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...
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...
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...
