Federal Circuit Holds that Automatic Assignment of Employee Rights May Foreclose Certain Defenses By Sarah Sorscher — Edited by David Lawson DDB Technologies, L.L.C. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. Federal Circuit, February 13, 2008, No. 2007-1211 Slip Opinion On February 13, the Federal Circuit affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded for further discovery a decision of the District Court for the Western District of Texas related to employee assignment of patent rights. The court affirmed the ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Upholds Damages Award Against Echostar By Andrew Ungberg — Edited by Wen Bu TiVo, Inc. v. EchoStar Commc’n Corp. Federal Circuit, January 31, 2008, No. 2006-1574 Slip Opinion The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld in part and reversed in part an Eastern District of Texas jury verdict finding that EchoStar’s DVR machines infringed hardware and software claims of TiVo’s patent. Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge Bryson found that EchoStar’s devices infringed TiVo’s software ... Read More...

UK Patents Court Holds Software Patents May Be Enforceable By Sarah Sorscher — Edited by Wen Bu In re Astron Clinica, High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Patents Court (EWHC (Pat)), January 25, 2008, Case No. CH/2007/APP/0466 Opinion On January 25, the United Kingdom High Court ruled that the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (IPO) cannot categorically reject patent claims for computer programs under Section 1(2) of the Patents Act of 1977 (designed to implement Article 52 of the European Patent ... Read More...

European Court of Justice holds that EU law does not require ISPs to disclose subscriber information By Daniel Ray — Edited by Wen Bu Productores de Música de España (Promusicae) v. Telefónica de España S.A.U. European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber), January 29, 2008 Case C-275/06, 2008 CELEX no 62006J0275 (Jan. 29, 2008) Opinion On January 29, the European Court of Justice issued a Grand Chamber ruling in Promusicae v. Telefónica. The court held that European law does not require ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Holds Patent Unenforceable Following Patentee’s Failure to Disclose Material Notes By Michelle Yang — Edited by Wen Bu Monsanto Corp. v. Bayer Bioscience N.V. Federal Circuit, January 25, 2008, No. 2007-1109 Slip Opinion On January 25, the Federal Circuit affirmed the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri’s holdings: 1) that Bayer’s patent for certain chimeric genes was unenforceable for inequitable conduct, and 2) that the district court had jurisdiction to declare three related patents unenforceable. The ... Read More...