Patent Law

In an update to my February 12, 2008 post, Kyle Fleming and Josh Ryland of Patent Appeal Tracer write:

ATI appeals from the judgments of Judge Barbara Crabb on the verdicts that Silicon Graphic's  6,650,327 patent valid and enforceable.  The court had previously granted summary judgment of non-infringement to ATI on most of the asserted patent claims, and Silicon Graphics had voluntarily dismissed the rest.

Invalidity. Summary judgment left for trial some infringement claims of the '327 (when used with a non-Microsoft OS) and ATI's counterclaims of invalidity as to the '327 and inequitable conduct.   Silicon Graphics then moved to dismiss its infringement claims and, then, gave a covenant not to sue as to these claims.  It then moved to dismiss the counterclaims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  This was done, however, just a day or two before a jury trial was set and, despite the events and motion, it started on schedule.  The jury ultimately concluded that the claims of the '327 were not anticipated based on the references offered by ATI.

Also, after a one day trial to the bench on ATI's counterclaim of inequitable conduct, Judge Crabb ruled that the patents were not unenforceable.

See the full post and document links here.