抑制
— 2020-07-19目次はこちら
抑制
「抑制する」の本来の意味は、inhibit, restrict, suppressなどに近いのであろうが、controlに該当することもある。
…
目次はこちら
抑制
「抑制する」の本来の意味は、inhibit, restrict, suppressなどに近いのであろうが、controlに該当することもある。
…
The time is upon us when young patent professionals, many of them fresh out of law school (or out of engineering school) begin their professional lives as patent prosecutors. These new members to our profession quite naturally look to senior patent pro…
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良くする / 良好にする
(IMPROVE)
$$ This not only greatly decreases implementation costs, but also improves the user experience by allowing them t…
The outcome
Mayborn Group, Ltd., and Mayborn USA, Inc.,
(collectively, “Mayborn”) appeal from a decision of the
United States International Trade Commission (the
“Commission”), denying its petition for rescission of a
general exclusion order prohibiting importation of products
that infringe U.S. Patent 8,028,850 (the “’850 patent”).
Certain Self-Anchoring Beverage Containers, Inv. No. 337-
TA-1092, USITC Pub. 4984, 2019 WL 2174055, at *1 (May
17, 2019) (Rescission Petition) (“Decision”). Because the
Commission did not err in denying the petition, we affirm.
The technology
The Complainants own the ’850 patent, which discloses
a self-anchoring beverage container that prevents spills by
anchoring the container to a surface by means of a “flexible
nonporous base member adapted to seal to a reference surface.” ’850 patent, Abstract. The seal is broken when the
handle is lifted, and a user can move the container normally.
Consumer Watchdog is cited:
We agree with Mayborn that it has standing to appeal.
“[A]ny person” may petition the Commission for rescission
or modification of an exclusion order, subject to certain conditions. 19 C.F.R. § 210.76(a)(1). Nonetheless, a party
seeking judicial review of a Commission determination
must establish that it presents a case or controversy for
which the federal courts have jurisdiction under Article III
of the United States Constitution. See Phigenix, Inc. v. Immunogen, Inc., 845 F.3d 1168, 1171 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (citing
Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1547 (2016); Hollingsworth v. Perry, 570 U.S. 693, 704 (2013)). A party has
Article III standing to appeal from a decision of an administrative agency when it has: (1) suffered a particularized,
concrete injury in fact that is (2) fairly traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant and is (3) likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision. Spokeo, 136 S. Ct.
at 1547; Consumer Watchdog v. Wis. Alumni Research
Found., 753 F.3d 1258, 1261 (Fed. Cir. 2014).
This is not directly related to patent remedies, but I thought it might be of interest to readers. Professor Lisa Cook’s article Violence and Economic Activity: Evidence from African American Patents, 1870-1940, has received some well-deser…
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余儀なくする
(CONSTRAIN)
$$ However, in this failure mode the two gearboxes are constrained to rotate with one another and torsional mismatch betw…
On July 14, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with Judge Lourie writing for the majority, affirmed-in-part and vacated-in-part a decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Packet Intelligence, LLC v. NetScout Systems, Inc. The CAFC affirmed the district court’s judgments on the issues of infringement, invalidity, and willfulness, but reversed with respect to pre-suit damages. Judge Reyna wrote separately, dissenting on the issue…
Continue Reading ...On July 13, the European Patent Office (EPO) published a landscaping study titled “Patents and additive manufacturing: Trends in 3D printing technologies”. The study highlighted current trends and identified industry leaders in additive manufacturing (AM), i.e. 3D printing. It noted that between 2015 and 2018 the number of AM patent applications increased at an average annual rate of 36%, with more than 4,000 AM patent applications filed in 2018 alone.
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用法 / 使用法
(USE)
$$ This invention relates to electro-active devices, and uses therefor. / 本発明は、電気活性デバイスおよびその…
It was a banner week in the district courts, with 110 new filings, and the filings are showing signs of picking up—rather than slowing down—amidst the COVID pandemic. Most of that, however, was driven by vape company Juul Labs, Inc.’s filing of some 39 new district court complaints. An average 28 PTAB cases filed, all inter partes reviews this week, included the usual suspects—parties filing against the sprawling Neodron, Soundview, and Solas OLED campaigns, as well as medical device,…
Continue Reading .... . . Before filing the instant suit, Packet Intelligence licensed the asserted patents to Exar, Cisco, and Huawei, which were alleged to have produced unmarked, patent-practicing products. The ’789 patent is subject to the marking requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 287(a), and the availability of pre-suit damages for the ’789 patent hinges on whether Exar’s MeterFlow product was appropriately marked. . . .
When the district court charged the jury in this case, this court had not yet ruled on which party bears the burden of proving compliance with the marking statute. After the verdict, we held that an alleged infringer “bears an initial burden of production to articulate the products it believes are unmarked ‘patented articles’ subject to [the marking requirement]” in Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recreational Prods. Inc., 876 F.3d 1350, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2017). We held that the initial burden was a “low bar” and that the alleged infringer needed only to put the patentee on notice that certain licensees sold specific unmarked products that the alleged infringer believes practice the patent. Id. The burden then fell on the patentee to prove that the identified products do not practice the patent-at-issue. Id.
