Patent Law

Staples has won three patent suits in recent months.  The suits involved three popular products sold under the Staples brand name.  See the following excerpt from a May 5, 2010 Staples' press release:

Staples, Inc. today announced that it has won a patent infringement and trade dress suit involving its popular Pillow Top calculator.  On March 29, 2010, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois granted Staples? motions for summary judgment, ruling, among other things, that the calculator did not infringe a design patent asserted by plaintiffs, Competitive Edge, Inc. and David M. Greenspon.

In granting Staples? motions, the judge applied the 2008 Egyptian Goddess decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which addressed the appropriate legal standard for assessing design patent infringement claims.  That case held that for design patent infringement claims, the test is ?whether an ordinary observer, familiar with the prior art, would be deceived into thinking that the accused design was the same as the patented design.?  Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc., 543 F.3d 665, 672 (Fed. Cir. 2008).

Staples was represented by Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP in the calculator suit, which is now on appeal to the Federal Circuit.

In recent months, Staples has secured victories in two other patent cases concerning its own brand products. The company won summary judgment dismissals in cases involving its Staples® Better Binder? products (decided in December 2009) and its Staples® Folding Crate products (decided in January 2009).

?Integrity is built into every step in our process when designing and manufacturing Staples brand products,? said David D?Angelo, senior vice president of Staples Brands Group.  ?Not only do we work hard to ensure that we?ve taken actions to protect our intellectual property rights, we take clear steps to ensure that we respect the IP rights of others.?