When patent holders want to let someone know that they are infringing their patent(s), they often send what is known as a “cease and desist” letter. The letter usually mentions the patent number and the product the patent holder thinks is
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It is well-established that patent holders may not simply file patent infringement lawsuits in order to determine if a company may be infringing their patents. As interpreted by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Rule 11 of the Federal Rules
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With the enactment of the America Invents Act (AIA), companies now have a wide array of tools for challenging and neutralizing patents before they become a threat. Each tool has its advantages and disadvantages, but collectively they may allow companies to head
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On August 31, 2012, a sharply divided en banc Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Akami Technologies v. Limelight Networks. The case is significant in that it rewrites the rules for finding a party liable for inducing patent infringement.
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When I talk to lawyers who do not practice patent law, they often speak of the complexity of patent cases in terms of the scientific or technological issues involved. What many of them fail to understand is that quite apart from the
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The courts continue to wrestle with the difficult question of what types of things can be patented (i.e., what constitutes statutory subject matter). Last week, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued its post-remand opinion in Association for Molecular Pathology, et al.,
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The discovery rules in federal litigation provide a powerful mechanism for obtaining evidence necessary to defend against claims of patent infringement. However, anyone who has been through the process knows that it can be very difficult and contentious, especially when the stakes
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In a recent newsletter, we discussed CLS Bank Int’l, et al. v. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. (Case No. 2011-1301)(Fed. Cir. 2012) and the Federal Circuit’s efforts to provide guidance as to the patentability of software in the wake of the Supreme Court’s
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In one of our recent posts, we discussed a technique (“poisoning the well”) that third parties can use to get the examiner who is handling a competitor’s patent application to consider prior art that is not currently of record. Instead of sending
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Many companies build an IP portfolio around particular products, and the portfolio evolves over time as new refinements and improvements to the original concept are developed. This sometimes raises the question of whether various different inventions should be consolidated into a single
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