Gary Reback, famed antitrust/IP lawyer and long-time thorn in the side of Microsoft, has written a book entitled “Free The Market!”. The book will be released in mid-April and is available on preorder at Amazon now.
Based on a few excerpts on Reback’s web site it looks like this will be an anecdotal, “in-the-trenches” book (as opposed to theoretical/academic) that should be well worth reading for those interested in the antitrust/IP wars of the last two decades. Reback was truly in the center of most of the big cases during these years, and I hope his book captures the legal issues, strategies and behind-the-scenes events that he witnessed.
As I’ve said so many times in this blog, it’s not the law you need to fear, it’s the judge.
In CU Medical v. Alaris Medical System (a patent infringement case involving medical valves) the patent owner/plaintiff argued that the term “spike,” described in the patent as “a pointed instrument,” included non-pointed structures, such as a tube.The California U.S. District Court trial judge didn’t take kindly to this frivolous argument (in the eyes of the judge). The judge also found that the plaintiff had made “multiple, repeated misrepresentations . . . to the Court,” another no-no.
The trial court imposed sanctions totalling $4.4 million under 35 U.S.C. Section 285 (“The court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party”) as well as Rule 11 sanctions for good measure.
Here’s a link to Connecticut Supreme Court Briefs Onlne, a WordPress blog managed by members of the Connecticut bar who attempt to post the briefs in every case that is argued before the Connecticut Supreme Court. The site also posts a short description of the issue in each case, the decision (when it becomes available) and a video of argument before the Court (also when available).
It would be great if every state did this, and if there were a centralized site that provided access to each state (StateCourtBriefsOnline.com?).
“Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of revenge into its inexorable motion”
Frank Herbert
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For those who have access to the American Lawyer (and I realize that at $430/year that’s a tiny percentage of lawyers, and almost no non-lawyers), there’s a interesting article in the March 2009 issue on the impact the Roberts Court’s patent rulings in appeals from the CAFC (six cases, six reversals) has had on the CAFC. The article, titled “The Error of Their Ways,” shows the extent to which the USSC is pushing the CAFC in the direction of a more moderate (less permissive) application of patent law. According to this article, the Supreme Court has the CAFC questioning everything they have ever known about patent law. If this article is to be believed, the Supreme Court has effected a major retrenchment in U.S. patent law.
Oh well. Who said that the law was immune from creative destruction?
You may be able to find the American Lawyer in a library, but I doubt that many libraries would pay that subscription ….
Recently my partner Joseph Laferrera has given a series of presentations and webinars on the controversial new Massachusetts data security regulations. Information on his upcoming webinar with Ntirety (a database administrator and client of our firm), on April 2, 2009 at 10:00 a.m., is available at this link.
A copy of the slides Joe is using now (they change often, based on developments), is on scribed.com, here:
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