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...

Second Circuit Holds Copyright Class Action Claims Must Be Based on Registered Copyright By Andrew Ungberg — Edited by Wen Bu In Re Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation Second Circuit, November 29, 2007, No. 05-5943-cv(L) Slip Opinion On November 29, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a decision of the District Court for the Southern District of New York to certify a class of freelance authors and accept a settlement of their copyright ... Read More...

N.D.Cal. Grants Preliminary Injunction Requiring ODNI to Turn Over FISA-Related Documents By Yelena Shagall — Edited by Wen Bu Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, No. C 07-5278 SI District Court for the Northern District of California, November 27, 2007 Order On November 27, the District Court for the Northern District of California granted in part and denied in part a motion by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for a preliminary injunction against the ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Decides to Rehear Important Design Patent Case En Banc By Andrew Ungberg – Edited by Wen Bu Egyptian Goddess, Inc., v. Swisa, Inc. Federal Circuit, November 26, 2007, No. 2006-1562 Order Update: On September 22, 2008, the en banc Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which had granted summary judgment in favor of Swisa, Inc, finding that no jury could reasonably find Swisa’s nail-buffer design infringed Egyptian Goddess’s design patent. ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Clarifies Rule on Completeness of Patents in a Sequence By Sarah Sorscher — Edited by Johnathan Jenkins Zenon Environmental, Inc. v. United States Filter Corp. Federal Circuit, November 7, 2007, No. 2006-1266 Slip Opinion On November 7, the Federal Circuit reversed the District Court of the Southern District of California, which had found Zenon’s patent for a water filtration device not invalid by reason of anticipation in a bench trial. The Federal Circuit held that, because an intervening ... Read More...