Patent Law Practice Center

Attack on Helferich Patent Licensing/Wireless Science Patent, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of May 7, 2012

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

Helferich Patent Licensing has been extremely aggressive and extremely successful in asserting its portfolio of mobile wireless communications patents against the world’s media and retail giants. According to the patent search outfit M-CAM, Helferich has sued licensed 42 companies, including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nissan, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba.

In a case filed in 2010, Helferich sued CBS for infringement of 21 patents.  This February, it obtained U.S. Patent No. 8,116,741, adding it to the CBS litigation and to six other infringement actions.  On Friday, CBS and the other defendants in those cases, requested reexamination of the ‘741 patent (see inter partes Request No. (1)).

This is by no means the first reexamination asserted against Helferich, who so far appears to have been quite adept at overcoming the prior art asserted against and adding numerous claims to its patents in reexamination.

Helferich holds an exclusive licensee to the patents in its portfolio, a license it obtained from Wireless Science.  Wireless states on web page that their “intellectual property portfolio contains numerous pending and issued domestic and international patents (over 1600 patent claims issued, allowed and pending) related to a variety of wireless and web-based messaging technologies.”

There was also an interesting reexamination request filed by Medtronic against an implantable valve prosthesis patent owned by Edwards Lifesciences (see ex parte Request No. (2)).  The two companies have been in a long-term struggle over this technology. (more…)

Barney Cassidy on Non-Practicing Entities

Barney J. Cassidy, General Counsel and Executive VP of Tessera, Inc. as well as PLI faculty member, recently had an op-ed article published on Politico.com. The article, entitled, “Shooting a patent straw man,” challenges the notion that patent trolls and their readiness to litigate is at the root behind the recent surge of patent portfolio growth among the major tech companies.

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Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

Today we continue our weekly installment highlighting the best of the patent blogosphere from the past week. If there are any patent blogs you think should be highlighted by our Top 5, please comment on this post and we’ll check them out.

1) Patently-O: Gene Patent Debate Returns to the Federal Circuit – This post reports on SCOTUS’ recently issued GVR order in Association for Molecular Pathology v. USPTO and Myriad Genetics (Fed. Cir. 2012). According to the post, “The Federal Circuit has now released a new briefing schedule — asking the parties to file supplemental briefs by June 15, 2012 addressing the issue: What is the applicability of the Supreme Court’s decision in Mayo to Myriad’s isolated DNA claims and to method claim 20 of the ’282 patent?”

2) Green Patent Blog: Clean Energy Patent Growth Index Shows Record High for 2011 – This post shares the findings of the Heslin Rothenberg firm’s Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) 2011 Year in Review, highlighting that granted green patents were at an all time high of 2331 for last year, a rise of 450 patents, or 24%, over 2010. (more…)

Caraco v. Novo Nordisk: Supreme Court Alters the Landscape of Hatch-Waxman Litigation

On Monday, May 7th, PLI will be hosting a One Hour Briefing entitled, “Caraco v. Novo Nordisk: Supreme Court Alters the Landscape of Hatch-Waxman Litigation by Adopting Expansive Interpretation of Counterclaims Provision.“  This briefing will be conducted by Elaine Herrmann Blais and Robert D. Carroll, partners in the law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. v. Novo Nordisk A/S, clarified the circumstances in which generic drug companies can challenge the scope of the “use codes” for the patents that branded drug companies list in the FDA’s “Orange Book.” (more…)

Challenges on Intellectual Ventures Computer Circuit Patents Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of April 23, 2012

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

An undisclosed party requested reexamination of two computer circuits patents owned by Intellectual Ventures (see ex parte Request Nos. (13) & (14)).  IV patents in this technology have come under attack by Xilinx in recent times, and it was quite possibly Xilinx that filed these requests. Incidentally, one of the IV patents was originally owned by LG Semicon and the other by Motorola.

Requests were also against four auto-navigation patents owned by Beacon Navigation (see ex parte Request Nos. (8) to (11)).  Beacon has sued quite a few auto-makers in Delaware for infringement of those patents, including Honda, Porsche, BMW and Ford.

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