For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, January 27th, 2019, we will discuss the following cases:

Molon Motor and Coil Corp. v. Nidec Motor Corp. (Fed Cir. 2020) (available here)

Molon Motor and Coil Corporation  appealed from a judgment in favor of Nidec Motor Corporation on Molon’s claim for infringement of U.S. Patent 6,465,915 . The district court granted summary judgment that Molon was barred from enforcing the ’915 patent against Nidec because of a covenant not to sue that Molon signed in 2006. Molan argued that the 2006 Covenant was extinguished by a clause in a Settlement, License and Release Agreement that the parties entered into in 2007. The clause at issue in the 2007 Settlement states that all prior covenants “concerning the subject matter hereof” are “merged” and “of no further force or effect.” The district court and CAFC both agreed that because the two agreements regarded different subjects the two agreements did not merge.

Southern Credentialing Support Servs., L.L.C. v. Hammond Surgical Hosp. (5th Cir. 2020) (available here)

Plaintiff provided defendant with medical forms from 2010 to 2013. Plaintiff later found out defended was still using the forms, and sued defendant for copyright infringement. The trial court ruled that defendant had infringed and awarded statutory damages. The 5th circuit reversed, finding that although defendant had infringed, the infringement occurred before the copyrighted works had been registered.

All are invited to join us on Monday January 27th, 2019 at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.