Patent Law Practice Center

Sony sues Fujifilm on 3M-acquired patents

Sony Corporation recently filed a patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Japanese photography and imaging company Fujifilm. At the center of Sony’s legal action are magnetic tape products marketed by Fujifilm which allegedly practice technology copied from Sony without a license.

In the official complaint filed by Sony, the company asserts a series of four patents, which it alleges Fujifilm infringed through the sale of the company’s Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format magnetic tapes, specifically generation four, five and six LTO tapes (LTO-4, LTO-5, LTO-6).

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Apple v. Samsung remanded back to district court

Recently, in a non-precedential decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded Apple, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. back to Judge Lucy Koh (shown left) of the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. In December 2016, the Supreme Court overturned a $400 million damages award for design patent infringement. In its ruling, the Supreme Court explained that damages may be limited to revenues attributable to a component of an article of manufacture and not the entire article itself. See Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple, Inc.

Apple requested that the Federal Circuit keep the case and the panel review the decision in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, while Samsung requested that the Federal Circuit remand the matter to the district court for a new trial on damages. The Federal Circuit adopted neither suggestion. Instead, the Federal Circuit chose to remand the case for further proceedings, which the panel explained may or may not include a new trial on damages. Judge Koh will decide whether a new trial on damages is necessary.

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115th Congress: Meet the Key Republicans on IP Reform

On January 3, 2017, the 115th Congress officially convened. In the Senate, it will be the Senate Judiciary Committee where any action relating to intellectual property reform will play out during the 115th Congress. In the House of Representatives, it will be the House Judiciary Committee that will be the body of primary importance insofar as any intellectual property reforms are concerned. Unlike the Senate, in the House, the front line action will take place in subcommittee, specifically the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will take the lead for the full House Judiciary Committee.

Unlike in previous years, we enter 2017 without much support for a fresh round of patent reform, but at least some patent reform measures are sure to be introduced during the 115th Congress. In fact, just recently Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who is once again Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, put forth his legislative agenda which included patent litigation reform. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) is also talking about it being time for Congress to amend 35 U.S.C. 101.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), pictured left, will once again be chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley is a strong supporter of the development of wind, solar, biodiesel, biomass and ethanol as a sustainable, domestic, renewable energy source, which is not surprising since he comes from the heart of America’s farmland. Grassley is a pragmatic politician. In April 2014, when large entities were pushing hard for the latest round of patent reform to pass, Grassley pumped the breaks, acknowledging that there were significant differences of opinion on the need for additional reform. “Sometimes it takes more time than we’d like, but, the end result is a better product. I’m willing to sacrifice a little time to develop a bipartisan bill that we can all support.”  Grassley’s pragmatic approach slowed things down during the 113th Congress, but Grassley introduced the PATENT Act in the 114th Congress. Throughout the 114th Congress, Grassley’s staff was aggressively searching for stories about small businesses being abused by patent trolls, which he could use to give patent reform momentum. Such momentum never materialized, despite the fact that the PATENT Act was able to pass the Judiciary Committee. It is believed that Grassley remains supportive of patent reforms that most inventors would deem unacceptable. (more…)

Jockeying for Position in a Sleep Apnea Patent Lawsuit

Several months ago, respiratory health device developer ResMed Inc. filed multiple legal actions against Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. ResMed is alleging that multiple Fisher & Paykel products infringe upon its patents. ResMed filed actions with the U.S. International Trade Commission(ITC) and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (S.D. Cal.), as well as courts in Germany and New Zealand.

ResMed argues that Fisher & Paykel is infringing upon patents it holds related to modular mask systems, headgear design, and cushion design for masks for sleep apnea patients. ResMed attempted to assert its rights on four particular patents in its portfolio.

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Apple, Sony Settle with MONKEYmedia over Patents, Case Continues

In July 2010, MONKEYmedia filed a lawsuit for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (W.D. Tex.). The initial suit targeted American consumer tech giant Apple Inc. (amongst others) and targeted Apple’s use of user interfaces for document summarizations, video players and RSS readers which are capable of displaying multiple versions of text and/or audiovisual content.

MONKEYmedia’s complaint included five patents-in-suit:

• U.S. Patent No. 6177938, titled Computer User Interface with Non-Salience Deemphasis. It claimed a computerized system including a computer with a means for selectively shrinking the display of a first segment of objects to emphasize a second segment.
• U.S. Patent No. 6219052, same title as above. It claims a similar computerized system including a means for transforming a displayed object into shrunken and non-shrunken segments.
• U.S. Patent No. 6335730, same title. It also claims a computerized system using a relativity controller to selectively shrink a segment of objects and a scroll bar which changes in response to relativity controller activity.
• U.S. Patent No. 6393158, titled Method and Storage Device for Expanding and Contracting Continuous Play Media Seamlessly. It discloses a method for playing stored content which includes providing links to expansion content as the stored content plays.
• U.S. Patent No. 7467218, same title as ‘158 patent. It protects a computer-readable medium storing instructions to display content, provide links to expansion content and determine when such a link has been selected.

Six years of litigation later, an order of dismissal was filed indicating that both parties had settled their respective claims for relief filed in the case. A joint stipulation of dismissal was filed stating that both parties had stipulated to the dismissal of all claims and counter-claims asserted against each other. This comes about a year after MONKEYmedia had settled similar patent infringement claims against Sony Corporation, developer of the Blu-ray digital content standard which takes advantage of seamless expansion technologies covered by MONKEYmedia’s patents.

The defendants subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment of non-infringement of the ‘158 patent, the final patent remaining in the suit after patent reexaminations at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In the motion for summary judgment, the defendants argue four points supporting their claim of non-infringement. First, they note that bonus content is available for an entire movie, not just segments of that movie. Second, the defendants argue that there are no expansion links in the movie content as defined by the claims of the ‘158 patent. Third, there is no fixed link from an expansion content to a continuing segment, so if a viewer wants to stop a movie to watch bonus content, that viewer has to actively choose to resume the movie. Finally, there are no cues to the bonus content which appear during the course of the movie; viewers must actively open menus and seek the content for themselves. The motion also includes definitions of Blu-ray technology features and descriptions of user interactions with those features by an expert witness, Mark R. Johnson.

MONKEYmedia filed a response in opposition to the summary judgment filed by the defendants. The response argues that the defendants are seeking a decision on the case “based on little more than the Court’s claim construction ruling, and without any evidence of non-infringement.” MONKEYmedia notes that, while Johnson’s expert witness declaration was attached to the motion, the witness did not put forward an actual opinion regarding non-infringement so much as a collection of observations made while watching a series of discs. The defendants’ assertion that the “links” and “segments” in Blu-ray content aren’t covered by claims of the ‘158 patent is based on an attorney argument and not by a qualified expert.

The case continues, but without Apple or Sony; both have now settled.