Supreme Court Upholds Nike’s “Sue and Run” Tactic in Defending Trademarked Shoe Design
Illustrating the importance of carefully drafting and reviewing language in a covenant not to sue, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the plain language of a covenant permitted a licensor to sue a...more
Nippon Shinyaku and Sarepta entered into a Mutual Confidentiality Agreement to facilitate discussions about a potential business relationship related to muscular dystrophy therapies. Section 6.1 of the MCA contained a mutual...more
As part of the recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit took steps to return to normal operations. It began requiring live oral arguments in August 2022 and, by November,...more
On February 8, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that certain restrictions on the ability to challenge the validity of patents are enforceable. Without such restrictions, companies that are...more
Abbreviated new drug (ANDA) applicant Amneal petitioned for an inter partes review (IPR) of Almirall’s patent listed in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Orange Book for a prescription drug to treat acne. Almirall...more
[co-author: Kathleen Wills] Last year, the global COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for American courts. By making several changes, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was able to...more
The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s holding that a merger clause in a patent license settlement agreement did not extinguish a prior covenant not to sue on the same patent because the agreement did not...more
MOLON MOTOR AND COIL CORP. v. NIDEC MOTOR CORPORATION - Before Lourie, Reyna, and Hughes. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Summary: In interpreting an integration clause that...more
BLACKBIRD TECH LLC v. HEALTH IN MOTION LLC - Before Wallach, Prost, and Hughes. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Summary: The Federal Circuit affirmed a finding that a frivolous...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Dyk, Taranto, and Stoll. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: The Federal Circuit lacks jurisdiction to hear an appeal from a district court judgment...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before NEWMAN, DYK, and STOLL. Appeal from the Northern District of California. Summary: A consumer of a patented product has no standing under the Declaratory Judgment Act to challenge the...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a summary judgment of non-infringement based on invalidity of asserted reissue claims as impermissibly broadened, notwithstanding a covenant not to sue that the patent...more
In Mylan v. Aurobindo the Circuit affirms the grant of a preliminary injunction based upon the infringement of one of the three patents in suit. However, the panel reverses the injunction as to the other two patents based on...more
Needless to say, a finding of exceptionality under 35 U.S.C. § 285 can have crippling consequences. Just ask Rembrandt Technologies, LP, which recently was slapped with an order to pay the prevailing defendants in a...more
In a non-precedential decision, the Federal Circuit found that appellant PPG had Article III standing to file an appeal from two inter partes reexaminations. However, the Court found that appellee Valspar’s subsequent...more
On December 8, 2016, District Judge Denise Cote (S.D.N.Y.) granted defendants Gust, Inc.’s (hereinafter, “Gust”) motion for attorneys’ fees and costs under 35 U.S.C. § 285 and 28 U.S.C. § 1927 against plaintiff AlphaCap...more
Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer of the District of Connecticut recently released an opinion that is significant to litigants on either side of a covenant not to sue. In a complex case with a host of claims and counterclaims...more
In a recent case concerning propane gas kits used as an alternative fuel conversion system, the District of Massachusetts found that declaratory judgment jurisdiction exists, even though the parties in the case had entered...more
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision in AMP v. Myriad Genetics in 2013, Myriad (paradoxically to those either not paying attention or who over interpreted the scope of the Court's holding in its opinion) filed...more