring that a permanent injunction follow from a finding that a patent is valid and infringed. Recognizing that one size does not fit all in patent law, the Court returned traditional equitable discretion to the district courts. With this discretion, district courts can now deploy remedies for patent infringement that are sensitive to relevant differences among industries, technologies, and entities. This Essay sets the Court's rejection of a uniform remedial regime in a larger context concerning the role of uniformity in patent law. It then explores …

Ksr V. Teleflex: Predictable Reform Of Patent Substance And Procedure In The Judiciary, John F. Duffy

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Though KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc. is now widely acknowl-edged in the bar and the academy to be the most significant patent case in at least a quarter century, that view dramatically underestimates the impor-tance of the decision. The KSR decision has immense significance not merely because it rejected the standard of patentability that had been applied in the lower courts for decades, but also because it highlights many separate trends that are reshaping the patent system. This Commentary will touch upon four such trends that are clearly evi-dent in KSR. First, the case was a predictable continuation of …

Price Of Popularity: The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit 2007, Jay S. Plager

American University Law Review

This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The anniversary was acknowledged with appropriate ceremony, including an en banc session of the court on April 2 attended by various luminaries in the judicial and political branches of the United States. The somewhat tongue-in-cheek title of this essay is intended to suggest an important idea about the court today: with increased visibility, significance, and impact have come consequences, some desirable, some not. This essay undertook a brief review of how the court got where it is, and a look at what …

Review Of The 2006 Trademark Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Christine Haight Farley, Geri L. Haight

American University Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) delivered only seven precedential trademark opinions in 2006. This small proportion of trademark cases is consistent with the court’s docket in recent years. This year, the court addressed a range of interesting substantive issues including trade dress configuration, reverse passing off, and genericism. Notably, two of the seven precedential decisions involved plant names protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act. The Federal Circuit decided only one case in 2006 where the primary issue was procedural, rather than substantive. In that case, discussed below, the Federal Circuit sided with …

Making Sense Of Ksr And Other Recent Patent Cases, Harold C. Wegner

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The recent Supreme Court review of KSR International Inc. v. Teleflex Inc., eBay Inc. v. MercExchange LLC, and Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. manifests the Court’s current interest in the patent jurisprudence of the Fed-eral Circuit. Now it is evident that the Court has a level of concern sufficient to guarantee the possibility of grant of certiorari—whereas formerly a case could rarely generate sufficient interest for review. For long-range impor-tance in patent law, KSR stands alone as the single most important Supreme Court patent decision on the bread and butter standard of “obviousness” in the more than forty years since …

The Supreme Court And The Federal Circuit: Visitation And Custody Of Patent Law, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s relationship to patent law sometimes seems like that of a non-custodial parent who spends an occasional weekend with the kids. The custodial parent is, of course, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982 consolidated intermediate appellate jurisdiction over patent law cases in this single court, which hears appeals from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”), the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. In-ternational Trade Commission. Day to day it is the Federal Circuit that reviews contested decisions of the institutions …

International Trade Decisions Of The Federal Circuit: 2006 Cases And Highlights Of 2003-2005, Alexandra E.P. Baj

American University Law Review

Over the past four years, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) has, as it has done since its establishment in 1982, exercised its jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(5) to review decisions of the United States Court of International Trade (“CIT”) regarding U.S. regulation of international trade. While trade cases currently make up only about six percent of the docket of the Federal Circuit, decisions in these cases can have a significant discernable impact on the day-to-day investigation and regulation of trade matters of the three U.S. agencies featured most prominently in the trade …

The Federal Circuit And Patentability: An Empirical Assessment Of The Law Of Obviousness, Lee Petherbridge, R. Polk Wagner

All Faculty Scholarship

It is by now a cliché to suggest that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has weakened the standards for obtaining patents. In this article, we empirically assess that Court’s performance on the ultimate question of patentability— the requirement that a patentable invention must be “nonobvious.” Our findings suggest that the conventional wisdom may not be well-grounded, at least on this measure. Nowhere is the Federal Circuit’s controversial role as the locus of judicial power in the U.S. patent system more evident than in the context of the doctrine of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103. …