In the second copyright case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 4, 2019, Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc.,[1] the high court dealt with the question of whether “full costs” is more than the costs set forth in either 28 U.S.C. §1821 or §1920. Both Oracle and Rimini Street are competitors in …
SCOTUS Watch: Registration Required Before Infringement Action
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of copyright decisions that will affect copyright owners’ ability to sue and recover in federal court. The first, Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Sreet.com, LLC,[1] settles a split in the appellate circuits concerning when a copyright owner may sue for copyright infringement – …
Fed Circuit Watch: District Courts Still Have Problems with Cray Rule
On February 5, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a petition for writ of mandamus, with a combined petition for rehearing and/or rehearing en banc, in In re Google LLC, the writ of mandate review stems from a patent infringement suit filed by SEVEN Networks, LLC, a mobile data analytics company, …
CannabIP: U.S. Patent No. 10,117,891 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,117,891 B2 (‘891) issued on November 6, 2018, for “Cannabinoid Composition for Treating Pain.” It was issued to inventors Ramachandra Mukunda of Potomac, Maryland, and Ranga Chelva Krishna of Englewood, New Jersey. The applicant/assignee is India Globalization Capital, Inc., a consolidated multi-industry company with a business division focused on cannabis pharmaceutical research. …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,096,319 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,096,319 B1 (‘319), issued on October 9, 2018, for “Voice-Based Determination of Physical and Emotional Characteristics of Users.” The inventors are Huafeng Jin of Sammamish, Washington and Shuo Wang of Bellevue, Washington. The applicant and assignee is Amazon Technologies, Inc. of Seattle, Washington, the giant e-commerce company which has transformed how people …
PlantIP: U.S. Patent No. 10,149,453 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,149,453 B2 (‘453) issued on December 11, 2018, for “New Guinea Impatiens Variety SAKIMP042.” It was issued to inventors Chihiro Sato and Shinji Minemura, both of Nagano, Japan. The assignee is Sakata Seed Corporation, of Yokohama, Japan, one of the world’s largest vegetable and ornamental seed companies. The one interesting aspect is …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,158,948 B2: GDC Edition
The Game Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco from March 18-22, 2019. To commemorate the GDC, we will highlight two gaming patents during the conference. U.S. Patent No. 10,158,948 B2 (‘948), issued on December 18, 2018, for “Gaming Headset with Voice Scrambling for Private In-Game Conversations.” The inventor is Richard Kulavik of San …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,157,521 B2: GDC Edition
The Game Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco from March 18-22, 2019. To commemorate the GDC, we will highlight two gaming patents during the conference. U.S. Patent No. 10,157,521 B2 (‘521), issued on December 18, 2018, for “Identification of Side Pot Participants in Poker Game.” The inventors are Jacob Moore of Alameda, California, …
CannabIP: U.S. Patent No. 10,085,965 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,085,965 B2 (‘965) issued on October 2, 2018, for “Cannabinoid Alcoholic Drink.” It was issued to applicants/inventors Olga Skuratovich of Denver, Colorado and Filipp Mirzakhanov of Centennial, Colorado. The sole ‘965 claim is directed to a method of producing a drink consisting of cannabidiol (CBD) and vodka. It is interesting that the …
Fed Circuit Watch: Pre-Critical Date Surgeries Not Invalidating Public Uses
In the first split precedential decision of 2019 by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Fed Circuit assessed the issues of invalidating public disclosure versus an inventor’s exception to experimentally perfect an invention for its intended purpose. That case, Barry v. Medtronic, Inc.,[1] decided on January 24, 2019, split heavily because of …