Intellectual Property | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Forum Selection Clause Applies in Patent Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 28, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this complaint alleging patent infringement, the Norfolk U.S. District Court has personal jurisdiction over defendants under a forum selection clause in the parties’ earlier Agreement, and the complaint complies with Fed. R. Civ. P. Form 18 and the district court denies defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint as insufficient under Twombly and Iqbal.
Plaintiffs W.L. [...]

Laches Defense to Trademark Claim Remanded

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 13, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Intellectual Property, Judge Andre M. Davis

Although plaintiff communications company, which registered the Agrinet service mark in 1972 and has used it for radio broadcast of farm news, acknowledges it permitted certain uses of the Agrinet mark in some local markets by predecessors of defendant Clear Channel Inc., the district court erred in granting defendant summary judgment on the ground of [...]

Rehab Company Wins ‘False Marking’ Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge James C. Turk, U.S. District Court - Western District

Plaintiffs who seek to develop custom products for rehabilitation of stroke patients win their claim that defendant Nautilus is liable for false marking in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 292, and the Roanoke U.S. District Court grants in part plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.
Plaintiffs Ponani Sukumar and Southern California Stroke Rehabilitation Associates Inc. (SCSRA) originally [...]

Pleading Standard Reviewed for Patent Cases

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

As the 4th Circuit has not applied the Twombly-Iqbal standard in a case alleging patent infringement, a Norfolk U.S. District Court applies a relevant decision of the Federal Circuit in reviewing defendants’ motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff alleges defendants’ products, services, systems and/or methods infringe five patents that plaintiff owns relating to software that monitors, collects, measures [...]

Small Business Owner Gets Attorneys’ Fees

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 16, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Robert G. Doumar, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After granting summary judgment for defendants for in an action alleging violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and federal Copyright Act, the Newport News U.S. District Court awards attorney’s fees only as to the DMCA claims asserted against a small business owner: the DMCA claims against this uninsured small business lack a factual [...]

Patentee Bound by Application Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 13, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Robert G. Doumar, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In a patent infringement action seeking injunctive relief, the Norfolk U.S. District Court held that the patentee’s claims in seeking the patent control the definition of “collector card” as one having intrinsic value when dispensed.
In 2001, patentee obtained a patent for a collector card dispensing system with a promotional free game. In distinguishing his invention [...]

Default Sanction for Patent Infringement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 7, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court accepts a magistrate judge’s recommendation to award default judgment against defendants Ali Hammoud and Al-Amir Inc. for infringing plaintiff’s line of hookah products and marks, and orders defendants to pay $288,419 in damages, $3,563 in costs and $248,863 in attorney’s fees,
The court concludes defendant Ali Hammoud’s objections to the magistrate’s [...]

Markman Hearing for Medical Device Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 26, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this patent infringement suit involving eight disputed claims for plaintiff’s ‘870 patent titled “Intramural Stent Graft,” a Norfolk U.S. District Court has concluded its Markman hearing and construes the following terms and phrases: stent, wall, multiplicity of openings, covering, affixing, seam extending from the exterior surface through to the luminal surface of the tubular [...]

‘Inequitable Conduct’ Defense Fails

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 12, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Leonie Brinkema, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In plaintiff Rolls-Royce’s patent infringement suit against defendant United Technologies involving patents for a jet engine swept fan blade, the Alexandria U.S. District Court denies Rolls-Royce’s motion to dismiss UTC’s third counterclaim and to strike its third affirmative defenses, each of which alleges inequitable conduct.
UTC’s four theories of inequitable conduct allege that: 1) the Rolls-Royce [...]

Airline Internet Deal Spawns Lanham Act Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 10, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this contract action on a project to improve Internet service for airline passengers, plaintiff Lufthansa states a claim with allegations that defendant Wi-SKY Inflight made false statements and representations on the investor relations section of its public website concerning a business relationship between itself and Lufthansa, and the Richmond U.S. District Court denies defendant’s [...]

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