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Patent Law

Washington State Patent Law Blog

Patent law and litigation in Washington state or affecting industries in Washington state along with software, biotechnology, and patent reform.
By Mark Walters

Post Frequency: 1.4/day

Last Entry: March 17, 2010 at 21:54:00

ADC v. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Stayed Pending Reexamination

Posted on July 26, 2009
ADC Technology Inc, a Japanese corporation that owns several gaming patents related generally to music/karaoke-style video games, filed suit last October in Seattle against Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. The patents in suit include:U.S. Patent 5,775,995, titled "Interactive Communication System forCommunicating Video? filed May 3, 1996 and issued July 7, 1998; U...

Microsoft Seeks JMOL in i4i Patent Case

Posted on July 10, 2009
From Bloomberg.com"[T]he world?s largest software maker asked a U.S. judge to throw out a $200 million verdict after a jury found that the company?s Word products violated a patented way to process electronic documents. Microsoft is also seeking a ruling that it didn?t use a patent owned by closely held i4i LP...

Cognex Can't Seek Early Summary Judgment in Bar-Code Reader Case

Posted on July 04, 2009
In this suit involving bar-code reader technology, Renton-based Microscan asserts US Patent No. 6,105,869 against Cognex, an international company with US headquaters in Massachusettes. In its Complaint, Microscan alleges that Cognex has been and is infringing at least claims 1, 7, 12 and 16 of the ?869 patent by manufacturing, using, selling and/or offering for sale at least its DataMan 100X,

Supreme Court denies Certiorari in Quanta v. Ricoh

Posted on July 01, 2009
Does the unconditional sale of a patented item overseas result in a forfeiture of rights to enforce patent rights in the United States? Federal Circuit precedent has answered this question in the negative; see Harold C. Wegner, Post-Quanta, Post-Sale Patentee Controls, 7 J...

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Chinese High Court Comments on Patent Law

Posted on June 24, 2009
Supreme People?s Court Justice HE Zhonglin of the People?s Republic of China introduced the draft of Several Provisions of the Supreme People?s Court on Issues Concerning Applicable Laws to the Trial of Patent Infringement Controversies (the ?Judicial Interpretations?)...

Fluke Files Declaratory Judgment Action Against Competitor

Posted on June 17, 2009
Local manufacturer of electronic test tools (among other products in the largely "wired" electronics space reminiscent of last century), Fluke Products, filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment that certain Modular Telephone Plugs do not infringe U.S...

Patently Challenging Road for Amazon

Posted on June 11, 2009
By all accounts, Amazon.com is an innovator. It pioneered online commerce in the 1990s and it was an early adopter of aggressive IP strategies, including the much maligned "one-click" patent, which was unsuccessfully enforced against Barnesandnoble.com in 2000 and is still suffering through reexamination at the request of a part time actor from New Zealand...

Texas Jury Stings Microsoft for $200M

Posted on May 21, 2009
I guess the third trial's the charm for patent holders looking to collect big money from Microsoft for patent infringement. After winning one case on summary judgment on the eve of trial, and settling another one mid-way through, Microsoft decided to gamble on the jury yesterday and lost...

Amazon.com Strikes Back at Discovery Communications

Posted on May 19, 2009
Amazon.com asserted three patents against Discovery Communications, owner of the well known cable TV brand, the Discovery Channel, as well as other goods and services sold under the Discovery name and mark. The patents-in-suit are U.S. Nos. 6,006,225 ("Refining Search Queries by Suggestion of Correlated Terms from prior Searches"); 6,169,986 ("System and method for Refining Search Queries");

Claim Construction Sticks in Bamboo Flooring Case

Posted on May 18, 2009
Judge Leighton resolved a motion for reconsideration of an order construing the terms "random orientation" as used in U.S. Patent No. 5,543,197, in an order that was issued over four months ago (previous posts here and here). The primary bone of contention was that the Court had construed these terms to require not only random orientation of the individual bamboo strands, but also random, "not

Surgical Trainer Patent Case Headed for Trial in October

Posted on May 11, 2009
Simulab Corp. will get a jury this fall to decide claims for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,780,016, a patent for a "Human Surgical Trainer and Methods for Training." Infringement claims are being asserted against Synbone AG, a Swiss company. My previous posts here and here, discussed Judge Zilly's summary judgment rulings, expressing skepticism that "Simulab can demonstrate the requisite

Fees Denied to K2 in Short Fat Ski Case

Posted on May 05, 2009
The case is Paul N. Nelson v. K2 Inc., Cause No. C07-1660RSL. My previous posts, explain that plaintiff Nelson lost his priority date claimed in U.S. Patent No. 5,603,522 on written description grounds, and then lost summary judgment on his invalidity defense based on allegedly "experimental sales...

Seattle Patent Litigation Update: May 2009

Posted on April 30, 2009
What recession? Seattle patent cases exploded during the months of February, March and April 2009 (list included in this post). Note that I've done something a little different for this post, I've included the patent number and the name of the plaintiff's lawyer and law firm...

Data Retrieval Patent Case Transferred

Posted on April 21, 2009
As a counter point to my previous post, regarding an order denying a defendant's motion to transfer patent litigation out of the WD of Wash., this post features the opposite result, a defendant winning a transfer to the N.D. of California. The case is Data Retrieval Tech v...

