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Full-Text Articles in Law
Aggregating Defendants, Greg Reilly
Aggregating Defendants, Greg Reilly
Faculty Scholarship
No procedural topic has garnered more attention in the past fifty years than the class action and aggregation of plaintiffs. Yet, almost nothing has been written about aggregating defendants. This topic is of increasing importance. Recent efforts by patent “trolls” and Bit- Torrent copyright plaintiffs to aggregate unrelated defendants for similar but independent acts of infringement have provoked strong opposition from defendants, courts, and even Congress. The visceral resistance to defendant aggregation is puzzling. The aggregation of similarly situated plaintiffs is seen as creating benefits for both plaintiffs and the judicial system. The benefits that justify plaintiff aggregation also seem …
Judicial Capacities And Patent Claim Construction: An Ordinary Reader Standard, Greg Reilly
Judicial Capacities And Patent Claim Construction: An Ordinary Reader Standard, Greg Reilly
Faculty Scholarship
Patent claim construction is a mess. The Federal Circuit’s failure to provide adequate guidance has created significant problems for the patent system. The problems with claim construction result from the Federal Circuit’s inability to resolve whether claim terms should be given (1) the general, acontextual meaning they would have to a skilled person in the field; (2) the specific meaning they have in the context of the patent; or (3) some combination of the two. The claim construction debate largely overlooks the generalist judges who must implement claim construction. This Article fills that gap, concluding that existing approaches are difficult, …
Completing The Picture Of Uncertain Patent Scope, Greg Reilly
Completing The Picture Of Uncertain Patent Scope, Greg Reilly
Faculty Scholarship
This Commentary addresses the intertwined relationship of claim construction, indefiniteness, and uncertain patent scope. Claim construction is a necessary threshold step and, if effective, can resolve uncertainties in claim scope, reducing the need to invalidate claims as indefinite, as discussed in Part II. Part III demonstrates how the Federal Circuit’s failed claim construction rules accentuate, rather than resolve, ambiguities in claim scope. Part IV explains how the ineffectiveness of claim construction increases the need for an effective indefiniteness doctrine, but, perversely, both decreased the effectiveness of the Federal Circuit’s pre-Nautilus standard and renders any stricter standard too draconian. Part IV …