patent
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Owning an Invention vs. Owning a Patent
What is the difference between owning an invention and owning a patent? In University of S. Florida v. CoMentis, more money. A former employee of the University of South Florida (USF), Michael Mullan, invented technology related to Alzheimer’s disease. He assigned the patents to the Alzheimer’s Institute of America (AIA), who sued various defendants in… Continue reading
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IP Rights and NDAs
You have someone sign an NDA that says this: If you can’t read it, it says 4. Beverly Johnson shall not directly or indirectly acquire any interest in, or design, create, manufacture, sell or otherwise deal with any item or product, containing, based upon or derived from the information, except as may be expressly agreed… Continue reading
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What Went Wrong?
Recently I’ve been thinking about the US rules of contract interpretation versus the approach used in other countries, UK law in particular. As I understand it, under UK law the courts have more latitude in interpreting the language of the agreement to derive what the parties intended than what we allow under US law. Which… Continue reading
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You Had One Job
The court: Exploiting the patent-in-suit in these cases, U.S. Patent No. 5,781,788 (the ‘788 patent), was AVT’s sole reason for being. The only precondition to Plaintiff’s fulfilling its singular purpose was its acquisition of title to the ‘788 patent. Obtaining ownership of the patent was AVT’s sine qua non, the only thing Plaintiff absolutely had… Continue reading
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Jurisdiction Over a Patent Ownership Claim
Predator International, Inc. v. Gamo Outdoor USA, Inc. is a Tenth Circuit decision involving a patent infringement claim. PatentlyO reports on the appellate posture, explaining why the appeal ended up at the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rather than the Federal Circuit. But I’m more interested in the ownership aspect of it. The… Continue reading
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Patent Ownership in Germany
Here’s an interesting little patent case involving the ownership of patents under foreign law, in this case German law. The plaintiff’s principal, Werner Schnaebele, worked in Germany for a predecessor of the defendant. He signed one employment agreement that didn’t have any provision for ownership of inventions conceived of by employees, meaning local law would… Continue reading
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Tax Structuring Strikes Again
Oh, adidas. adidas AG is a large multinational conglomerate headquartered in Germany. It reported that at the close of 2014 it had 154 subsidiaries, one of which is co-plaintiff adidas America, Inc. A few years ago adidas developed “miCoach,” an “interactive personal coaching and training system.” Parent adidas AG owns the company’s US patents but,… Continue reading
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You Need to Take Care of the Little Details
Every patent litigation starts with an examination of the chain of title, or at least it should. Often there are multiple inventors; every link for each one has to be there, and even the language of the employment agreement has to be just right. Even after that, every corporate assignment has to be done properly.… Continue reading
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Check the Clock
Mr. Hillyar was the the former director of Gems TV (UK). Gems TV (UK) was owned by Gem TV Holdings Ltd. Gems TV (UK) owned the ‘211 Patent and intended to assign it to Gem TV Holdings Ltd. but didn’t. Gem TV Holdings Ltd. then sold Gems TV (UK) in a stock purchase agreement to… Continue reading
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STC.UNM v. Intel Stands
I’ve written in the past about a patent ownership stand-off, where, because of a mix-up in assignments and a disinterested possible co-owner, the interested owner cannot enforce the patent (original decision here and en banc decision here). The Supreme Court has refused to review the decision, so Ethicon, Inc. v. United States Surgical Corp., 135… Continue reading
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