The Latest From Kinney and Lange

Tag Archive: K&L IP News

TURTLES MAKE SIRIUS WAVES

■ Wendy M. Bratten In a September decision out of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, music group The Turtles triumphed over Sirius XM Radio, Inc., the largest radio broadcaster in America. Flo & Eddie, Inc., owned by founding members of The Turtles, filed a class action suit against Sirius alleging $100 million dollars in unpaid royalties for performance of pre-1972 recordings, including The Turtles’ chart-topping song “Happy Together.” At issue in the case was whether ownership of pre-1972 sound recordings includes the exclusive right to publicly perform the recording. The court granted...

PATENT ELIGIBILITY UNDER ALICE

■ Thea E. Reilkoff On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International, No. 13-2988 (U.S., June 19, 2014), holding all claims in patents for a computer-implemented scheme for mitigating settlement risk invalid as drawn to an abstract idea, ineligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. §101. The Court revisited prior case law to reaffirm that a generic computer and generic instructions are insufficient to transform an abstract idea into a patent eligible invention, but declined to further define the contours of what constitutes an abstract idea. Notably, the Court solidified...

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