Patent holders can prove infringement by showing that each element of a claim is literally present in an accused infringer’s product or that those elements which are missing have an “equivalent.” The latter approach is permitted under what is known as the
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Clients often want to know how long it will take them to get a patent. Of course, whether they get one at all will depend on whether their invention is novel and non-obvious as well as how broadly their claims are drafted.
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Growing up in a pre-cable TV world, I played a lot of games such as Monopoly, Clue, Life, Chutes & Ladders, Checkers, Chess and countless others. With all of the cases coming out about statutory subject matter in the last few years,
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U.S. Patent Law requires that patent claims be sufficiently definite such that one of ordinary skill in the art could ascertain their metes and bounds. Accused infringers may seek to invalidate claims under 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 2 if the claims
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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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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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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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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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