Use in Commerce
Article Date: Monday, February 28, 2011
Written By: Justin R. Nifong
• Kodak lost an ITC case in late January against RIM and Apple in which certain patents were ruled invalid and not infringed. After this ruling, Kodak’s stock price dropped from a close of $5.22 USD on Jan. 24, 2011 to a close of $3.71 USD on Jan. 26, 2011. This resulted in a market share drop of roughly $400 million USD (See chart, above).
• On the subject of stock prices, the USPTO has granted a request to reexamine Star Scientific’s U.S. Patent Nos. 6,202,649 and 6,425,401 (See chart, above). Each of the ‘649 and ‘401 patents was the subject of a patent infringement suit against RJ Reynolds involving tobacco curing technology. After a district court decision on January 19, 2007 finding the ‘649 and ‘401 patents unenforceable for inequitable conduct, the stock price tumbled from $4.00 USD to about $1.00, only for the CAFC to reverse the district court’s determination on August 25, 2008, after which the stock price soared from roughly $1.60 USD to $4 USD. On remand, the district court found the patents invalid and not infringed on June 16, 2009, after which the stock price plummeted from about $5.00 USD to about $1.50 USD.
• Intellectual Property protection of heart stents is still big business. Recently, Dr. Bruce Saffran won a $482 million USD award against Johnson and Johnson for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,653,760 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING MACROMOLECULAR DISTRIBUTION.”
• Just days before Super Bowl XLV, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement seized ten websites that were streaming live sports and pay-per-view events. The following notice now appears at each site:
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