Here, the district court’s jury instruction is in tension with the later decision in Arctic Cat, as it appears to place the burden on NetScout to show that the Exar, Huawei, and Cisco products practice the ’789 patent . . . .
NetScout argues that Packet Intelligence is not entitled to pre-suit damages for the ’789 patent because it failed to prove that MeterFlow, an unmarked product, did not practice the ’789 patent. Specifically, NetScout faults the court for relying on Mr. Dietz’s testimony because he testified about MeterWorks, not MeterFlow, and because he did not testify that the MeterFlow product did not practice the patent.
In response to NetScout’s argument, Packet Intelligence appears to argue that NetScout bears the burden of establishing that the MeterFlow products practiced any claims of the ’789 patent because it failed to object to the district court’s jury instruction or seek a new trial based on Arctic Cat.
As a preliminary matter, we disagree that the failure to object decides this matter. . . .
Under the standard articulated in Arctic Cat, NetScout bore the preliminary burden of identifying unmarked products that it believed practice the ’789 patent. It is undisputed that NetScout adequately identified Exar’s MeterFlow product. Packet Intelligence then bore the burden of proving that MeterFlow did not practice at least one claim of the ’789 patent. . . .
Packet Intelligence submits that it met its burden in two ways: (1) by showing that the MeterFlow product was mentioned in a provisional application that the ’789 patent claims priority from and that the inventors removed that reference before filing non-provisional applications, and (2) with testimony from Mr. Dietz, a named inventor, who stated that MeterWorks, a different product, did not embody his invention. This evidence is, however, insufficient to carry Packet Intelligence’s burden of proving that the MeterFlow product does not practice the ’789 patent. The fact that the inventors chose to cease referencing MeterFlow in later patent applications does not support the inference that MeterFlow does not practice the patent. Mr. Dietz testified that the reference to MeterFlow was removed because MeterFlow was software that “evolved,” and using the term would have suggested that past versions of the software using the “marketing term” MeterFlow “were the current version.” . . . Crediting Mr. Dietz’s testimony, it appears that the exclusion of MeterFlow was to prevent “confusion” about an evolving product . . . not to comment on whether MeterFlow practiced the ’789 patent.
Packet Intelligence also relies on Mr. Dietz’s testimony that MeterWorks did not embody the invention. But Mr. Dietz was not qualified as an expert in this case and did not provide an infringement opinion regarding the MeterFlow product. Mr. Dietz testified to the ultimate question of noninfringement about a different Exar product, MeterWorks. Even if Mr. Dietz had testified about the correct product and was permitted to offer an expert opinion on whether MeterFlow practiced the asserted claims, his conclusory testimony failed to address what claim limitations were purportedly missing from the product and would have been insufficient to carry Packet Intelligence’s burden of proving that MeterFlow did not practice the ’789 patent. . . .
. . . Packet Intelligence cannot simply count sales of the software accused of infringing the ’789 patent as sales of the method claimed in the ’725 and ’751 patents. Instead, Packet Intelligence was required to produce evidence that the claimed method was actually used and hence infringed. Packet Intelligence advanced a theory that NetScout’s internal testing, customer support, and customer training was pre-suit activity infringing the method patents and thus supporting damages. But there is no evidence supporting damages caused by or resulting from these pre-suit activities. Mr. Bergman, Packet Intelligence’s damages expert, applied a calculated reasonable royalty to revenue from NetScout’s sales of the GeoBlade and GeoProbe G10 products—occurring both before and after the suit was filed. The damages base was not tailored to any alleged internal use of the claimed methods (p.24).
The time is upon us when young patent professionals, many of them fresh out of law school (or out of engineering school) begin their professional lives as patent prosecutors. These new members to our profession quite naturally look to senior patent pro…
Continue Reading ...目次はこちら
良くする / 良好にする
(IMPROVE)
$$ This not only greatly decreases implementation costs, but also improves the user experience by allowing them t…
This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit holds that obviousness and anticipation invalidity contentions are not “changed conditions” for rescinding an exclusion order entered by the International Trade Commission; Google becomes the latest American tech company to make a major investment in India’s Jio Platforms; the European General Court rescinds tax rulings against Apple for Irish state aid related to IP licensing practices; the USPTO issues an update to PTAB motion to…
Continue Reading ...The recently published Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 ranks the top global startup ecosystems by metrics including performance, funding, connectedness, talent, and knowledge to highlight the winning startup cities worldwide. In a league of their own, this year’s top five global startup ecosystems have a combined value of $1.5 trillion, 1.7 times the remaining top ecosystems. Silicon Valley maintains the #1 ranking, a position it has held since 2012, when rankings were first released….
