Federal Circuit Affirms Infringement but Reverses Findings of Damages in Software Patent Case By Andrew Segna – Edited by Gary Pong ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc., No. 2009-1030 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 5, 2010) Slip Opinion The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a per curiam decision, affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings a patent infringement decision made by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The ... Read More...

Third Circuit Panels Rule Differently on MySpace Parody Cases By Abby Lauer – Edited by Alissa Del Riego Layshock v. Hermitage School District, No. 07-4465 (3d Cir. Feb. 4, 2010) Slip Opinion Snyder v. Blue Mountain School District, No. 08-4138 (3d Cir. Feb. 4, 2010) Slip Opinion Two different Third Circuit panels handed down seemingly contradictory decisions last week after considering whether offensive parody profiles of school principals created by students using MySpace outside of school were protected by the ... Read More...

First Circuit Holds That Artists Have Moral Rights In Unfinished Works By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited by Alissa Del Riego Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation v. Büchel, No. 08-2199 (1st Cir. Jan. 27, 2010) Slip Opinion On January 27, the First Circuit affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the Museum of Contemporary Art, holding that artists have moral rights in unfinished artworks. The First Circuit decided ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Reverses and Remands District Court Ruling in Obviousness-type Double Patenting Case By Kassity Liu – Edited by Joey Seiler Boehringer Ingelheim Int’l. v. Barr Laboratories, Inc., No. 2009-1032 (Fed. Cir. 2010). Opinion The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the District Court for the District of Delaware, which had ruled that U.S. Patent No. 4,866,812, owned by the appellant Boehringer, was invalid because Boehringer’s terminal disclaimer did not overcome obviousness-type double patenting with respect to an earlier expired patent, ... Read More...

By Harry Zhou Harvard Law Professor Criticizes Google Book Settlement On January 26, TechCrunch reported that Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor and “free-culture advocate,” criticized Google’s settlement with the Authors Guild as a “path to insanity.” Lessig writes that the settlement extended the copyright law’s regulation on physical copies into the digital world, resulting in “a world in which every bit, every published word, could be licensed.” According to Lessig, providing copyright protection at the level of pages ... Read More...