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Crop-seed patent suit finally bears fruit
The wheels of justice turn slowly indeed. A federal court in North Carolina has awarded over $5.3 million in attorneys’ fees to lawyers for Dow Agrosciences in a case that took 17 years to see from start to finish. Some of the attorneys arguing before the court weren’t even practicing law yet when the case began its journey in October of 1995. The dispute started when Plant Genetic Syste[...]
Intellectual Property – Patent – Qui Tam – False Marking Claim – 2011 Amendment – Constitutional
Cloverleaf Golf Course, Inc. v. Bayer Cropscience LP Where plaintiff alleges that defendants violated 35 U.S.C. § 292 by falsely marking articles with expired patents for the purpose of deceiving their competitors and the public into believing that such articles are covered by the falsely marked patents, plaintiff’s cause of action has been abrogated by the Leahy-Smith America Invents [...]
Attorneys – Civil Practice – Discovery – Deposition – Corporate Counsel – Intellectual Property — Patent
Buyer’s Direct Inc. v. Belk, Inc. Documents produced in discovery show that defendants’ in-house counsel has direct personal knowledge of non-privileged facts relating to another lawsuit in which defendants were accused of infringing on their suppliers’ designs and manufacturing products based on such designs under their own private label. Plaintiff seeks to depose defendants’ in-[...]
Labor & Employment – Intellectual Property – Patent — Employee’s Inventions – Wage & Hour Act – REDA – Liquidated Damages – Attorney’s Fees
Morris v. Scenera Research, LLC Defendants acted in good faith and with a reasonable belief that they were not in violation of the Wage and Hour Act when they refused to pay plaintiff bonuses for patents which had not issued yet at the time plaintiff’s employment ended. However, since defendants never reduced to writing – until shortly before plaintiff’s employment ended – a chang[...]
Intellectual Property – Patent – Sale Contract – Construction of Terms – Tort/Negligence – Fraud
Shamoon v. Turkow In the contract pursuant to which defendants invested in plaintiffs’ invention, the first sentence provides that defendants receive one-half percent ownership in the invention in exchange for $60,000. The second sentence says that the above grant of ownership entitles defendants to one-half percent of all proceeds from the sale of the invention. Since the second sente[...]
Decision threatening biotech companies reversed
Intellectual property lawyers say the biotech field dodged a bullet with a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finding human genes are patentable. “A decision saying you can’t patent genes would destroy the industry,” Boston lawyer David S. Resnick said of the closely watched case, The Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. United States Patent and T[...]
Patent system gets first major retooling in half-century
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has given the U.S. patent system its first major overhaul since the age of the transistor radio by passing legislation designed to spur innovation and provide a sorely needed boost to the job market. Senate passage of the America Invents Act, which sends it to President Barack Obama for his signature, is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It took[...]
Top Legal News
- Lawsuit faults Google Maps in deadly crash
- Program offers new opportunities for summer associates
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- West Point sued over affirmative action in admissions
- Jury pool could boost Trump in documents case
- Amotion sees resurgence after almost a decade
- City, plaintiff settle lawsuit over CSA monument protest
- Judge rejects bid to reverse former officer’s Jan. 6 guilty verdict
- Power politics plays out in state
- Baylor settles long-running sexual assault lawsuit
- Lawyer: Clark acted within the scope of duties
- NIL law changes face of college athletics
Commentary
- Amotion sees resurgence after almost a decade
- The flip side of generative AI in law and how to address it
- The fight for equal educational opportunity continues
- Court’s term was rough on big business
- Ex-president, bar association have made their choice
- Ruling sharpens boundaries in attorney-client privilege
- Lawyers Weekly debuts new and improved web experience
- US Supreme Court bites back at parody’s use of the First Amendment
- Supreme Court leaves key internet protection untouched
- Case study: North Carolina courts provide guidance on scope, limitations of attorney-client privilege
- A Different Ode to Pro Bono Work
- A roadmap to attracting, developing, retaining great associates
