"Judicial reform of patent litigation in the USA" is the title of a team-authored article which will soon be published in the
Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (
JIPLP). The team consists of James R. Farrand, Victoria C. Shapiro, Paul A. Abbott, Christopher M. Stothers, Seth D. Weisberg and Richard A. Killworth. The abstract reads as follows:
"Legal context. The past quarter of a century was a time of strong and increasing patent protection in the US. But recently, in the face of pressure from the business community, scholarly studies, US Supreme Court opinions, and threats of Congressional action, US courts have narrowed patent protection in a wide variety of ways. This article explores the specifics of that reversal.
Key points. Recent court decisions have overturned a variety of pro-patentee rules in litigation, facilitating patent invalidation, reducing patent coverage and the availability of important remedies for infringement, and cutting the power of juries in patent cases. The result is a rapid and wide-ranging retrenchment--essentially “patent reform” without Congressional participation. Particularly affected are non-practising entities, which are more vulnerable to validity challenges and, in most cases, have lost the strongest weapon in their armoury for licensing negotiations--the chance to obtain an injunction against infringers. Holders of business method patents and small-entity patent holders also suffer disproportionately from the changes.
Practical significance. The article summarizes the facets of US patent protection affected by the recent decisions and discusses the consequences of the changes for current (and potential) US patent holders and producers/traders active in, or selling to, the US".
Subscribers to the online version of JIPLP can access it already, and the printed version will be published soon. Non-subscribers can access it on a pay-per-view basis by clicking
here and scrolling down to ''Purchase short-term access".
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