Kinney & Lange is pleased to announce three new shareholders: Ian MacKinnon, Nicholas Peterka, and Andrew Swanson. Ian MacKinnon has extensive experience in IP portfolio management. He has assisted clients with monetizing their IP portfolios through licensing and sales activities. Ian has also participated in enforcement activities and providing IP litigation support. Nick Peterka’s practice has been primarily in patent preparation and prosecution, as well as clearance activities. Such clearance activities include performing offensive activities, such as patentability searches and analyses as well as defensive activities, such as freedom-to-operate searches and analyses. Nick also has extensive experience in Trademark prosecution...
The Latest From Kinney and Lange
SHARETag Archive: Nicholas Peterka
Supreme Court Clarifies Standard of Review for Claim Construction
November 1, 2015
■ 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...
FTC REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH MPHJ
November 1, 2014
■ Nicholas J. Peterka On November 6, the Federal Trade Commission and MPHJ Technology Investments LLC agreed to settle FTC charges alleging MPHJ used deceptive practices and phony legal threats. The settlement prevents MPHJ and its law firm, Farney Daniels, P.C., from making deceptive representations when asserting its patent rights, with further deceptive conduct bringing with it a penalty of up to $16,000 per misrepresentation. The settlement comes on the heels of a September ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to dismiss a suit filed by MPHJ against the FTC. The suit, which was...