Top 5 Patent 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) CAFC Blog: Revisiting Therasense, CAFC Finds That An Inventor’s Subjective Belief That Submission of Documents Was Unnecessary May Not be Sufficient to Avoid a Showing Of Intent to Deceive – This post discusses Aventis Pharma S.A. and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC v. Hospira Inc. and Apotex Inc. and shares how the CAFC found that the patents were invalid over withheld references, and unenforceable for inequitable conduct.
2) IP Watchdog: Beware Twitter’s New Patent Agreement Scheme – This post highlights and critiques Twitter’s announcement that later this year it will implement what they are calling the “Innovators Patent Agreement,” which they claim will ensure that patents are only used for defensive purposes.
Oral Argument In Key False Marking Case: Stauffer V. Brooks Brothers, Inc.
Jeanne Gills (partner at Foley & Lardner and Practice Center Contributor) and Mary M. Calkins (senior counsel at Foley & Lardner) passed along this news alert discussing the August 3rd oral argument heard by the Federal Circuit in the Stauffer v. Brooks Brothers, Inc. false marking litigation….
On August 3, 2010, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (C.J. Rader, J. Lourie, and J. Moore) heard oral argument in Stauffer v. Brooks Brothers, Inc., Nos. 09-1428 et al (Stauffer). Stauffer is the latest in a line of appeals from district court decisions in false marking suits brought under 35 U.S.C. § 292. The panel mostly focused on two standing issues: (1) the requirements for an individual plaintiff, who is not a competitor of the defendant allegedly committing false marking, to have standing to sue for damages under Section 292; and (2) whether the United States may intervene during the initial phase of a Section 292 action dealing with standing on the pleadings, rather than later during the merits phase of the action. Given the several hundred false marking cases that have been filed during the past year, including those that have been stayed pending a decision in Stauffer, the Federal Circuit’s ruling could impact whether these cases survive on jurisdictional grounds or will proceed on the merits.
Background
Section 292 prohibits marking an “unpatented article” with words indicating that the article is patented “for the purpose of deceiving the public,” and establishes a monetary fine of up to $500 per falsely marked article. The statute further provides that “[a]ny person may sue for the penalty, in which event one-half shall go to the person suing and the other to the use of the United States.” (more…)
08.9.10 | False Marking, Federal Circuit Cases, Patent Issues, Patent Litigation, posts | Stefanie Levine
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04.20.12 | CAFC, posts | Mark Dighton