Wheelabrator designs, sells, and licenses some process (phosphate-based treatment systems) that keep heavy metals from industrial waste (such as incinerator ash) from leaching into drinking water. Forrester does too. Both have patents on their proprietary methods.

Wheelabrator licensed its system to a company that sublicensed it to a Taiwanese company, Kobin. That company was unhappy with the product, however, because it stank. Forrester, meanwhile, took that opportunity to develop a less smelly alternative, which it sold to Kobin, despite the existing deal with Wheelabrator.

This week, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said "game over" to an infringement claim filed against Nintendo. The action was brought by Motiva, an American company that claimed to have beat Nintendo to the technology used in the Wii gaming console.

Motiva filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming Nintendo had infringed its patents to track a game user's movements. The Commission rejected the claim, holding that Motiva hadn't taken affirmative steps to capitalize on the technology. On Monday, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Commission's finding.

Allergan, a specialty pharmaceutical company, has been battling it out in court with fellow pharmaceutical maker Sandoz over the right to sell a generic version of Allergan's popular glaucoma drug, Combigan. Last week, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court's ruling that many of Allergan's patent claims were nonobvious under 35 U.S.C. §103.

While most of Allergan's claims were deemed obvious, the Federal Circuit court upheld a method claim because it arguably involves a nonobvious result. Sandoz is consequently barred from entering the market until the Combigan patent in question expires in 2022.

The most interesting part of the case, however, may be Judge Dyk's dissent, in which he argues that the method claim is invalid because it's merely a "discovered result of an existing method or use."

The common refrain these days is that going to law school is a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea. There just aren’t any jobs.

Perhaps the real issue is not that there aren’t any jobs; it’s that the only jobs are going to that rare breed of lawyers that understands math and science: patent lawyers.

According to data compiled by Peer Monitor, demand for intellectual property patent work rose 5.1 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2013, Thomson Reuters reports.

Robert MacLean became a Federal Air Marshal in 2001. In 2003, the Marshals received word of a potential hijacking plot. Unsurprisingly enough, because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) fails at everything, they botched the response. Because of a budget shortfall, they cancelled all missions on certain flights.

Terror/hijacking alert? Meh.

MacLean discussed his concerns through the proper channels, but nothing was done. So he did what he thought was best: leak the story to the press.

If you watched “A Different World,” the 80s/90s “Cosby Show” spinoff that followed Denise Huxtable to Hillman College, you’ll remember Dwayne Wayne’s flip-up sunglass/eyeglass combo. (You may also remember future “My Cousin Vinny” star and Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei’s season on the show. Or maybe not.)

But — until they make an ironic comeback — flip-up sunglasses are relics of the past. These days, multitasking glasses use magnets, a patent-protected technological advancement. Which brings us to a Federal Circuit collateral estoppel dispute between Aspex Eyewear and Zenni Optical over magnetic clip-on eyewear.

A group of landowners in southern Arizona have been arguing for years that a Rails to Trails plan for a right of way on their property constituted a taking. So far, that litigation has enjoyed two tours through the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

This week, the appellate court ruled in its second opinion in the matter that the landowners can keep pushing their takings claims under the accrual suspension rule, despite the government’s claims that the action is time-barred.

If you’re hunting for continuing legal education credits — or you just want to learn more about intellectual property law — there are several IP-centric opportunities that you should check out this month: The ABA Intellectual Property Conference, the Robotics and Law Conference, and Patents, Innovation and Freedom to Use Ideas.

The next time you see a bottle of Crest mouthwash, take a moment to appreciate the angles of the bottle. Particularly the trapezoidal-shaped surface near the top. Crest really cares about that trapezoid, so much that its parent company, Proctor and Gamble, tried to patent it, Patently-O reports.

We say tried, because the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that P&G did not succeed.

Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s offering: The Federal Circuit’s latest addition, Richard Taranto.

The Senate is slowly filling the vacancies (and pending vacancies) on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, senators confirmed Richard Taranto as the appellate court’s newest judge. On Friday, Judge Taranto was sworn in. (Beware the Ides of March no more, eh Judge?)