Earlier this week, SIIA filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on patent venue, urging it to reverse the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of the existing patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. 1400(b).  Although the argument is a technical one, the resolution of this case has important implications for the technology industry.  The misinterpretation of that statute has concentrated patent litigation in a single district that has encouraged the growth of the patent assertion business model.

Sharing Knowledge for a Price (New York Times) SIIA was featured in a spotlight of letters to the editor regarding free access to research journals papers.  The letter was in response to an article that ran in the Times titled, “Should All Research Papers Be Free?” Judge Delays Latest Apple v. Samsung Patent Trial (San Jose Mercury News) On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh decided to postpone a retrial on damages questions in the infamous 2012 Apple v. Samsung patent case. New York Senator Proposes Tax Credit for Open-Source Developers (The Register) A New York Senate Bill would allow open-source programmers to reclaim twenty percent of the out-of-pocket cost of building and sharing open-source code.  However, the rebate only allows for a maximum annual benefit of $200 per person. Reps. Renew Effort to Troll for ‘Patent Trolls’ (Broadcasting & Cable) Reps. Tony Cardenas and Blake Farenthold introduced a bipartisan bill called the ...

Jury: Apple must pay $626 million to patent troll VirnetX (Ars Technica) Apple lost a $626 million suit against the patent troll VirnetX where it was found that Apple infringed upon every single patent claim at hand. U.S. Investigates Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen for Patent Infringement (Computerworld) The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating charges of patent infringement by Advanced Silicon Technologies that several car companies infringe on its patents related to car infotainment systems. Arista Just Lost a Patent Round Against Cisco and Could Face an Import Ban (PC World) The U.S. International Trade Commission found that Arista Networks violated three Cisco patents on networking technologies.  This win could block the importation of Arista products into the United States. Nokia Patent Sales Forecast from Samsung Deal Hits Shares (Reuters) Nokia’s shares fell by more than 10% after it settled a patent dispute with Samsung.  This comes after N ...

Intellectual Property Roundup

On September 9, 2015, SIIA’s Senior Vice President for Public Policy, Mark MacCarthy hosted a Hill event with the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to urge the immediate passage of patent reform legislation.  SIIA strongly and vocally supports passage of the Innovation Act so that patent trolls can no longer use abusive litigation tactics to stifle innovation and growth of small and large businesses alike.  Chairman Goodlatte reassured the audience that the patent bill would move to the House floor “soon.”