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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT LAW | |
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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ASSOCIATIONS | |
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July 22, 1995 | |
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Edward J. Cabic | |
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SELECTED CASES OF NEW LAW AND INTEREST | |
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Supreme Court | |
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Asgrow (p. 2) |
Plant Variety Protection Act - farmer can only sell as much seed as would replant his acreage. |
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101 Inoperability or Patentability | |
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Brana (p. 4) |
Statistical significant tests with standard experimental animals is sufficient to establish utility.
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103 Obviousness | |
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Lowry (p. 9) |
Printed matter cases do not apply to computer data structure invention. |
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Deuel (p. 9) |
Protein does not necessarily render particular DNA molecules encoding the protein obvious. |
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Soni (p. 10) |
A statement of unexpected results should suffice to established unexpected results in the absence of evidence to the contrary. |
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112 Best Mode | |
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Glaxo (p. 12) |
The best mode to be disclosed is that contemplated by the inventor, not that known by others in the organization. |
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271 Infringement | |
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Sage Products (p. 23) |
When an element that is intended to be replaced is effectively spent, the user may replace it without infringing the patent. |
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284 Damages | |
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Rite-Hite (p. 30) |
Profits from lost sales of a patentee's nonpatented devices that directly compete with the infringing device can be recovered as �~84 damages. |
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Declaratory Judgment | |
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Phillips Plastic Patentee trying to conduct license negotiations does not create a justiciable (p. 38) controversy. | |
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Jury Trials | |
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Lockwood (p. 42) |
When validity is questioned, patentee is entitled to have the factual questions relating to validity tried to a jury as a matter of right. |
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Markman (p. 43) Claim construction is a matter of law to be done by a judge. | |