by Vivian Tao House Passes Patent Reform Bill; Senate and House Versions To Be Reconciled A few months after the American Invents Act had passed in the Senate, the House voted to pass its version of the bill this week. The controversial bill would overhaul certain areas of the patent system, such as switching from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system. However, according to Patent Docs, the ACLU and other groups are more concerned that passage of the bill could ... Read More...
Archive for June, 2011
Third Circuit holds that vulgar MySpace profile created off school grounds did not cause “substantial disruption” at the school to justify student’s ten-day suspension By Michael Adelman – Edited by Abby Lauer J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District, No. 08-4138 (3d Cir. June 13, 2011) Slip Opinion The Third Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed and remanded the Middle District of Pennsylvania’s ruling that suspension was an appropriate punishment for a student who created a fake MySpace account that made fun ... Read More...
by Dorothy Du Bipartisan Bill Would End Warrantless GPS Tracking The Geolocational Privacy Surveillance Act, a new bipartisan bill dubbed the “GPS Act,” seeks to clarify when the government can use GPS tracking technology to obtain geolocational information about individuals without a warrant, according to Nextgov. Current electronic surveillance laws are behind the times and fail to address specific legal concerns raised by modern GPS technology. Several lawsuits in the past several years have led to a hodgepodge of court ... Read More...
Supreme Court Holds Bayh-Dole Act Does Not Independently Vest Ownership to Federally Funded Contractors By Daniel Robinson – Edited by Esther Kang Bd. of Tr. of Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Roche Molecular Sys., Inc., 563 U.S. ____ (June 6, 2011) Slip Opinion (via supremecourt.gov) The Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Circuit, which had held that the Bayh-Dole Act did not void an inventor’s assignment of intellectual property rights to a company. The Court held in a 7-2 decision that ... Read More...
Supreme Court Affirms Clear and Convincing Standard for Patent Invalidity Defenses By Samantha Kuhn – Edited by Esther Kang Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. P’ship, No. 10–290 (U.S. June 9, 2011) Slip Opinion (via supremecourt.gov) On June 9, the Supreme Court affirmed a district court’s jury instructions requiring that the evidence of patent invalidity be “clear and convincing” for the invalidity defense against infringement to be successful. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that the presumption of validity ... Read More...
