standing
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How to Put a Dead Stop to a Patent Infringement Suit … For Now
I previously wrote about a Federal Circuit decision with a bit of an odd fact pattern. There was some kind of joint development between the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Sandia. A Sandia inventor assigned a resulting patent, the ‘998 patent, to UNM instead of his employer, Sandia. UNM then assigned the patent to […] Continue reading
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STOLICHNAYA Case Still Alive, Just Barely
Oh, Federal Treasury Enterprise Sojuzplodoimport, without you I wouldn’t be so good at spelling “Stolichnaya.”* I’ve lost count of the opinions talking about who owns the STOLICHNAYA trademark and we’re now on the second lawsuit over it. It all stems from a disputed claim of ownership of the STOLICHNAYA mark in the United States. To […] Continue reading
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The Photography Suits In a Nutshell
I’ve been writing for some time (recursive link) about numerous lawsuits between photographers, or their agencies, and textbook publishers that have used photographs in excess of what they originally licensed for their books. Mostly I’ve been writing about challenges to standing, which are early in the cases on a motion to dismiss. But some of […] Continue reading
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Joinder of an Unwilling Co-owner
On the left we have a disinterested patent owner; there was a mixup about the status of an inventor, Bruce Draper, so he assigned his rights in what ultimately became the ‘321 patent to the University of New Mexico (UNM) rather than his employer, Sandia. UNM realized the mistake and assigned to Sandia “those rights […] Continue reading
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Righthaven, the Gift that Keeps on Giving
I’ve written before (recursive link) about copyright registrations by photo agencies. Rather than individual photographers registering their own works, it is common practice for a photo agency to periodically register the works of many photographers en masse. As described in a recent 9th Circuit opinion, the process was created collaboratively by a photography trade association […] Continue reading
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Why There Are Nonprecedential Decisions
When we last visited Taylor v. Taylor Made Plastics, Inc., the trial court held that the spouse of the inventor acquired a legal ownership interest in the inventor’s patent in the divorce. I was a bit surprised; the language in the divorce was this: The Court finds that the proceeds from the production of the […] Continue reading
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A Post-Lexmark Clarification for Patents
Here’s a little soupçon of a decision, a teaching moment from the Federal Circuit. It’s an easy fact pattern: a patent is in an inter partes reexamination, after the case has been fully briefed the patent owner assigns the patent, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejects the claims, and the former owner appeals the […] Continue reading
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You Are Not the Only One Confused by the Law of Patent Standing
Here are the musings of a bewildered district court judge trying to figure out the difference between a patent owner, an exclusive licensee, and a “de facto” patent owner. The patent owner, a professor named Morris, had exclusively licensed just about everything to plaintiff BRK and the court had to figure out if BRK had […] Continue reading
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It’s Not That Hard
It’s not a hard concept—to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit you have to own a copyright. Nevertheless, getting that right seems to be a challenge sometimes. Today’s version of the challenge is ownership of the copyrights for works created by Earl Vernon Biss, Jr., who died in 1998 – here is his biography on one […] Continue reading
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