Appeals

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Tomorrow, the Ninth Circuit will hear oral argument in Motorola’s appeal of Judge Robart’s RAND royalty rate determination as well as the jury verdict that Motorola breached its alleged RAND obligations to license its patents to Microsoft on RAND terms.  Motorola also challenges whether the Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction over the appeal, arguing that exclusive…

Yesterday, the Federal Circuit affirmed the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (“ITC”) determination that certain Interdigital patents related to 3G CDMA technology were not infringed by Nokia and ZTE.  Recall that the ITC had reserved ruling on any RAND obligation defenses given its non-infringement finding (see our Feb. 24, 2014 post). ALJ Shaw’s Initial Determination…

Earlier this week, in Teva v. Sandoz, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the “factual underpinnings” of a district court’s claim construction decision must be reviewed by the Federal Circuit under the “clear error” standard of review (see our Mar. 31, 2014 post for the question presented).  Many thanks to Clifford A. Katz and…

Today in Commil v. Cisco the Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari to review the following specific question presented:

Whether the Federal Circuit erred in holding that a defendant’s belief that a patent is invalid is a defense to induced infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b).

We provided a summary of the…

Yesterday the Federal Circuit issued its long-awaited Ericsson v. D-Link decision that reviewed the Judge Davis jury verdict award for RAND-obligated 802.11 standard essential patents (see our Aug. 7, 2013 post).   The Federal Circuit eschews any per se rules for RAND-obligated patents–e.g., no set modified Georgia-Pacific analysis–and instructs the court to fashion damages instructions…

Yesterday, in Virnetx, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, No. 2013-1489, the Federal Circuit ruled that an expert’s damages testimony was not admissible.  The court’s ruling provides guidance on underlying circumstances required to establish a royalty base and a royalty rate as well as questions the viability of using the Nash Bargaining Solution’s 50/50 split of…

The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted MPHJ’s motion to transfer the ongoing appeal involving the cease and desist letters sent by the Nebraska Attorney General to the Farney Daniels firm, directing the appeal to the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive jurisdiction over patent appeals. In the context of the ongoing debate as…

Back in April, we reported on the Vermont Attorney General’s suit against non-practicing-entity MPHJ being remanded to state court. Dissatisfied with the district court’s decision, MPHJ appealed the remand and filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Federal Circuit, arguing that the decision was an abuse of the district court’s discretion.…

Last summer, we reported on a jury verdict and post-trial rulings in favor of SEP patent holder Ericsson in its infringement suit against several manufacturers of WiFi-compliant products.  As we noted, the jury awarded several million dollars for infringement of Ericsson’s 802.11-essential patents.  Thereafter, several defendants took an appeal to the Federal Circuit, which is…

Last week the Federal Circuit reversed the decision by  Judge Gilstrap of E.D. Texas to proceed with litigation, rather than stay the litigation pending the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) review of the asserted patents under the Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents (“CBM”).  This is the first time the Federal Circuit…