Free for a Fee

Blawg It
Brett Trout

July 31, 2018

IBM’s intellectual-property licensing business, which owns over 45,000 patents, and which brought in nearly $1.2 billion in revenue last year put one more feather in its cap last Friday. The jury in IBM v. Groupon Inc., 16-cv-122 awarded IBM $83 million in damages. In what may turn out to be even worse news for Groupon, the jury also found Groupon’s infringement to be willful, allowing the judge to triple the damage award and order Groupon to pay IBM’s attorney fees.

Despite securing more U.S. patents over the past 25 years than any other company, and investing nearly $6 billion annually in research and development, IBM v. Groupon Inc. is the first patent infringement case IBM has brought to a jury in over two decades. Why has IBM been so reticent to bring patent infringement cases to a jury? It is important to note that IBM is not alone. Between 2013 and 2015 there was a 26% drop in the number of patent infringement lawsuits filed. And there was another 22% drop in cases filed between 2015 and 2016.

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The content in this post was found at https://blawgit.com/2018/07/31/patent-litigation-still-brings-in-huge-awards/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

IP Watchdog

Trevor Day & Neil Ferraro
August 25, 2018

The patent process is long and complex, but well worth the effort if it means protecting your invention and your new company. Key decisions made along the way can help simplify future steps in the process and make obtaining a patent significantly more efficient. Early on, determining a patent scope through patentability searches can help narrow a patent application to the important novel aspects that are most worthwhile to protect. Similarly, preparing a thorough provisional application can make the non-provisional application preparation much simpler and afford better protection against later published works or filings by others. By thinking about these key decisions ahead of time and being aware of the patent process, you can be more prepared when the time comes to seek protection for your invention.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/08/25/investing-in-inventing-a-patent-process-primer-for-startups/id=100385/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

IP Watchdog

Steve Brachmann
August 14, 2018

On August 1st, a jury verdict entered in the Southern District of California awarded $145.1 million in reasonable royalty damages to Canadian IP licensing firm Wi-LAN in a patent infringement case against Cupertino, CA-based consumer device giant Apple Inc. The jury determined that Apple infringed upon claims of two patents owned by Wi-LAN.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/08/14/apples-declaratory-judgment-backfires145-1m-damages-verdict-wi-lan/id=100212/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

 

Lex Blog

AUGUST 15, 2018

In our continued post-TC Heartland coverage, Judge Gilstrap in the Eastern District of Texas recently held that venue was proper because Google exercises exclusive control over physical servers implicated by the litigation, as well as the physical space within which the server is located and maintained. The court emphasized that the place where the server is located occupies a physical space, which is more than merely a virtual space or electronic communications from one person…

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The content in this post was found at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/podcasting-patent-case-is-finally-totally-and-completely-dead-now/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

IP WatchDog
Steve Brachmann
August 8, 2018

On Monday, August 6th, Santa Clara, CA-based computer networking Arista Networks filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing the firm had entered into an agreement with San Jose, CA-based networking rival Cisco Systems that dismisses all pending litigation between the two firms in both U.S. district courts and at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Under the terms of the agreement, Arista will pay Cisco $400 million this month in return for Cisco dropping all patent infringement claims which it has filed against Arista. In addition to Cisco dropping its patent infringement claims, Arista also agreed to drop all antitrust claims which it has filed against its rival.

IP Watchdog

Steve Brachmann
June 27, 2018

[ed’s note: just because arguments about software patents v. open source can be incredibly detailed and convoluted, doesn’t mean that we should or shouldn’t allow software patents. HOWEVER . . . criteria for deciding what’s best IS muddy and neither the courts nor the USPTO have much helped. One is almost tempted to say: “maybe this is an area where market forces should prevail since the government is never going to get it right.” On the other hand, our experience with THAT, in the tech sector, is an open invitation for monopoly rather than innovation. Sigh.]

 

The idea that all software is obvious is a theoretical argument that doesn’t just border on the scattological, it wades right into the sewer. Consider artificial intelligence. If AI, which requires the use of software algorithms, is supposed to augment human intelligence and provide us with answers to questions we can’t figure out without the use of AI, how is that at all obvious? What about IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform? … When the highest court in the land incorporates such backward-minded patterns of thought which allows them to say that “At its most basic, a computer is just a calculator capable of performing mental steps faster than a human could,” the U.S. patent system must be a relative paradise to Duda and other anti-patent Luddites who believe that software inventions cannot and should not be patentable at all.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/06/27/google-luddites-patent-battle/id=98454/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

The content in this post was found at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/apple-and-samsung-settle-case-finally-end-7-year-patent-dispute/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

IP Watchdog

Steve Brachmann
August 2, 2018

On July 27th, a jury verdict entered into the District of Delaware awarded $82.5 million in reasonable royalties to information technology giant IBM after that company asserted a series of patents against e-commerce marketplace provider Groupon. The jury determined that Groupon infringed on a series of four patents asserted by IBM.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/08/02/ibm-wins-82-5-million-reasonable-royalty-award-against-groupon/id=99796/  Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com

The IP law blog

By Audrey A Millemann on August 1st, 2018

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has taken aim at sky-high patent infringement damages. In Power Integrations, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 18177 (July 3, 2018), the court limited the use of the rule that allowed patent owners to recover damages based on the total sales of the infringing product, even if the patent covered only a part of the product.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.theiplawblog.com/2018/08/articles/patent-law/federal-circuit-limits-patent-infringement-damages Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com.