Blog entries

C.R. Bard Inc. alleges infringement of vascular graft technology

Tara Williams — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:08:07 +0100

C.R. Bard Inc., a major manufacturer of products related to vascular, urology and oncology disease, has filed a lawsuit against two of its competitors for allegedly infringing on Bard’s patent for a “Prosthetic Vascular Graft” using a specialized plastic called expanded polytetrafluoroethylene.

The two defendants in the case are Endologix and Atrium Medical Corp. Endologix develops and manufactures products to allow for minimally invasive treatment of vascular disRead More...

Blizzard Entertainment wins $88.6 million settlement for IP infringement

Tara Williams — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:21:03 +0100

Scapegaming was recently ordered to pay Blizzard Entertainment $88.6 million for violating intellectual property rights for allowing players to access a set of World of Warcraft emulator servers.

An emulator server (also known as a private server) refers to an Internet server that mimics the behavior of another server. In this case, Scapegaming’s emulator servers allowed people to connect to and play World of Wizard without using official Blizzard servers.

BlizzaRead More...

Microsoft Settles Piracy Lawsuit Against Chinese Company

Tara Williams — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Microsoft’s Second Chinese Piracy Lawsuit in a Year

Microsoft settled a lawsuit against a large Chinese company for using unlicensed software in its operations. In the settlement, CITIC Kington Securities of Hangzhou, China will buy $477,000 of Microsoft software. The suit was filed in a court in the city of Hangzhou.

This is the second Chinese piracy suit the software giant has won this year. In April, a court in Shanghai ruled against a Chinese insurance coRead More...

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by St. Louis company against Asian Competitors

Tara Williams — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Won similar lawsuits in Germany, China and Korea

When intellectual property law becomes international, it can produce seemingly contradictory results.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio dismissed a suit filed five years ago by St. Louis-based Solutia Inc. against Sinorgchem of China and Kumho Petrochemical of South Korea. The suit alleged that the companies copied Solutia’s patented eco-friendly process for preventing rubber from degrading, aRead More...

Google Wins Summary Judgment in Copyright Infringement Case Against Viacom

Tara Williams — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:49:10 +0100

Judge Declares Copyright Owner Must Monitor Its Own Products

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled in favor of Google in its long-standing dispute with Viacom International Inc.
Viacom International alleged that Google was liable for copyright infringement for publishing copyright-protected content on its YouTube site. The Court declared that Google was protected by provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which basically statesRead More...

eBay Faces $3.8 Billion Suit Over Patented E-Commerce Technology

Tara Williams — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:00:00 +0100

XPRT Venures LLC of Greenwich, Conn. has filed suit for $3.8 billion against eBay for allegedly copying six of its patents related to the online payment process, Pay Pal. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware on July 13, 2010.

XPRT further alleges that the infringement was “willful and malicious.” If found guilty of willful and malicious infringement, the court could award up to three times the $3.8 billion as punitive damages.

Metso settles intellectual property lawsuit for $25 million

Tara Williams — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:00:00 +0100

FLSmidth-Excel LLC and Excel Foundry & Machine, Inc., has recently settled an intellectual property dispute with Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. for approximately $25 million. The dispute centered on a trade secret used to create high-performance conical rock crushers used by the mining industry.

The trade secret was allegedly stolen from Metso and passed on to the defendant by two individuals, one of whom was an ex-employee of Metso, and the other an employee of a MetsRead More...

Discovery Alleges Amazon.com’s Kindle E-book Reader Infringes on Patent

Tara Williams — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:21:34 +0100

New technologies open the door to new patent infringement issues, and e-book readers are no exception.

Discovery Patent Holdings, the intellectual property subsidiary of Discovery Communications, has filed two suits in as many years claiming that Amazon.com Inc. has infringed on patents when creating its popular line of Kindle e-book readers.

Discovery Patent Holdings filed its first suit in March 2009, alleging that Amazon.com infringed on its patents when creating Read More...

Axcess International Files Conflict of Interest Suit Against International Law Firm

Tara Williams — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:18:44 +0100

Axcess International, Inc. has filed suit against the international law firm Baker Botts for conflict of interest in intellectual property matters. If successful, the suit could cost Baker Botts millions of dollars.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on July 15. In the suit, Axcess claims that Baker Botts had a conflict of interest when it concurrently provided intellectual property advice to both companies, and assisted both coRead More...

K-TEC Inc. wins $11 million for infringement of blender patents

Tara Williams — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:24:06 +0100

‘Wilfulness’ verdict by jury opens case up to treble damages

In another case for a small inventor over a giant conglomerate, K-TEC Inc., of Orem, Utah won an $11 million settlement over blending industry giant Vita-Mix Corp. over its patented Blendtec blender technology.

The case was heard in the U.S. District Court, District of Utah.

The case alleged that Vita-Mix Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio infringed on a variety of K-TEC patents, including its fiveRead More...

