Gibbons Law Alert

Gibbons Law Alert Blog

Delaware District Court Takes Patent Damages Expert to Task

Posted in Patent

On January 11, 2013

Deferring judgment until after he hears testimony prior to trial, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Andrews of the District of Delaware nonetheless indicated in a recent Memorandum Opinion that he was inclined to exclude plaintiff’s patent damages expert. In AVM Techs., LLC v. Intel Corp., C.A. No. 10-610-RGA, plaintiff AVM sued Intel for patent infringement relating to U.S. Patent No. 5,859,547, which claims improved dynamic logic circuits used in microprocessors. Intel filed a Daubert motion seeking to exclude AVM’s damages expert, who had opined that AVM was entitled to reasonable royalty damages of over $150 – $300 million.

Independent Agents Subject to Litigation Hold

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in Corporate Information and Records Management Policies

On January 11, 2013

In Haskins v. First American Title Insurance Co., the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey expanded the reach of a “litigation hold” to include independent agents of a title insurance company. The Court held that once litigation was reasonably anticipated, First American Title Insurance Company (“First American”) had a duty to instruct its independent insurance agents to preserve all potentially relevant documents and to suspend routine destruction of such documents. The ruling in Haskins gives important e-discovery guidance for many companies, as it clarifies that document preservation rules apply to independent agents in addition to a company’s in-house employees.

Another Edition of “No Addition”: Supreme Court Applies Precedent to Confirm Plaintiffs’ Concession That Movement of Water Within River Channel Was Not a “Discharge”

by Paul M. Hauge

Posted in Environmental and Green Issues

On January 10, 2013

The answer you get depends on the question you ask. That’s the take-home lesson from the Supreme Court’s decision in Los Angeles Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council. All parties agreed on the answer to the specific question on which the Court granted certiorari. The Court, applying its own 2004 precedent, said they were correct — there was no “discharge” that violated the District’s permit because the flows in question simply went from one part of the same river system to another. The Court never reached the alternative ground for liability urged by the plaintiffs because it went beyond that narrow question. The result? A reversal and a win for the District on essentially procedural grounds.

The GOLD GLOVE Trademark Infringement Action: Will Rawlings Strike Out For Failure to Adequately Plead Its Case?

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in Trade Dress

On January 10, 2013

On January 7, 2013, Cincinnati Reds second baseman, and three-time Gold Glove Award-winner, Brandon Phillips, moved to dismiss Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. Inc.’s (“Rawlings”) trademark infringement action arising from his use of a glove with gold-colored features. Rawlings is the company that grants baseball players the RAWLINGS GOLD GLOVE AWARD®, which consists of a gold-colored baseball glove attached to a solid base, dating back to 1957. Players who win the award are also given a functional baseball glove that has a metallic gold indicia on it. Last summer, Rawlings sued Phillips and Wilson Sporting Goods Company (“Wilson”) in the Eastern District of Missouri alleging that Wilson’s manufacture of, and Phillips’ use of, a baseball glove with metallic gold-colored webbing, web stitching and lettering infringe Rawlings’ rights in and to its GOLD GLOVE trademarks and the trade dress in its functional glove.

Third Circuit Clarifies that Reasonable Basis Standard Appropriate Quantum of Proof to Apply Crime-Fraud Exception to Attorney-Client Privilege

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in General Litigation

On January 9, 2013

Clarifying the proofs necessary to apply the crime-fraud exception, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in In re: Grand Jury recently held that a “reasonable basis” standard should be used, explaining that such a standard affords sufficient predictability for attorneys and clients without providing undue protection to those who seek to abuse the attorney-client and the work-product privileges afforded to them.

PTO Announces Software Partnership Roundtable Meetings

by Thomas J. Bean and Robert E. Rudnick

Posted in Patent

On January 9, 2013

In an effort to “enhance the quality of software patents,” the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) has announced a partnership with the software community. The Software Partnership will provide roundtable discussions between stakeholders and the PTO to share ideas and insights on software-related patents. The PTO will sponsor two roundtable events, one in Silicon Valley on February 12, and the other in New York City on February 27. In addition, the PTO plans to make each roundtable event available via Web cast, and will post Web cast information on its Internet Web site before the events.

Cooperative Patent Classification System Underway to Streamline Prior Art Searching

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in USPTO

On January 7, 2013

As we previously reported, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) jointly launched the Cooperative Patent Classification System (CPC) with the aim of producing a common classification system for technical documents and the promise of transparent and harmonized global classification for patent documents.

AIA Technical Corrections Bill and Trade Secret Penalties Bill Await President’s Signature

by Thomas J. Bean

Posted in Patent

On January 4, 2013

As most Americans focused on the Congressional efforts to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” IP practitioners noted that Congress passed Senate-amended versions of a bill to amend the Smith-Leahy America Invents Act (AIA) (H.R. 6621) and a bill to increase penalties under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA)(H.R. 6029) on to the White House on January 1, 2013, for signature by President Obama. It is expected that President Obama will sign both bills into law shortly.

2013: The IP Law Year Ahead

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in Patent

On December 31, 2012

Like 2012, 2013 promises to be a busy and significant year for intellectual property law. The Supreme Court is slated to decide a number of IP cases, including: Already, LLC d/b/a Yums v. Nike, Inc. (addressing the significance of a limited covenant-not-to-sue on declaratory judgment jurisdiction); Bowman v. Monsanto (determining whether the Federal Circuit erred by not finding patent exhaustion in second generation seeds and created an exception to patent exhaustion for self-replicating technologies); Gunn v. Minton (pertaining to whether federal courts have exclusive “arising under” jurisdiction when legal malpractice claims stem from a patent case); Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (regarding international copyright exhaustion, i.e., how Section 602(a)(1) and Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act apply to a copy that was legally acquired abroad and then imported into the United States); Federal Trade Comm’n v. Watson Pharm., Inc. (involving whether Hatch-Waxman reverse payment settlement agreements are legal); and most recently, Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, et al. (regarding the patentability of human genes and whether the petitioners have standing to challenge those patents).

DNJ Rejects Double-Patenting Claim

by Gibbons P.C.

Posted in Patent

On December 27, 2012

Last week, in Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Natco Pharma Ltd., the District of New Jersey ruled on summary judgment that Gilead Sciences did not unlawfully extend its patent protection on oseltamivir (Tamiflu), a neuraminidase inhibitor used to treat the flu, covered by U.S. Patent No. 5,763,483 (“the ‘483 patent”). Natco Pharma sought to invalidate the ‘483 patent for obviousness-type double patenting in its attempt to market a generic version of Tamiflu prior to the patent’s expiration. Natco had alleged, inter alia, that the claims of the ‘483 patent were invalid due to obviousness-type double-patenting over Gilead’s later issued U.S. Patent No. 5,952,375 (“the ‘375 patent”).