Please join us for the SoCal IP Institute meeting, Monday, January 10 at Noon. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Amanda Jones by 9 am Monday.
We will be discussing the following:
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., No. 10-1035, 1055 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 4, 2011) (case attached) In a case asserting Uniloc’s patent covering a method of enabling software to operate on a particular computer, Uniloc appealed a district court JMOL decision of non-infringement and no willful infringement and, alternatively, sought a new trial on both issues. Uniloc also appealed the district court’s grant of a new trial on damages. Microsoft sought review of the district court’s denial of its JMOL motion of invalidity. The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of JMOL of non-infringement and affirmed the grant of JMOL of no willfulness. The Federal Circuit also affirmed the grant of a new trial on damages. The denial of Microsoft’s JMOL motion of invalidity was affirmed. After a lengthy discussion of infringement and willfulness, the Federal Circuit overturned a long-standing “rule of thumb” that 25% is a good starting point for beginning a reasonable royalty damages inquiry. The rule was thrown out as “fundamentally flawed”.
In re Microsoft Corp., Misc. No. 11-0944 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 5, 2011) (case attached) On review of a petition for a writ of mandamus forcing the Eastern District of Texas to transfer a case under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), the Federal Circuit initially entered a non-precedential decision on November 8, 2010. This order is a precedential order in the same case. In the case, the plaintiff was a Texas limited liability company formed (16 days before bringing suit) with corporate offices in Tyler, Texas. The plaintiff also transferred all of its relevant documents to the recently-opened offices in Tyler. The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s decision not to transfer the case to the W.D. of Washington, primarily in response to the attempted venue “manipulation”.