It’s another big day in patent law, as the Supreme Court issued decisions in two fee-shifting cases: Octane Fitness and Highmark. The Federal Circuit’s opinions were unanimously rejected in both cases, continuing a pattern I noted a few weeks ago. But most importantly, the Supreme Court recognized the importance of fee-shifting in curbing abusive litigation.…
Tag Archive for Supreme Court
Will SCOTUS Do Anything About Fee-Shifting?
by Matt Levy •
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two related patent cases, Octane Fitness LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness LLC and Highmark Inc. v. Allmark Health Management Systems. Both cases have to do with the standard for fee-shifting in patent cases, but it’s the Octane case that is the most relevant. The statute, 35…
Tell Me Again Why We Have a Federal Circuit?
by Matt Levy •
The Supreme Court just issued a decision in the Medtronic case, and it was a unanimous reversal of the Federal Circuit. Since the Supreme Court first reviewed a patent decision by the Federal Circuit in 1996 (the Federal Circuit was formed in 1982, but it was 14 years before the first review by the Supreme…
SCOTUS Takes on Patents in a Big Way
by Matt Levy •
Updated (1/23/14): Medtronic has been decided. The Federal Circuit was unanimously reversed. You can read the opinion here. At the end of last week, the Supreme Court granted petitions for certiorari for two more patent cases. That means that there will probably be six patent cases decided this term. And several of them are big. Here’s…
Roundup of This Week’s Patent News: June 14 Edition
by Ali Sternburg •
Hi there! No, this week wasn’t quite as eventful as last week. (If you missed the big patent news, check out last week’s roundup.) But we still have some news you don’t want to miss. First up, on Saturday June 8, our own Matt Levy’s Letter to the Editor was published in the New York Times, in…
Patents in the News 2/26
by Josh Lamel •
The CCIA and RIM Tell the FTC Banning Injunctions for FRAND Patents Can Make Smartphone Wars Worse Groklaw February 26, 2013 If the government wants to build a highway and your house is in the way of the highway, what happens?.. Does the government come and tell you, “You have to move out and abandon…
Supreme Court Grants Cert in Myriad
by Josh Lamel •
Moments ago the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al. (Supreme Court docket 12-398) The Court limited its grant to Question 1 presented in the petition: “are human genes patentable?” The Court did not grant certiorari as to Question 2 presented in the petition: “Did the court of appeals err in…