November 2011 Archives

We’ve come to anticipate Lindsay Lohan news from the courts, but such news is typically linked to the troubled actress’s criminal woes. Today, we have patent-related Lindsay Lohan news.

No, everyone’s favorite Mean Girl has not become an inventor. Instead, the designer of her most frequently-photographed accessory - the SCRAM bracelet - is heading to court to defend its patent.

That’s right: Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) has filed a second appeal with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in its patent infringement lawsuit against Actsoft.

Today is D-Day for the Congressional Super Committee tasked with resolving all of the country's financial woes, and there is no deal in sight.

This week, the Super Committee members admitted that they had failed to agree on a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package, and would not attempt to extend the deadline to create a plan. Commentators have been debating whether this news will be good for President Obama in 2012, bad for Bush-era tax cuts, or a factor for the voting public beyond the initial doomsday announcement.

For intellectual property attorneys, Super Committee failure has unique significance.

Senators Chris Coons and Marco Rubio introduced the American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship (AGREE) Act on Tuesday. While this is primarily a jobs bill, it includes a clarification of the Trade Secrets Act that could benefit your copyright/trademark/patent-holding clients.

According to the sponsors, the bill will help protect American intellectual property from counterfeit and otherwise-infringing commercial activity by clarifying the Trade Secrets Act.

Edward DuMont won't be rounding out the judicial lineup for the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. DuMont has asked President Obama to withdraw his name from consideration for the final opening on the Federal Circuit bench.

DuMont isn't the first Obama nominee to make such a request this year; Berkeley Law professor Goodwin Liu, now an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, withdrew his nomination in May after Republicans filibustered his confirmation vote.

What went wrong?

Fuzzysharp Technologies Inc. (Fuzzysharp) won in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week in its case against 3DLabs. The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the case, Fuzzysharp Technologies v. 3D Labs, after a district court invalidated several Fuzzysharp patents for failure to meet the “machine-or-transformation” test.

In light of the Supreme Court’s Bilski v. Kappos decision, the Federal Circuit determined that the district court had erred in applying the machine-or-transformation test.

The Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Evan Wallach for the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in a 99-0 vote. There was no debate on Wallach's nomination.

Judge Wallach enjoyed a relatively short confirmation process; President Obama nominated Wallach for the Federal Circuit vacancy in July. He is Obama's 23rd nominee to be confirmed to a Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wallach will bring over 15 years' judicial experience to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. He has presided over more than 230 cases to verdict or judgment.

Electronic discovery is not cheap, particularly in patent cases.

In response to rising electronic discovery costs, Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Randall Rader recently announced the Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases (Model Order).

There are five main areas of electronic discovery costs:

Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alan Lourie recently mentioned that he hates reading headlines about the Supreme Court reversing the Federal Circuit. This week, Judge Lourie has one less headline to dread: On Monday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Barr Laboratories v. Cancer Research Technology.

The case involved a patent challenge to Merck’s brain cancer drug, Temodar. Barr, a division of generic giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, contested Merck’s patent on the drug, alleging that the patent was unenforceable.