The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a number of patent-related holdings and they’ve been well-summarized by AUTM, ABA, AIPLA, and NACUA and others. However, if you want only the relevant take-away, here is my extreme distillation for those of you with busy schedules:
- Global-Tech – if you wholesale copy a competitor’s product….better see if they have a patent on it…you cannot stay “willfully blind” of the competitor’s IP in such a case. Full Decision
- MS v. i4i – frustrated that the PTO would not reexamine i4i’s patents, MS tries to lower presumption of patent validity before jury. Supreme Court holds that patents maintain high presumption of validity in court...patent owners breath sigh of relief. Full Decision
- Stanford – Supreme Court….”sorry Stanford, ‘agree to assign’ is not immediately effective to transfer ownership of invention.” Companies and universities checking that employee agreements “hereby assign” rights to inventions rather than promise to do so in the future. Full Decision
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