Please join us for the SoCal IP Institute meeting, Monday, October 4 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 cases:

Fujitsu Ltd. v. Netgear Inc., (Fed. Cir. Sept. 20, 2010) (case is attached).  In a patent infringement suit related to patents that describe and claim a different aspect of wireless communication technologies, district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment of noninfringement is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) district court correctly granted summary judgment of noninfringement of the asserted claims of the ‘642 and ‘993 patents; 2) summary judgment of noninfringement regarding the ‘952 patent was affirmed for all products but for the four models for which plaintiff produced appropriate evidence of direct infringement; and 3) with respect to these four models, district court’s summary judgment of no contributory and no induced infringement was reversed because genuine issues of material fact remain.

In re Chippendales USA, Inc., (Fed. Cir. Oct. 1, 2010) (case is attached).  In an appeal of plaintiff’s application to register its Cuffs & Collar mark as inherently distinctive for “adult entertainment services, namely exotic dancing for women,” in the nature of live performances, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board affirmed the examining attorney’s refusal to register the mark as inherently distinctive.  The Board determined that the Cuffs & Collar mark was not inherently distinctive and that plaintiff’s additional arguments for setting aside the Board’s decision were without merit.