Anticipation

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Chrimar Systems (also known as CMS Technologies) is a non-practicing entity that owns patents that it claims are essential to IEEE Power-over-Ethernet technology — amendments 802.3af and 802.3at to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard.  Chrimar has litigated several cases throughout the years based on these patents, including a (now-terminated) ITC case (Inv. No. 337-TA-817).  Chrimar’s website lists several licensees for its Power-over-Ethernet patents, as well.

But now it looks like Chrimar’s standard-essential portfolio just got a little bit smaller.  Yesterday, in Chrimar Systems v. Foundry Networks (now Brocade Communications Systems), the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that had invalidated claims 14 and 17 of U.S. Patent No. 5,406,260.  
Continue Reading Chrimar Systems’ Power-over-Ethernet claims found invalid on appeal

Today, Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, in Voter Verified, Inc. v. Premier Election Solutions, Inc., Nos. 2011-1553 and 2012-1017, the Federal Circuit (Lourie, Reyna, and Wallach) ruled that an online document that had not been indexed by major search engines was nevertheless a prior art “printed publication” under section 102(b).  This case provides insight on establishing online resources as prior art printed publications.
Continue Reading Patent Alert: Federal Circuit gives guidance on “printed publications” found on the Internet (Voter Verified v. Premier Election Solutions)

Today, Fri., Mar. 2, 2012, in MySpace v. Graphon, No. 2011-1149, the Federal Circuit (Newman, Mayer (dissenting) and Plager) affirmed summary judgment that patent claims directed to accessing a database over a network were invalid as anticipated or obvious over the prior art.
Continue Reading Patent Alert: Federal Circuit decides classic invalidity defenses to avoid abstract patentable subject matter defense (MySpace v. Graphon)