The Latest From Kinney and Lange

Tag Archive: K&L IP News

Federalization of Trade Secret Law

By Thea E. Reilkoff The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) was signed into law by President Obama on May 11, 2016. The DTSA creates a private civil cause of action in federal court for misappropriation of a trade secret “related to a product or service used in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign commerce.” The DTSA amends the existing Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA), which criminalizes trade secret theft, and makes trade secrets a national priority, affording a level of protection already provided for patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Prior to enactment of the DTSA, plaintiffs...

Summary of Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and a Potential Impact on NPEs

By:  Tony Salmo On December 15, 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. Congress passed and the Supreme Court adopted amendments to Rules 1, 4, 16, 26, 30, 31, 33, 34, 37, 55, and 84. The amendment to rule 84 effectively eliminated the Appendix of Forms. On April 28, 2016, the Supreme Court approved amendments for review by congress for: Federal Rules of Appellate Practice, Rules 4, 5, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 28.1, 29, 32, 35, and 40, and Forms 1, 5, and 6, new Form 7 and new Appendix; Bankruptcy Rules 1010, 1011,...

Federal Circuit Reaffirms Patent Exhaustion Doctrine

By: Andrew Swanson In Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Impression Prods., Inc., 16 F.3d 721 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (en banc), the Federal Circuit was asked to determine the applicability of the doctrine of patent exhaustion in two contexts.  First, the court was asked to determine whether the sale of a patented article to end users under a restriction that is otherwise lawful and within the scope of a patent grant nonetheless gives rise to patent exhaustion.  The court held that a patentee may reserve its patent rights by selling a patented article under otherwise-proper restrictions on resale and reuse that are...

European Union Trademark Update

By: Lea Westman The EU has a regional trademark system which has been continually updated and amended. The most recent changes to the EU trademark include changes in names of the organization, a change in the classification of trademarks, and a change to the rules surrounding transit of goods and trademark law. Under these new rules, current trademark owners have until September 2016 to change declared goods and services on old trademark applications. The Old Community Trade Mark The Community Trade Mark (CTM) has long been used in the EU in an effort to create uniformity of trademark law. A...

Recently Issued Patents

Kinney & Lange P.A. files hundreds of new patent applications each year in a wide variety of technology areas.  Below are a few recently issued U.S. patents for which the firm is listed as the legal representative. 9,174,231 “Sprayer fluid supply with collapsible liner” 9,175,567 “Low loss airfoil platform trailing edge” 9,182,258 “Variable frequency magnetic flowmeter” 9,188,620 “Method of detection and isolation of faults within power conversion and distribution systems” 9,194,027 “Method of forming high strength aluminum alloy parts containing L12 intermetallic dispersoids by ring rolling” 9,200,882 “Contour interval control for an aquatic geographic information system” 9,206,367 “Method for cold...

K&L Present Intro to IP Law at SME Chapter Meeting

Kinney & Lange’s Larrin Bergman and Andrew Swanson will present “An Introduction to Intellectual Property Law” at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Minneapolis Chapter meeting on March 16, 2016. Visit http://chapters.sme.org/011/ for more information.

Supreme Court Clarifies Standard of Review for Claim Construction

■ Nicholas J. Peterka In Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 574 U.S. ___, No. 13-854 (2015), the Supreme Court held that the Federal Circuit must apply the clearly erroneous standard when reviewing a district court’s resolution of subsidiary factual matters made during the court’s patent claim construction. At dispute was the meaning of the term “molecular weight.” Each party presented extrinsic evidence in the form of expert testimony and, relying on patent owner Teva’s expert, the district court determined that “molecular weight” was not indefinite. Sandoz appealed the claim construction to the Federal Circuit, which reviewed de novo...

Recent Patents | Newsletter, Vol. 8, Issue 1

Kinney & Lange P.A. files hundreds of new patent applications each year in a wide variety of technology areas. Below are a few recently issued U.S. patents for which the firm is listed as the legal representative.  9,023,155 “Engine wash apparatus and method-manifold” 9,021,778 “Airfoil including trench with contoured surface” 9,025,294 “System and method for controlling solid state circuit breakers” 9,030,200 “Spin dependent tunneling devices with magnetization states based on stress conditions” 9,027,609 “Argon gas level controller” 9,032,619 “Compressor stator chord restoration repair method and apparatus”  9,034,465 “Thermally insulative attachment”

Fair Use Avoids Takedown

■ Adam E. Szymanski In Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., Nos. 13-16106 and 16107 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2015), a panel of the 9th Circuit held that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requires a copyright holder to consider fair use before sending a takedown notice to an online service provider, like YouTube® or Google®. Failure to consider fair use, the court determined, raises a triable offense issue as to whether the copyright holder formed a subjective good faith belief that the use was authorized by law.   The claim arose when Universal Music Corp. sent a takedown notice to...

Laches in Patent and Copyright Law: A Different Calculus

■ Adam E. Szymanski In SCA Hygiene Prods. Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Prods., LLC, No. 2013-1564 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 18, 2015), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ruling en banc, held that laches remains a defense to legal relief in a patent infringement suit, despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Petrella v. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 1962 (2014) regarding laches in copyright cases. SCA sued First Quality for infringing U.S. Patent No. 6,375,646 directed to absorbent pants-type diapers. SCA sent a letter to First Quality on October 31, 2003, asserting that First Quality’s Prevail®...

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