Federal Circuit

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Today, a divided Federal Circuit panel issued a decision that vacates district court’s decision not to permanently enjoin Samsung from selling mobile devices having features found to infringe Apple’s patents.  The majority decision breaths life back into injunctive relief against multi-component/multi-featured devices (like mobile phones) by not requiring the patent owner to show that its…

Today, the Federal Circuit sitting en banc changed direction again on § 271(a) direct infringement and ruled that Limelight was liable for direct infringement based on substantial evidence supporting the jury verdict of infringement where the “alleged infringer conditions participation in an activity or receipt of a benefit upon performance of a step or steps…

Today, a Federal Circuit panel, Judges Prost, Linn (author) and Moore (dissent), issued its long-awaited decision in the Akamia v. Limelight case following remand from the Supreme Court to consider the issue of multiple-actor direct infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) (see our June 2, 2014 post).  The panel again found that there was…

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 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…

Today, in In Re Nintendo involving an infringement complaint against Nintendo and eleven retailer’s of the Nintendo DS video game device, the Federal Circuit (Newman, Rader and Hughes) granted mandamus and ordered Judge Gilstrap of E.D. Texas to (1) sever the claims against Nintendo the manufacturer from the claims against the video game…

Last Friday, Apple and Google reportedly agreed to dismiss all current lawsuits between them, including standard essential patent cases involving Motorola Mobility that Google recently sold to Lenovo.  The three-sentence joint statement by Apple and Google indicates that their agreement does not include any cross license (to SEPs or otherwise), stating:

Apple and Google have

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