For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, May 16, 2016, we will discuss the following cases:

Sheppard Mullin v. J-M Mfg Co. (Cal. App. Feb. 26, 2016) (available here). In this unanimous published decision, the Court of Appeal reversed a $1.7 million dollar judgment holding that broad, non specific conflict waivers are invalid.  

In Enfish LLC v. Microsoft (Fed. Cir. 5/12/16), The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit just issued an important decision on software patent eligibility as affected by the Alice decision.  As summarized by the Federal Circuit: “Enfish sued Microsoft for infringement of several patents related to a “self-referential” database. On summary judgment, the district court found all claims invalid as ineligible under § 101, some claims invalid as anticipated under § 102, and one claim not infringed. Enfish appeals. We find that the claims are not directed to an abstract idea, so we reverse the summary judgment based on § 101. We find that the “pivot table” feature of the prior art Excel product does not contain the “selfreferential” feature of the claims, so we vacate the summary judgment based on § 102. Lastly, we find no error in the district court’s determination on non-infringement, so we affirm the summary judgment of non-infringement. We remand the case for further proceedings.”

All are invited to join us on Monday, May 16, 2016, at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit, including 1 hour of Ethics Credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Moniquee Brown by 9 am Monday morning.