Last March, the District Court for the Northern District of California entered a final judgment in the Apple v. Samsung saga, awarding Apple almost $930 Million in damages for Samsung’s infringement of Apple’s trade dress, both registered and unregistered, and design and utility patents. After several appeals, the Federal Circuit announced that Apple’s trade dress is functional and remanded to the District Court for entry of final judgment on damages only pertaining to the various patent infringements.
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Rough Trail for Patent Owners in Inter Partes Review
Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) was first made available via the America Invents Act (AIA) on September 16, 2012 as a counterpart to Post Grant Review. Accordingly, IPR is a procedure in which a third party may challenge the validity of patent claims based on existing prior art. Since its enactment, early statistics demonstrate that a staggering 87% success rate for the Petitioners to institute a trial with the Patent & Trial Appeal Board (“PTAB”) against the Patent Owners in the first year and equally favorable 76% success rate in the second year.
A New Payment System to Launch for United States Patent & Trademark Office
The USPTO will shortly launch its new fee payment system called the Financial Manager. The Financial Manager is designed to be a seamless online fee payment management system. Accordingly, under the new system, users will be able to virtually manage, store and review payment methods. Additionally, the system will generate and download transaction reports, assign user permits, and provide notifications for administrative matters.
Patent is the Most Searched Word for the United States
In a world where people use copious amount of time searching for things online via search engines, curiosity begs to know what are people really searching for when it comes to particular nations. Fixr.com took this curiosity by the horns and investigated deeper. Unsurprisingly, their results revealed that every nation yielded unique results, some as expected and some rather perplexing. For the United States, in particular, the object word “patent” was the most google searched word in 2015 so far.
Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Goes Into Effect for the U.S.
The Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (Hague Agreement) will go into effect for the United States next Wednesday, May 13, 2015. Under the Geneva Act, it will be possible for U.S. applicants to file a single international design application either with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or through the USPTO as an office of indirect filing to obtain protection in a number of countries that are party to the Hague Agreement. In addition, applicants filing international design applications on or after May 13, 2015 will be able to designate the United States for design protection. U.S. design patents resulting from applications filed on or after May 13, 2015 will have a 15 year term from issuance.
Learn more at http://www.uspto.gov/patent/initiatives/hague-agreement-concerning-international-registration-industrial-designs
Belief of Patent Invalidity is No Defense to Induced Infringement
In a 6-2 decision handed down in Commil v. Cisco, the Supreme Court has held that a defendant’s good faith belief that a patent is invalid does not serve as a defense to charges of inducing infringement of that patent, overturning the previous U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision.