The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to mark-up and vote on the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act of 2013 last Thursday but again postponed the vote until after the Senate recess. The mark-up and vote have been postponed several times before. As we discussed in a prior post, the bill, if passed would require
Update on patent litigation reform legislation
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Hopefully the current patent reform effort to address perceived patent litigation abuse problems will result in carefully targeted tweaks to–without harming–our otherwise thriving U.S. patent system, the greatest system for innovation that the world has ever known (see our Patent Forest post). The Senate is currently considering this balance. The Senate Judiciary Committee was…
Senate Judiciary Committee to Debate Bipartisan Patent Reform Legislation
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As we discussed in a prior post, the U.S. Senate is currently debating a patent reform bill (“the Innovation Act”) passed by the House of Representatives late last year directed to perceived patent litigation abuse by certain patent assertion entities (what some characterize as “patent trolls”). The Senate is also debating a competing bill…
Wisconsin Passes Bill Targeting Bad Faith Assertions of Patent Infringement
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Posted in Legislation, Non-Practicing Entities
Last week, the Wisconsin state Assembly voted to approve a bill designed to rein in abusive assertions of patent infringement against companies doing business in Wisconsin and their customers. The bill was approved by the Wisconsin state Senate earlier this month, and will now be presented to the governor for signature.
As we discusssed in…
Patent Case: Federal Circuit denies mandamus in two cases seeking transfer of patent assertion entity cases
By David Long on
Yesterday, in two separate precedential decisions on mandamus, the Federal Circuit refused to overturn the district courts’ decisions not to transfer patent assertion entity cases to the defendants’ home forum: In re Apple, Misc. 13-156 (mandamus from E.D. Tex.) and In re Barnes Noble, Misc. 13-162 (mandamus from W.D. Tenn.). Both mandamus orders were…
Rockstar sued by cable operators for breaching standard setting obligations
By David Long on
Last Friday, several cable operators filed a Complaint against Rockstar in D. Del. alleging that Rockstar’s assertion against them of patents breached obligations owed to various standard setting organizations (“SSOs”) based on prior owner Nortel’s commitment to license patents on RAND, FRAND or royalty-free terms. Our Jan. 2 and Nov. 1 posts discussed Rockstar’s purchase…
Ericsson asserts that Adaptix is withdrawing its ITC Complaint under threat of a motion for sanctions given unsubstantiated claims (Inv. No. 337-TA-871)
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Today Ericsson filed its response to Adaptix’s sudden motion to withdraw its Complaint and terminate the ITC’s investigation of whether Ericsson’s base stations infringe an Adaptix patent alleged to cover cellular LTE standards. Recall from our post last week that it was not clear why Adaptix made this extraordinary step on the eve of trial.…
Adaptix moves to withdraw its complaint and terminate ITC investigation of Ericsson’s alleged infringement of LTE patent (Inv. No. 337-TA-871)
By David Long on
Yesterday Adaptix moved to withdraw its complaint and terminate the ITC investigation of Ericsson for infringing Adaptix’s patent alleged to be essential to LTE standards practiced by Ericsson base stations. The motion does not explain the reason for withdrawal and comes at a time when the parties have been in heavy pre-trial procedures and at…
Radio stations sued on alleged HD radio standard essential patents
By David Long on
Lest we forget the prevalence of standards in many industries beyond smartphones and Wi-Fi, last Friday (Nov. 1), several radio stations were sued by patent monetization entity Wyncomm in D. Del. for infringing three patents alleged to cover “transmission of radio broadcasts using HD radio techniques further described by the IBOC [In-Band/On-Channel] Digital Radio Standard”…
Rockstar’s Halloween lawsuit against Google and Android device makers skirts standard essential patents?
By David Long on
Yesterday, the Rockstar Consortium (and its subsidiaries MobileStar Technologies LLC and NetStar Technologies LLC) sued Google and several Andriod device manufactures (Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE) in E.D. Tex. on several patents that Rockstar had acquired in July 2011 out of the Nortel bankruptcy.
You…