Aereo: Signaling Television’s New Frontier
Earlier this month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in favor of Aereo, a groundbreaking company providing live and time-shifted streaming of free, over-the-air television channels to paying Aereo customers. To provide this service, Aereo relies on its use of tiny antennae – none of which is used at the same time [...]
Alternative Statutory Bases for Invalidating “Gene Patents”
The Supreme Court recently granted a writ of certiorari in the highly controversial case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad. In the coming months, the Court will determine whether the genetic material claimed by Myriad’s composition patents is patentable subject matter under Section 101 of the Patent Act. The high profile case has generated a [...]
Smartphone Wars: Part II
On August 24th, Apple won decisively in Apple v. Samsung. The jury awarded Apple $1.04 billion for infringing Apple’s intellectual property. This was less than the $2.5 billion that Apple requested, but the jury found that Apple wasn’t infringing any of Samsung’s patents. Of the many patents that were disputed, the judgment turned on three [...]
“More Than a Drafting Effort”: SCOTUS Strikes Down Prometheus Labs Patents
On March 20, the Supreme Court handed down their unanimous decision in the case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. The Court struck down Prometheus’s patents stating that, regardless of the language in the claims, they were effectively patents on a law of nature which is not allowed. The Court added that any [...]
Smartphone Wars
Apple sues Samsung for patent infringement. In response, Samsung files international countersuits on patents of its own. Courts around the world grant preliminary injunctions to each company on a number of their claims, while United States and European Union government agencies investigate allegations of antitrust violations. What’s going on here? Let’s start with the shiny [...]
ACTA: Activists Stay Alert in the Aftermath of SOPA
Earlier this century, the entertainment industry attempted to vanquish illegal downloading and the online services that made it possible. Remember the injunctions against Limewire and Napster? The astronomical RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lawsuits filed against more than 35,000 individuals who downloaded and shared a handful of copyrighted music files? The industry achieved mixed [...]