Third Circuit Vacates FCC Fine By Jon Choate — Edited by Stephanie Weiner CBS Corp. v. Federal Communications Commission Third Circuit, July 21 2008, No. 06-3575 Slip Opinion On July 21, the Third Circuit vacated an FCC order fining CBS $550,000 for the nine-sixteenths of one second broadcasting of Janet Jackson’s bare right breast during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII in February 2004. The court held that the FCC had departed from its prior policy in fining CBS ... Read More...
Archive for July, 2008
Federal Circuit Clarifies Patent Obviousness after KSR By Debbie Rosenbaum — Edited by Stephanie Weiner Eisai Co. v. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Ltd. Federal Circuit, July 21, 2008, No. 2007-1397 Slip Opinion On July 21, the Federal Circuit affirmed the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York’s ruling in favor of plaintiff Eisai Co., holding that the patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 5,045,552, was non-obvious and was not obtained through inequitable conduct. This case illustrates the Federal Circuit’s ... Read More...
District Court Declares Purchasers of Software to Be Licensees By Anna Volftsun — Edited by Joshua Gruenspecht MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. et al. District Court of Arizona, July 14, 2008, No. CV-06-2555-PHX-DGC Order (via Justia) The District Court of Arizona entered a summary judgment motion finding that MDY Industries, LLC (“MDY”), creators of a software program called WoW Glider (“Glider”), were liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement because their program loaded a copy of a copyrighted ... Read More...
District Court Will Not Require Ebay to Make Greater Effort to Police Trademark Infringers By Jeff Gritton — Edited by Joshua Gruenspecht Tiffany, Inc. v. eBay, Inc. S.D.N.Y., July 14, 2008, No. 04 Civ. 4607 First Circuit, June 18th, 2008, Nos. 07-2078, 07-2246 Slip Opinion On July 14, the Southern District of New York denied Tiffany’s claims of direct and contributory trademark infringement against eBay. The court agreed with eBay that, as a legitimate seller of Tiffany goods, the online ... Read More...
New Law Expands Government Surveillance Powers By Daniel Ray — Edited by Sarah Sorscher H.R. 6304 — FISA Amendments Act of 2008 Full Text of Enrolled Bill Senate Vote Summary GovTrack.us Summary On July 9, the Senate passed H.R. 6034, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, and President George W. Bush signed it into law the following day. The new law modifies the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (“FISA”) to expand (subject to certain new checks) the federal government’s ... Read More...
