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Case Summaries

Intellectual Property

[05/17] In re Baxter International, Inc.
In a case involving a patent on hemodialysis machines, a decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirming the examiner's rejections of claims for obviousness is affirmed, where: 1) substantial evidence supported the Board's finding that prior art disclosed limitations of a claim; and 2) the Board did not erroneously construe a term in several other claims, and so substantial evidence supported the rejections of those claims.

[05/14] Apple, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
In a patent infringement action brought by Apple against Samsung, the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction is affirmed with respect to three of the four patents at issue, where: 1) as to two iPhone design patents and a patent on a "bounce-back" feature, the district court correctly determined that there would be no irreparable harm to Apple from Samsung's infringement; but 2) the district court erred in concluding that there was likely to be a substantial question as to the validity of an iPad design patent, so remand was necessary for findings on other questions bearing on injunctive relief.

[05/14] Gaylord v. US
In a copyright infringement action by the holder of copyright on statues that are part of the Korean War Memorial, brought against the U.S. Postal Service, which issued stamps bearing a photograph of the statutes, the judgment of the Court of Federal Claims awarding the plaintiff $5,000 is vacated and the case remanded, where the Claims Court incorrectly limited the plaintiff's damages to the Postal Service’s highest past license payment and denied prejudgment interest.

[05/11] Banco Popular de Puerto Rico v. Asociacion de Compositores y Editores de Musica Latinoamericana
In consolidated copyright infringement cases, the First Circuit holds that: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing a music publisher and its affiliate to litigate copyright infringement claims as to four songs used in live Christmas concerts produced by a bank, as those songs were not part of a settlement agreement; 2) the evidence of infringement was sufficient; 3) the district court did not err by twice denying the bank the opportunity to introduce certain evidence; 4) the district court correctly found that a publisher owned a song and that parties infringed its rights by retroactively licensing the performance rights to that song, and the award of damages was proper; and 5) the bank was not entitled to an offset or return of the monies it paid in performance fees for two songs.

[05/08] In re Youman
An examiner's rejection of claims in a reissue patent application, affirmed by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, is overturned, where the Board failed to determine whether the applicants avoided the recapture rule bar on reissue by modifying a limitation in the reissue claim.

[05/08] In re Montgomery
An examiner's rejection of claims in patent application, affirmed by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, is affirmed, where the claims were anticipated by prior art.

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