For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, February 12, 2018, we will discuss the following cases:

Finjan, Inc. v. Blue Coat Systems, Inc., (CAFC January 11, 2018) (available here). Finjan sued Blue Coat for infringement of four patents related to providing computer security by attaching a security profile to a downloadable. The trial court found the patents were eligible and not directed to ineligible subject matter under 101, the CAFC affirmed. After analyzing the way in which the software worked the court stated, “[t]he asserted claims are therefore directed to a non-abstract improvement in computer functionality, rather than the abstract idea of computer security writ large.”

BMG Rights Mgmt. v. Cox Communications., (4th Cir. February 1, 2018) (available here). BMG hired a third party to file complaint notices and enforce its copyrights with Cox. Cox had a policy for dealing with copyright complaints, but it was very restrictive (they would only remove infringing material after 13 “strikes”, they reset the clock on strikes after 6 months, they would only process a certain number of claims from the same entity each day). The court found DMCA safe harbor provisions were not available to Cox because of this policy. The court reasoned that although Cox had enacted a policy, they tried hard to not honor the policy and made it difficult for copyright holders to enforce their rights.

All are invited to join us on February 12, 2018, 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.