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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The process of examining U.S. patent application is ex parte and does not involve third parties. The examination is based on the prior art that the applicant submits to the Patent Office and the prior art that the examiner uncovers in his
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Answer: Not much, at least for direct infringement. In order for a patent holder to prove patent infringement, it must demonstrate that an accused infringer supplies a product or performs a method that comprises each limitation of at least one claim of
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In KSR v. Teleflex, the Supreme Court described numerous reasons for combining or modifying prior art references in an obviousness analysis. The Court also made clear that these reasons need not be explicitly set forth in the prior art references themselves. In
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This post may be helpful to those of you who litigate patent cases. While it is true that the most significant sources of claim construction evidence are the claim language, specification, and file history, courts often consider reliable sources of extrinsic evidence
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This week, we follow-up on last week’s post on requests for production with a discussion of interrogatories. Before serving interrogatories, it is advisable to obtain all of the information you can about the topics below through publicly available information such as SEC
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Many patent litigation treatises or other secondary materials describe the types of discovery devices that can be used in patent cases, but few of them discuss what to seek—and why. Attorneys who are new to patent litigation often rely on exemplars of
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[pullQuote position=”left”]“Create a narrative from the intrinsic evidence by using the claim terms in a manner that is consistent with your constructions and inconsistent with your opponent’s constructions”[/pullQuote]Storytelling is the key persuasive device used to win lawsuits. Early in any case, good
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On April 3 Facebook answered Yahoo’s patent infringement complaint in the pending lawsuit in the Northern District of California. As many people predicted, Facebook also alleged patent infringement claims against Yahoo based on 10 of Facebook’s patents. We discussed Yahoo’s patents and
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Forcing patent holders to commit to their positions as early as possible is critical for successfully defending a patent case. There is often tension between the patent holder’s infringement case and its validity case, and it is important to force and pin
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