By Audrey Millemann

This month, the United States Supreme Court has held that owning a patent is not equivalent to having a monopoly. It may be, but it is not necessarily so. In Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc., 2006 WL 468729 (March 1, 2006), the Court reversed its long-standing rule (in place since 1947) that a tying arrangement involving a patented product is per se illegal. This is a significant victory for patent owners. Continue Reading United States Supreme Court: Patent Owners Are Not (Necessarily) Monopolists

By Pamela Winston Bertani

Suppose your client discovers that a patent application pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office discloses information or includes claims that infringe your client’s existing United States patent – and your client wants to know what can be done to challenge the pending application without actually filing a patent infringement suit. Your answer should be that there are several options for challenging a patent or patent application before the Patent and Trademark Office, instead of in court. This article briefly reviews the alternatives your client should be aware of. Continue Reading Challenging Patents – Short of Litigation

By Scott Cameron

In baseball, “taking one for the team” means you lean out over the plate and let the pitch hit you, earning a free trip to first base. To a guy out with his friends, it has an entirely different meaning. For Canadian company Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry wireless email device, it means writing a $612.5 million check for a lifetime, perpetual license to use an invalid patent. That’s a hard fastball to have to “take for the team.” Continue Reading BlackBerries Are In Season Again – And It’s A $612.5 Million Season

By Scott Hervey

Picking an Errors and Omission policy can be an extremely important undertaking, especially for a technology focused company. When legal costs for defending a complex intellectual property infringement claim can exceed half a million dollars, the right E&O policy can mean the difference between the life and death of a company just starting to find traction in the market place. But more often than not, the decision on what policy to buy is left to an inexperienced company employee who only has a broker’s advice to rely on. This arrangement is probably fine for workers compensation and general commercial liability policies, but non-lawyers and lawyers are not familiar with technology companies and all the issues they encounter are out of their league when it comes to determining which E&O policy shifts the most risk. Continue Reading Tech Companies, Insure You Choose the Correct E&O Policy!

By Dale Campbell

Your client receives a cease-and-desist letter claiming your client’s product infringes a competitor’s newly-issued patent. The competitor advises your client to cease the manufacture and sale of the product. Your client’s response may very well define the scope of potential damages if it is later proved that your client’s product does, in fact, infringe the patent. Continue Reading Incompetent Legal Advice: Evidence of Willful Infringement