Expanding the Fringe of Patent Infringement

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

screen-shot-2016-10-18-at-10-19-49-amBy Sebastian Stock

In Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, the Federal Circuit broadened potential patent infringement claims by no longer requiring a defendant perform all the steps of a patented method before direct infringement occurs. As the dust settles from Akamai, should courts expect an influx of patent infringement suits.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. began in 2006 when Akamai Technologies, Inc. (“Akamai”) sued Limelight Networks, Inc. (“Limelight”), claiming infringement of claims on its patent related to its content delivery network (“CDN”). A CDN is a platform of proxy servers designed to directly deliver end-user internet content. CDN’s are widely used – they carry nearly half of the world’s internet traffic.

Continue reading →

Design Patents Taking Center Stage in IP Litigation

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

Center Stage.pngBy Toban Platt

In Apple v. Samsung, the Federal Circuit court of appeals showed how valuable a design patent can be by affirming the trial court’s award for over $500 million dollars to Apple based largely on its design patents. This decision put design patents in the spotlight of intellectual property protection. The case first started in 2012 and revolved around design patents on particulars of Apple phones, including D618,577 (black rectangle with rounded corners), D593,087 (bezel on surrounding rim), and D604,305 (colorful grid of 16 icons). Apple was able to show that several Samsung phones were substantially similar to the iPhone, which included the design patents at issue. The court found this entitled Apple to collect all of the profits Samsung had made from its infringing phones.

Continue reading →

Human Trafficking v. Free Speech: A Critical Look at the Backpage Controversy

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

backpageBy Gwen Wei

In 2012, three underage girls sued Backpage, a classified advertising website. The plaintiffs—anonymized as the collective “J.S.”—alleged that they had been forced by sex traffickers to prostitute themselves; that these traffickers had posted advertisements on Backpage, allowing adults seeking sex with minors to pay to rape J.S.; that Backpage had created posting guidelines designed to help such traffickers develop ads that would evade law enforcement while still conveying their illegal messages. In so doing, J.S. alleged, the website had contributed to J.S.’s repeated sexual assaults and exploitation.

Continue reading →

I ATEN’T DEAD: The Continuing Trademark Saga of B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

Trademakr.pngBy Gwen Wei

Does anybody remember how B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries started anymore?

B&B Hardware is a labyrinthine case grown out of simple roots: in 1993, B&B Hardware (“B&B”) trademarked “Sealtight”. Hargis Industries (“Hargis”) applied for a trademark on “Sealtite” in 1996. When B&B opposed Hargis’s application, Hargis sought to have B&B’s trademark cancelled. B&B retorted with a suit for infringement. This eventually led to a brief wrangle before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”), where the board found there was a likelihood of confusion between the two marks. But retelling the full twenty years of its litigious history, as Justice Alito later remarked, could fill a long, unhappy book.  Over the decades, B&B Hardware has devolved into a slapfest as the case was dismissed and refiled and remanded, surging all the way to the Supreme Court and back again. The case’s significance no longer lies in its eventual final verdict—whether B&B or Hargis gets to seal the deal, as it were—but in the precedent that it sets.

Continue reading →

Uber for the Skies Gets Shot Down by Federal Regulators

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

FlyNowBy: Samuel Daheim

In December 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rightfully concluded that private pilots, using a web-based service to offer flights to potential passengers, presented themselves as common carriers willing to transport persons for compensation.  Thus, the pilots had violated the terms of their noncommercial pilot licenses.  The pilots petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for certiorari, and a response came on August 1, 2016.

Continue reading →