Yearly Archives: 2011

Overview Google’s market dominance has attracted the attention of the press, competitors, and now the federal government. Recent articles, cases, and hearings seem to point toward an inevitable collision between the industry giant and the Sherman Act, the federal statute governing antitrust issues. Complaints from competitors have thus far yielded ...

Overview On November 8, 2011, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Jones, a case involving the warrantless placement of a GPS device on Antoine Jones’ vehicle by law enforcement and the subsequent tracking of Jones’ movements in his vehicle. While the Court has not ...

Overview The Supreme Court’s recent declination to hear an appeal from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”) regarding the Second Circuit’s decision in United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 627 F.3d 64 (2d Cir. 2010), has provided the digital music industry with a ...

On March 16, 2011, the Southern District of New York denied former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov’s motion to dismiss his conviction for theft of trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act (“EEA”). The court held that the evidence was sufficient to show that Aleynikov had stolen trade secrets and ...

The Stent Wars The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) decision in Cordis Corp v. Boston Scientific Corp., 2011 (“Cordis”), is the latest episode in the ongoing Stent Wars, and provides an example of CAFC review of JMOL verdicts and review of the intent prong of inequitable conduct ...

On September 16th, 2011, President Obama signed the (Leahy-Smith) America Invents Act. The official White House Press Release and countless blogs describe the Act as “the most significant reform of the Patent Act since 1952.” One of the stated objectives of the Act is to let American companies and inventors ...

N.D. Cal.’s Chief Judge Ware has permitted the Wiretap Act claims against Google to go ahead in the consolidated litigation over the collection of Wi-Fi data by Google’s Street View vehicles. Google attempted to argue that it could not be held liable under the Wiretap Act because the collected data ...

Overview On May 25, 2011, the Federal Circuit issued its en banc opinion in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson and Co., radically changing the legal landscape of the inequitable conduct doctrine. In creating these new standards, the Therasense majority aimed to balance the competing goals of encouraging honesty of applicants ...

Overview of Lewton Parents who are concerned about their child’s well being might use hidden electronic monitoring devices such as hidden audio recording devices and nanny cams. Unfortunately, parents who use these devices may unwittingly violate federal and state law. In Lewton v. Divingnzzo (PDF), a mother was convicted of ...

In the recent Centocor Ortho Biotech, Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories (PDF), the Federal Circuit found that Defendant Abbott was not liable for patent infringement, on the basis of written description insufficiency. The Federal Circuit emphasized the patent statute’s requirement that an application must contain not only claims that define the ...