Patent Law

Walter Olson wrote on December 9, 2008 at his Overlawyered blog:

?Frequent patent defendants say they?re hit by frivolous lawsuits all the time. But it?s very rare for a judge to find a patent lawsuit to be frivolous enough to grant sanctions and attorney?s fees.? Last week, however, a judge in Peoria issued Rule 11 sanctions against a company called Triune Star which held a patent on a certain type of GPS-using camera. The patent examiner had taken care to limit the patent to infrared cameras to overcome an obviousness objection, but the plaintiff?s lawyers ? Keith Rockey and Kathleen Lyons of Chicago-based Rockey, Depke & Lyons ? then proceeded to sue three big companies that had sold conventional cameras. A judge awarded the defendants reasonable costs and attorney?s fees, something defense lawyer Brian Rupp says has happened only a few times in the last decade.

See the post and links here.