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...

Supreme Court Adopts “Willful Blindness” Standard for Induced Infringement By Raquel Acosta – Edited by Matt Gelfand Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S. A., 563 U. S. ____ (May 31, 2011) Slip Opinion The Supreme Court affirms the result but not the “deliberate indifference” standard used by the Federal Circuit. In an 8-1 decision the Supreme Court held that, under 35 U. S. C. § 271(b), inducement of infringement requires that a defendant have knowledge that the acts they induced ... Read More...

Microsoft argues for a lower burden of proof for patent invalidity where prior art wasn’t before the PTO By Abby Lauer – Edited by Matt Gelfand Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. P’ship, No. 10-290 (U.S. 2011) Transcript of Oral Arguments On April 18, 2011, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. P’ship, a case involving a dispute over the evidentiary standard that must be met by a patent challenger in order to overcome the presumption ... Read More...

By Andrew Crocker Supreme Court to Hear “Major Test of Copyright Power” SCOTUSblog reports that the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Golan v. Holder to consider a challenge to the federal law that restored U.S. copyrights to certain foreign works that had previously been in the public domain. The petitioners are “orchestra conductors, educators, performers, film archivists, and motion picture distributors” who claim to have relied upon the formerly public domain works. The petitioners have twice appealed to, and ... Read More...