Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, June 22, 2015 will be a discussion of the following cases:

TomTom, Inc. v. Adolph (Fed. Cir. June 19, 2015) (available here). Dr. Adolph owns a patent for “generating, merging and updating data” that can be used to provide a mobile unit with current, and continuously updated, accurate road network, route and traffic information. In 2012, Dr. Adolph’s company sued one of TomTom’s customers in Germany alleging infringement of Dr. Adolph’s EP counterpart patent related to his US patent. TomTom then filed a declaratory judgment action in the Eastern District of Virginia. The district court construed claims in a claim construction order. The parties stipulated that the court’s construction affected the analysis of infringement. Dr. Adolph appealed the district court’s constructions. The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s constructions finding that claims should be construed to reflect their plain and ordinary meaning.

OIP Technologies, Inc. v. Amazon, Inc., (Fed. Cir. June 11, 2015)  (available here).  OIP sued Amazon asserting infringement of its patent related to a method of price optimization in an ecommerce transaction. The district court held that the claims were invalid as they were not directed to patentable subject matter. OIP appealed the district court’s decision. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court holding that the claims are not directed to patentable subject matter, and therefore the patent is invalid.

All are invited to join us in our discussion during the SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, June 22, 2015 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 Noelle Smith by 9 am Monday morning.