IP Litigator articles from September 2002

IP Litigator archives from September 2002

How to critique a confusion survey or mistakes to avoid in developing survey evidence.(trademark infringement litigation)
September 1, 2002... Over the past 25 years, surveys demonstrating consumer confusion have become de rigueur in trademark infringement cases. It is thus important to know, when confronted with a litigation adversary's survey evidence, how to assess the validity...

A lawyer's duty of confidentiality to clients and non-clients.
September 1, 2002... Clients have a fundamental right to expect that communications with their lawyers will remain confidential. Indeed, the ability of the lawyer to effectively perform his or her duties requires that the client and prospective client be able to...

The commercial offer prong of the on-sale bar, after Pfaff.(patent law)
September 1, 2002... Hoping to bring greater certainty to the application of the on-sale bar test the Supreme Court, in 1998, in Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (1) articulated a new, two part standard for that test. The Court held that a patent is invalid under...

Common terms get fresh construction.(patent claims)
September 1, 2002... In Neomagic Corp. v. Trident Microsystems, Inc., [287 F. 3d 106, 62 U.S.P.Q.2d 1482 (Fed. Cir. 2002)], the Federal Circuit reviewed the decision of a district court on claim construction that resulted from several Markman hearings. The...

Revenge of the troll dolls: copyright restoration for foreign works.
September 1, 2002... The copyright restoration provisions of Section 104A have been in effect for over 6 years, yet have received very little play in the courts. A recent decision from the Third Circuit, Dam Things From Denmark v. Russ Berrie & Co., [290 F.3d 548...

Does Festo matter?(doctrine of equivalents; patent law)
September 1, 2002... To patent owners, potential infringers, and lawyers who litigate patent cases, any Supreme Court decision that involves patents is by definition important, if for no other reason than because the Court so seldom sticks its toe into the murky...

Evidence of bad faith brings us closer to a unified theory of threatened misappropriation.(trade secrets)
September 1, 2002... The Uniform Trade Secrets Act authorizes the courts to grant injunctive relief on finding "actual or threatened misappropriation" of trade secrets. Allegations of "threatened misappropriation" commonly arise when employees leave their...

Repair doctrine prevents claims of indirect infringement for selling replacement parts.(patent law)
September 1, 2002... Sometimes, after obtaining a patent on a combination of specific components, a patentee realizes that the greatest commercial value lies not in the market for the patented combination, but in the market for replacement parts. A patentee faces...

Supplemental filings in UDRP cases.(Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy)
September 1, 2002... On August 26, 1999, ICANN adopted the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for the arbitration of domain name disputes in the general top level domains .corn, .net, and .org. On October 24, 1999, ICANN implemented the UDRP in...

To what may an expert testify?(intellectual property litigation)
September 1, 2002... Allowable expert testimony in intellectual property causes continues to draw court attention in the cases. In Bausch & Lomb, Inc. v. Alcon Lab., Inc. [79 F. Supp. 2d 252 (W.D.N.Y. 2000)], the court addressed the proper bounds of a patent law...