Supreme Court: NFL teams are separate entities when it comes to apparel licensing

Tara Williams — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:00:00 +0100

You may not realize it, but whenever you purchase a NFL jersey or hat, you are purchasing property which may be the subject of a major intellectual property dispute.

In the 2010 case American Needle v. National Football League (08-661), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NFL cannot act as one entity when licensing team apparel. The dispute arose after a decision was made by the NFL in 2001 to give Reebox an exclusive 10-year contract to manufacture various pieced of Read More...

Custom Glass of Carolinas Wins IP Suit

Tara Williams — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Judge Awards $8 million, plus permanent injunctive order

Custom Glass Products of Carolina Inc., headquartered in Salisbury, NC won a judgment against Infini-Lite LLC of Tucker, Ga., for infringing on its patented Decralite grids. The judgment provides a permanent injunction against Infini-Lite for the use of Decralite patents and the Decralite trademark, as well as $8 million in damages. Custom Glass Products was actually the defendant in the case.

Decralite Grid SystRead More...

Software giants file competing patent infringement lawsuits

Tara Williams — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:02:45 +0100

Microsoft, Salesforce.com compete in cloud-computing market

Two software giants are battling it out in the courts, both accusing the other of patent infringement.

The competing lawsuits pit Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, against Salesforce.com, the world’s biggest seller of Web-based customer-management programs.

Both companies are vying for a place in the expanding cloud-computing market. Last month, Microsoft CorRead More...

Progressive Charges Liberty Mutual in Patent Infringement Case

Tara Williams — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:32:12 +0100

Progressive Corp., an auto insurance company, has accused Liberty Mutual, another insurance company, of infringing on patents it holds for automobile onboard monitoring systems. Such systems capture data regarding a driver’s driving habits.

In 1999, Progressive began offering an in-car monitoring system. The voluntary system, named MyRate, monitors such items as how fast a driver travels, times of travel, and average daily mileage. The company uses this informRead More...

Dow Chemicals Awarded $61.7 Million in Suit Against Novo Chemical Corp.

Tara Williams — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:14:56 +0100

Dow Chemical was awarded $61.7 million in a patent infringement lawsuit against Nova Chemicals Corp. of Canada.

A judge in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware ruled in Dow’s favor after a jury found that Nova Chemicals Corp. infringed on two patents related to strong plastics. Nova Chemical Corp. countered that the patents were invalid due to missing data.

The suit was initially fined in 2005. The final ruling was signed on May 20, 2010.&nRead More...

Court Awards Retractable Technologies $5M in suit against Becton, Dickinson

Tara Williams — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:27:24 +0100

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, has awarded Retractable Technologies Inc. $5 million in a patent infringement suit against Becton, Dickinson and Co.

Retractable Technologies manufactures VanishPoint® automated retraction safety syringes, automated retractions blood collection devices and automated retraction IC catheters. Becton, Dickinson manufactures similar retractable safety syringes under the brand name “Integra.&rRead More...

Marine Polymer Technologies awarded $29.4 million in suit against HemCon Medical Technologies

Tara Williams — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:38:19 +0100

A federal jury for the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire has awarded Marine Polymer Technologies $29.4 million in a patent infringement suit against HemCon Medical Technologies.

The suit concerned compounds used in hemostatic bandages used to prevent severe blood loss. HemCon sold the allegedly infringing products to the military since 2003, but in the last two years began selling to the civilian market. These sales caught the attention of Marine PolymRead More...

Metso Receives $25M in Patent Infringement Settlement

Tara Williams — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:36:19 +0100

Metso Announces Settlement of Patent Infringement Suit under Confidential Terms

Metso Corporation’s patent infringement lawsuit filed against FLSmidth-Excel, LLC, Excel Foundry & Machine, Inc., et al. settles under the terms of a confidential settlement agreement. Metso did reveal that it received approximately $25M as compensation under the terms the settlement. Metso, a global supplier of mining equipment, is based in Helsinki, Finland and has Read More...

Gibson Guitar Settles Case Against Wal-Mart Stores, Viacom and Electronic Arts and Others

Tara Williams — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:59:22 +0100

Under undisclosed terms, Gibson Guitar agreed to settle its patent infringement lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores, Viacom Inc. and Electronic Arts, Inc., which patents allegedly cover the “Rock Band” music videogame. Some of the other retailers also mentioned in the suit included Amazon.com, and Target Corp.

The patents related to methods for simulating a musical concert. The parties expect to dismiss the suit this month.

SOURCE: Read More...

DDB Technologies files patent infringement lawsuit against AOL, NHL

Intellectual Property Blog — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:50:13 +0100

In May 2010, DDB Technologies, LLC filed patent infringement lawsuits against AOL Inc., NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises LLC, NHL Enterprises LP, and NHL Enterprises Inc., claiming the companies infringed a patent portfolio related to sports broadcasting technologies.

The patents-at-issue, US Patent Nos. 5,526,479, 5,671,347, 6,204,862, and 7,373,587, cover such technologies as play-by-play text and animation and real-time simulation of a sporting event.

DDB TeRead More...