Claims of a patent directed to “providing a guaranty service for online transactions” are not patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101, according to the court in Buysafe, Inc. v. Google Inc., C.A. No. 11-1282-LPS (D. Del. July 29, 2013). Accordingly, the court granted the defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Federal Rule […]
Archive | July, 2013
Use of Software After Expiration of License Is Copyright Infringement
By Charles Bieneman on July 27, 2013 in Copyright, Licensing, Software Copyright Infringement, Software Licenses
A software owner was granted summary judgment of copyright infringement where its licensee had breached the applicable software license agreement, and continued to use the software after the agreement expired. Clinical Insight v. Louisville Cardiology Med. Group, No. 11-CV-6019T (W.D.N.Y. July 12, 2013). The licensee could not be saved by its allegation that it had […]
Full Scope of Patent Claims Must Be Enabled at the Time of Filing
The headline of this post, a truism of patent law to be sure, is nicely illustrated by the Federal Circuit’s opinion in Convolve, Inc. v. Compaq Computer Corp., No. 2012-1074 (July 1, 2013). After an inventor admitted in testimony that he had been unable to implement claimed subject matter in certain contexts until nine years […]
Enforcement of a Click-wrap License Agreement
Consumers who casually, even blindly, accept “click-wrap” or “browse-wrap” license agreements will be bound by those agreements so long as the user had a reasonable opportunity to accept or reject the proffered license. A recent case provides a blueprint for how to offer, and then how to enforce, a click-wrap agreement. In Zaltz v. JDate, […]
Pleading Implied License as an Affirmative Defense to Patent Infringement
By Charles Bieneman on July 17, 2013 in Civil Procedure, Declaratory Judgments, Implied Licenses, Licensing, Patent Exhaustion, Patent Licenses
An implied license is an affirmative defense to patent infringement. Because the defense is, by definition, highly fact-specific, it is not always clear what allegations are required to adequately plead the implied license defense. However, requirements for pleading the defense, e.g., under an estoppel theory, are not unduly onerous. The court’s denial of a motion […]
When Is a Covenant Not to Sue Like a Patent License?
By Charles Bieneman on July 13, 2013 in Covenant Not to Sue, Implied Licenses, Licensing, Litigation
Although parties often go to great pains to distinguish covenants not to sue from patent licenses, those two legal constructs may not be treated any differently by the courts. For example, in Innovus Prime, LLC v. Panasonic Corp. & Panasonic Corp. of N. Am., Inc., No. C-12-00660-RMW (N.D. Cal. July 2, 2013), the court accepted […]
The More Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Changes, the More It Stays the Same
Perhaps the most apt characterization of the current state of the law on patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 is attributable (albeit perhaps apocryphally) to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: everything flows. (Everything, ebbs, too.) Recent activity in the courts as well as in the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) certainly […]