Blog 28: Silly Patent: Allergan Suing Sandoz for Patent Infringement

Allergan is suing Sandoz for marketing a generic version of their patented drug COMBIGAN, which is a combination ophthalmic drug treatment. Sandoz went to the FTC trying and their major claim is 463, which is proving Alergan’s patent of COMBIGAN is not obvious. However this is silly, because it has the same chemicals and functions. The only significance part was the 4^th

part of claim 463 which shows that Sandoz  is a different drug because it changes the amount of time for the drug to kick in. For a drug this is not enough to make it different, because all a manufacture needs to do is make one more or less dissoluble for the body. Sandoz still lost this claim and is not allowed to patent or market this new drug until 2022, when Allergan’s patent expires.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/05/allergan-v-sandoz-the-thin-line-of-nonobviousness.html

Blog 27: Silly Google Losing Injunction Battle Vs. Apple

Google is in the news yet again for another court failure. In Wisoconsin the Federal circuit court of appeal denied Google’s attempts to get an injunction ruling brought by Apple to be lifted or moved to another court. The injunction was brought on many Samsung products and with the use of a FRAND patent.

Some lower courts are trying to force Google to pay Apple’s FRAND licensing fee. However, Apple is trying to stray away from that court and focus on the injunctions. The author thinks that this case is one of the most significant cases for Google. These past few months have proven that Motorola’s patents have proven to be mostly a silly investment. Android will have to be more strategic in buying and licensing patents.        

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/05/federal-circuit-denies-google-motion-to.html

Blog 26: Continued: Google’s Defeats in Germany; Few Victories Elsewhere

The Mannheim Regional in German rejected Google’s attempt to enforce an injunction against Microsoft and its email system.

Sad Android 

Google was expecting $12.5 billion in the next four years or 3 billion annually from Microsoft on two SEP patent infringements, with video codec and Wi-Fi.  However, the court ruled that Google should only receive 1.8 million annually until the patent expires, which will not even cover the lawyer fees.   

German court lifts the injunction on Apple’s over Google’s automatic notification patent that affects Apple’s emails service. While also upholding a Microsoft injunction for a multi-part text messaging interface, which is forcing companies using Android to license this patent from Microsoft.

These infringement lawsuits have proven that Android is not “free” like Google claims they are. Many companies using the Android system will have to license patents in order to use it.

With all this bad news this month for Google we have to leave with some good news. So here are some court victories.

HTC helped Google and Samsung defeat in the Mannheim Regional Court a previous injunction from Apple’s 3G SEP patent.

German court dismissed Nokia’s lawsuit on HTC’s Google play, where Google acted as an intervener. However, this is only delaying the inevitable, because android devices will need to license this patent from Nokia soon.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/april-was-disastrous-for-google-on.html

Blog 25: Summary of a Bad April for Google in Court

Two weeks ago I spoke to the class how Google is losing badly in the patent ward. Google’s androids system is open source, it is missing many key patents, and is infringing on many patents. This is all recipes for lawsuits and injunctions. This year, April represents many of Google’s shortcomings in the Patent war, as many infringement cases piled up to one very bad month for Google. Now, it is more apparent than even that Google way overpaid for Motorola.

In the beginning of the month, the ITC found Google’s keyboard to infringe on some aspects of Apple’s keyboard text selection Patents. There will be a noticeable degradation of Google’s keyboard because of that.

Also, a case of Google vs. Apple for non SEP’s was slowed down a few months. This is in favor for Apple because Google is attempting to overturn some previous injunction which will have to hold for longer.

In another important case Google loss all but one SEP infringement, for a total of 5 patent infringement. The loss was on the basis of claim construction, which is a major loss for the Google lawyers.

Foxconn signed a deal with Microsoft to work together and address Androids infringement issues. This is very significant as Foxconn produces 40% of the electronics and they have thousands of patents that can prove to be harmful for Google.

Microsoft signed its 20^th licensing deal with ZTE over some patents that are used on Android. Nokia, Apple, and other third parties also hold patents on Android.
  
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/april-was-disastrous-for-google-on.html
     

Blog 24: Claim Construction Working For Defendant J&J on a Stent Patent

Many defendants, companies trying to show they did not infringe prefer a claim to be constructed broadly or narrowly. When hoping for a narrow claim it is in order to build a good case showing non infringement. When hoping for a broad case it is to build a case showing the claim is invalid.

Dr. Bruce Saffron is suing J&J for infringing on his patent which helps cover damaged tissue with a permeable sheet or spray. The cover prevent large molecules from going through while allowing smaller one to flow through. This is used in stints inserted for arteries all over the body. Previously he won 50M from Boston Scientific. Now, he won a case for 500M from J&J. However, four other circuit judges claimed that J&J is not infringing on the patent. The four judges each ruled on different reasons. The judges were all deciding based on the claim construction if the device needs a sheet or not, and if which bond the claim includes. This shows that just because one judge reads the claim one way does not mean that another judge will read it the same way. 

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/stent-patent-cannot-heal-divided-claim-construction.html

Blog 23: Ericsson and Nokia Selling Many Patents

 We always read about wireless mobile companies suing for patent infringement. In order to make the litigation, these companies need to acquire many patents. Lots of these patents end up being sold to other companies. In the past few weeks Ericsson and Nokia sold many of these patents to companies in other industries. Here is a look at what kind of patent deal they sell.  

Ericsson sold 820 patents to Unwired Planet Inc. The company invented many technologies that connect mobile phones to the internet. Part of the deals is that Ericsson will receive 20% of the first 100M in sales, 50% of first 500M, and 70% for any more revenue. Plus, this comes at a time when Unwired Planet is suin Google and Apple for infringement. I am specualtaing that acquiringg these patents will help their case.

In other news, Nokia transferred 30 patents to Memory Tehcnologies, LLC which is a company that does R&D in the physical, engineering, and life sciences industries. 

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/recent-patent-assignments.html

Blog 22: Another loss for Google against Apple and Microsoft

Apple and Microsoft are attempting to get a injunction lifted in Germany. The injunction is for automotive push notification coming from a cloud source. Apple had to stop this on their German products for services that used any automatic push notification like their icalendar, iemail and other data. This only applies to programs that are automatically updated and not ones that need to activated periodically.

Google Loses

The author thinks that the injunction will come to an end very soon. This will most likely happen through Apple and Microsoft filling a nullity, making the injunction invalid in the Germen Federal Patent Court. Another reason for the author’s speculation is that the court expressed doubt about the validity of the patent. If Google loses then they will need to pay Apple for holding a improper injunction. This is really sad for Android as this is the only injunction they are holding in the world and it is about to crumble down. While Apple and Microsoft have injunctions on Google or at least have accomplished some offensive litigation victories.     

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/appeals-court-likely-to-give-german.html