Potato Case Stays in Seattle

Posted on April 16, 2009
In the case Pace International LLC v. Industrial Ventilation, Inc., 08-1822-RSL, Judge Lasnik recently denied the Defendant's motion to transfer the case to the District of Idaho.This case involves allegations of infringement of a patent owned by Xeda International, S...

Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft: A Reason to Delay Congressional Patent Reform?

Posted on March 31, 2009
The damages issue has been hotly debated among those supportive of congressional patent reform, including so-called "damages apportionment" and damages keyed to the "whole market value" of a device.According to noted patent commentator, Hal Wegner, the case brought by Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft embodies these damages "reform" issues and provides an opportunity for the Federal Circuit (and

USPTO Acted Within its Rulemaking Authority

Posted on March 20, 2009
The following summary was provided by Joseph R. Robinson of Darby & Darby, New York, NY.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its opinion in the lawsuit challenging the implementation of the proposed USPTO rules on continuation applications and other USPTO procedures...

Nintendo Prevails Over Fenner Investments in East Texas Patent Suit

Posted on March 17, 2009
Literally on the "eve of trial," Judge Leonard Davis dismissed claims for patent infringement against Nintendo that were brought by Fenner Investment in East Texas. Fenner had alleging that the Wii console and its controllers along with the GameCube infringed on a patent held by Fenner...

Portland Chain-maker Makes it Rain, Winning $2-million in Patent Infringement Damages

Posted on March 10, 2009
A Portland jury recently found in favor of Blount, Inc., a maker of chainsaw chain, bar, and accessories under its Oregon brand, in a patent infringement action against TriLink Saw Chain, LLC, TriLink Global, LLC, Jinhua TriLink Huihuang Co., and Jinhua Huihuang Hardware Co...

Patent Reform 2009: It's a "Threepeat"

Posted on March 04, 2009

Microsoft Goes on the Offensive Against TomTom

Posted on February 25, 2009
Ben Romano from the Seattle Times reported today that Microsoft filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Seattle and the International Trade Commission against TomTom, the Amsterdam-based maker of portable GPS systems for in-car navigation, after more than a year of trying to reach a licensing arrangement...

Implicit Networks Sued by Sun

Posted on February 12, 2009
It's been a bad month for local patent licensing company, Implicit Networks. Its case against Intel, Sun, Real, and AMD was stayed in view of reexamination, and now, it has been DJed (pronounced "dee-jay-ed," yes, it can be a verb, meaning "to sue for a declaratory judgment") by Sun...

Simulab Survives Summary Judgment (Barely) In Surgical Trainer Patent Case

Posted on February 12, 2009
Following up on my recent post about this case involving a patent owned by Simulab Corp. for a surgical trainer (U.S. Patent No. 6,780,016 "Human Surgical Trainer and Methods for Training"), Judge Zilly granted in-part and denied in-part Defendant's motion for summary judgment...

Implicit Networks Case Stayed Pending Reexamination

Posted on February 11, 2009
Local patent licensing company, Implicit Networks, was dealt a blow recently in its bid to enforce patent rights against Intel, AMD, Real Networks, and Sun. Implicit Sued back in February 2008 on U.S. Patent No. 6,629,163, a patent covering various encryption methods using demultiplexing technology for data processing...

K2 Wins Summary Judgment in Wide Short Ski Case

Posted on February 05, 2009
Some of you may remember an earlier post of mine about this case. Individual inventor, Paul Nelson, sued K2 on claims involving U.S. Patent No. 5,603,522 covering a "Wide Short Ski." The specification was drawn to a shaped ski having a range of dimensions in length, side-cut radius, shovel width, and tail width...

Seattle Patent Litigation Update January 2009

Posted on February 04, 2009
The Western District saw just one patent case filed last month, Chen v. Unisen, Inc. (2:2009cv00128, assigned to Judge Lasnik). Unisen does business under the name Star Trac. According to the Star Trac web site, Star Trac is "proud to be an international leader in commercial quality fitness equipment...

Court Hears Arguments for Summary Judgment in Surgical Trainer Patent Case

Posted on January 27, 2009
Judge Zilly heard arguments recently on a pending motion for summary judgment in a case brought by Simulab Corp. involving U.S. Patent No. 6,780,016 for a Human Surgical Trainer and Methods for Training. The accused infringer is Synbone AG, a Swiss company...

In Re Comiskey: Fed. Cir. Narrowly Denies Rehearing En Banc

Posted on January 13, 2009
Rehearing en banc was denied today in the closely watched case dealing with patentable subject matter under 35 USC Section 101, In re Comiskey. The petition for rehearing en banc failed by two votes, (failing to achieve a majority of seven judges) as only Newman, Mayer, Rader, Bryson, Moore, JJ...

Plyboo Claims Construction Order Issued

Posted on January 12, 2009
Judge Leighton (Tacoma) recently construed the claim terms of U.S. Patent No. 5,543,197, a patent including claims for "parallel, randomly stacked, stranded, laminated bamboo beams and boards." According to the order, the term "beam" as used in the claims is not necessarily limited to something of sufficient size and strength to serve as a structural support...

National Products, Inc. Wins at Federal Circuit

Posted on January 07, 2009
National Products Inc., a local maker of mounting products under the trademark RAM, won a victory at the CAFC yesterday. The opinion, authored by Chief Judge Michel, affirmed an order from the USDC in the Central District of California (Judge Audrey B...

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