September 16, 2014
Apple's Retail Store Design is Now a Registerable Trademark in Germany
Tara Klamrowski
Apple is famous, or maybe infamous, for its comprehensive
approach to IP protection. One of the latest victories for the computer giant
comes out of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). On July 10,
2014, the CJEU issued
a preliminary ruling that a distinctive store layout may be registered as a
protected trademark with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).
Procedural History
The procedural history of this ruling takes us back across
the pond.
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On August 27, 2014, California Federal District Court Judge
Lucy Koh denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung,
which would have prevented the telecom giant from “making, selling, developing
or advertising” features in its products that infringed on three of Apple’s
patents. Apple, Inc. v. Samsung
Electronics Co. Ltd. et al, No. 5:12-cv-00630-LHK, slip op at 1 (N.D. Cal.
August 27, 2014). In her ruling,Judge Koh cited Apple’s failure to demonstrate any irreparable harm it was
likely to suffer as a result of Samsung’s exploitation of Apple’s patented
features as the basis for denial.
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After the United States, Germany has the second most active
patent docket in the world. With so much activity, Germany has a body dedicated
to patent invalidity and appeal proceedings, known as the Federal Patent Court
(“Bundespatentgericht”). This forum has original jurisdiction over challenges
to a patent’s validity and appellate jurisdiction over decisions issued by the
German Patent and Trademark Office (“DPMA”).
Similarities Between
PTAB and Germany’s Federal Patent Court
Similar to America’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”),
the Federal Patent Court of Germany provides parties with an alternative to
civil litigation for patent disputes.
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Aug.
25
With over eight USPTO
regional offices across the country, there are more than 170 Patent Trial and
Appeals Board (PTAB) administrative judges currently on the bench. Who are
these judges? What are their backgrounds? What should attorneys know before
appearing in front of a PTAB panel?
Backgrounds
While the PTAB
judges come from a variety of backgrounds, they share a similar set of
qualifications.
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What is a Post Grant
Review?
Post Grant Review (PGR), another product of the America
Invents Act (AIA), is an invalidity proceeding that went into effect September
16, 2012. Along with Inter Partes Review,
PGR is meant to phase out Inter Partes Reexamination. The petitioning party has
up to nine months after the a patent is granted to file a PGR petition to invalidate one
or more claims of the patent in question.
First PGR Petition: LaRose
Industries, LLC v. Choon’s Design, Inc.
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July
23
The last decision in a trio
of derivation petitions filed by Catapult Innovations against adidas AG has
been released by the PTAB. In derivation proceeding DER2014-00005,
Catapult filed a petition for derivation against adidas AG, alleging its U.S.
Pat. App. 13/543,428 was derived from Catapult’s invention disclosed in
U.S. Pat. App. 14/045,954.
Again, the Catapult disclosure in
question, for purposes of proving derivation in this petition, is the same
disclosure referred to in Case DER2014-00002 and
Case DER2014-00006— a
two-day presentation and demonstration given by Catapult’s CEO to adidas AG
subsidiary AWSE, during which technical information regarding the subject
matter of Catapult’s application was disclosed.
On July 18, 21014, the PTABdenied Catapult’s petition for the same reasons the petitions in DER2014-00002 and DER2014-00006 were denied.
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July
20
Derivation Proceedings
Along with the switch from a “first
to invent” to a “first to file” patent system, the America Invents Act (AIA)
created a new proceeding to deal with disputes over the true inventor of the
subject matter of a patent application – Derivation Proceedings.
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In high
stakes litigation, an expert’s testimony can be determinative of the outcome of
a case. It is of the utmost importance to ensure your expert is not only
qualified and experienced in their area of expertise, but has offered credible
testimony in past litigation
Using Docket
Alarm, you can quickly search for a particular individual and find all of their
litigation history in the US Court PACER database. Using terms and connectors,
you can conduct
a search of PACER dockets and documents that leverages the relationship
between the expert’s name and keywords indicative of the expert’s credibility.
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Docket Alarm can conduct natural language searches and terms and
connectors searches. Searching with natural language is easy, just type
what you’re looking for and we’ll find the most relevant documents.
Terms and connectors searching provides a high level of precision that can help narrow down search results. Docket Alarm supports many terms and connectors, including Boolean, proximity, stemming, wildcard, and phrase searches.
Below is a summary of Docket Alarm’s connectors:
Terms and connectors searching provides a high level of precision that can help narrow down search results. Docket Alarm supports many terms and connectors, including Boolean, proximity, stemming, wildcard, and phrase searches.
Below is a summary of Docket Alarm’s connectors:
Connector
|
Description
|
Example
|
AND default
|
Find documents containing all
connected terms. |
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Part
important public resource, part anachronistic PDF filing cabinet, PACER (Public
Access to Court Electronic Records) is outdated at best and downright primitive
at worst.
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Docket Alarm is proud to announce the release of its search engine for the Patent Trial Appeal Board.It is currently the only search engine dedicated solely to PTAB decisions, providing instant access to every docket and document produced by the PTAB, including every decision, petition, motion and most exhibits. The PTAB search engine allows you to search dockets, documents or both dockets and documents simultaneously.
The PTAB Improves on Federal District Court Shortcomings
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was created in response to the America Invents Act (AIA) and opened for business on September 16, 2012.The court is now the newest venue to challenge patent validity.
One advantage to challenging a patent in the PTAB over Federal District Courts is that the patent is not presumed to be valid as it is in District Court litigation, which can be incredibly difficult for challengers to overcome.
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Feb.
19
We are proud to announce the Docket Alarm has entered private beta. Select users can enter the site and get updates to all Federal Court litigation and I.T.C. litigation. As we gain more confidence in the system, we will be opening it up to more users. If you would like to be included in the beta program, please email admin@docketalarm.com.
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