Federal Circuit Equates Covenants Not to Sue for Patent Infringement with Unconditional Licenses By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited by Evan Kubota TransCore, LP v. Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp., No. 2008-1430, April 8, 2009 Opinion On April 8, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment, which held that an unconditional “covenant not to sue” has the same effect as an unconditional “license” for purposes of patent exhaustion. In 2000, ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Holds That Later-Developed Alternative Manufacturing Processes May Be “Patentably Distinct” from Their Related Products By Tyler Lacey – Edited by Evan Kubota Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. v. Doll, April 10, 2009, No. 2008-1131 Opinion On April 10th, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, holding that manufacturing processes developed after a product is patented may be “patentably distinct” from their ... Read More...

By Caity Ross British Web Tracking Tool Violates European Union Privacy Laws This Tuesday, the European Union issued a legal warning against Britain for not applying EU data privacy rules to Phorm, a new advertising technology that tracks the Web movements of internet users. BT, Britain’s largest service provider, used Phorm without its customers’ consent during 2006 and 2007. As reported in the New York Times, the European telecommunications commissioner stated that the “European privacy rules are crystal clear: a ... Read More...

District Court Upholds First Amendment Challenge to the URAA By Caitlyn Ross – Edited by Stephanie Weiner Golan v. Holder D. of Colorado, April 3, 2009, No. 01-cv-01854-LTB Memorandum Opinion (hosted by the Stanford Fair Use Project) On April 3rd, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, upholding the First Amendment challenge to Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified in 17 U.S.C. §104A. The case was on ... Read More...

Second Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Trademark Infringement Suit Against Google By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited by Stephanie Weiner Rescuecom v. Google Second Circuit, April 3, 2009, 06-4881-cv Opinion (hosted by EFF) On April 3, 2009, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the District Court for the Northern District of New York’s dismissal of a trademark infringement suit against Google by Rescuecom, Corp., a computer repair firm. At issue was Google’s AdWords program, which allows advertisers to purchase ... Read More...