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余儀なくする
(CONSTRAIN)
$$ However, in this failure mode the two gearboxes are constrained to rotate with one another and torsional mismatch betw…
A strategy for the COVID-19 pandemic is testing for antibodies to determine possible immunity. Such diagnostic tests may suffer from a high false positive rate. Improving accuracy is therefore desirable. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U…
Continue Reading ...目次はこちら
用法 / 使用法
(USE)
$$ This invention relates to electro-active devices, and uses therefor. / 本発明は、電気活性デバイスおよびその…
On June 30, New Vision Gaming & Development filed a corrected appellant brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging two covered business method (CBM) reviews conducted at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) which canceled all claims of New Vision’s patents covering a gaming invention. Among other things, New Vision argues that the PTAB is constitutionally flawed, that its structure creates financial incentives for administrative patent judges (APJs) to…
Continue Reading .... . . Before filing the instant suit, Packet Intelligence licensed the asserted patents to Exar, Cisco, and Huawei, which were alleged to have produced unmarked, patent-practicing products. The ’789 patent is subject to the marking requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 287(a), and the availability of pre-suit damages for the ’789 patent hinges on whether Exar’s MeterFlow product was appropriately marked. . . .
When the district court charged the jury in this case, this court had not yet ruled on which party bears the burden of proving compliance with the marking statute. After the verdict, we held that an alleged infringer “bears an initial burden of production to articulate the products it believes are unmarked ‘patented articles’ subject to [the marking requirement]” in Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recreational Prods. Inc., 876 F.3d 1350, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2017). We held that the initial burden was a “low bar” and that the alleged infringer needed only to put the patentee on notice that certain licensees sold specific unmarked products that the alleged infringer believes practice the patent. Id. The burden then fell on the patentee to prove that the identified products do not practice the patent-at-issue. Id.
Here, the district court’s jury instruction is in tension with the later decision in Arctic Cat, as it appears to place the burden on NetScout to show that the Exar, Huawei, and Cisco products practice the ’789 patent . . . .
NetScout argues that Packet Intelligence is not entitled to pre-suit damages for the ’789 patent because it failed to prove that MeterFlow, an unmarked product, did not practice the ’789 patent. Specifically, NetScout faults the court for relying on Mr. Dietz’s testimony because he testified about MeterWorks, not MeterFlow, and because he did not testify that the MeterFlow product did not practice the patent.
In response to NetScout’s argument, Packet Intelligence appears to argue that NetScout bears the burden of establishing that the MeterFlow products practiced any claims of the ’789 patent because it failed to object to the district court’s jury instruction or seek a new trial based on Arctic Cat.
As a preliminary matter, we disagree that the failure to object decides this matter. . . .
Under the standard articulated in Arctic Cat, NetScout bore the preliminary burden of identifying unmarked products that it believed practice the ’789 patent. It is undisputed that NetScout adequately identified Exar’s MeterFlow product. Packet Intelligence then bore the burden of proving that MeterFlow did not practice at least one claim of the ’789 patent. . . .
Packet Intelligence submits that it met its burden in two ways: (1) by showing that the MeterFlow product was mentioned in a provisional application that the ’789 patent claims priority from and that the inventors removed that reference before filing non-provisional applications, and (2) with testimony from Mr. Dietz, a named inventor, who stated that MeterWorks, a different product, did not embody his invention. This evidence is, however, insufficient to carry Packet Intelligence’s burden of proving that the MeterFlow product does not practice the ’789 patent. The fact that the inventors chose to cease referencing MeterFlow in later patent applications does not support the inference that MeterFlow does not practice the patent. Mr. Dietz testified that the reference to MeterFlow was removed because MeterFlow was software that “evolved,” and using the term would have suggested that past versions of the software using the “marketing term” MeterFlow “were the current version.” . . . Crediting Mr. Dietz’s testimony, it appears that the exclusion of MeterFlow was to prevent “confusion” about an evolving product . . . not to comment on whether MeterFlow practiced the ’789 patent.
Packet Intelligence also relies on Mr. Dietz’s testimony that MeterWorks did not embody the invention. But Mr. Dietz was not qualified as an expert in this case and did not provide an infringement opinion regarding the MeterFlow product. Mr. Dietz testified to the ultimate question of noninfringement about a different Exar product, MeterWorks. Even if Mr. Dietz had testified about the correct product and was permitted to offer an expert opinion on whether MeterFlow practiced the asserted claims, his conclusory testimony failed to address what claim limitations were purportedly missing from the product and would have been insufficient to carry Packet Intelligence’s burden of proving that MeterFlow did not practice the ’789 patent. . . .
. . . Packet Intelligence cannot simply count sales of the software accused of infringing the ’789 patent as sales of the method claimed in the ’725 and ’751 patents. Instead, Packet Intelligence was required to produce evidence that the claimed method was actually used and hence infringed. Packet Intelligence advanced a theory that NetScout’s internal testing, customer support, and customer training was pre-suit activity infringing the method patents and thus supporting damages. But there is no evidence supporting damages caused by or resulting from these pre-suit activities. Mr. Bergman, Packet Intelligence’s damages expert, applied a calculated reasonable royalty to revenue from NetScout’s sales of the GeoBlade and GeoProbe G10 products—occurring both before and after the suit was filed. The damages base was not tailored to any alleged internal use of the claimed methods (p.24).