IP Law Bulletin

In a case that has received significant attention over the past several months, a United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) panel recently concluded that the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s claim of tribal immunity did not prevent the PTAB from reviewing patents held by the Tribe. As an alternative basis for proceeding with the review, the panel found that, despite the assignment to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, the Tribe was not essential to the proceedings because the original patent owner, Allergan, effectively still owned the patents.

For declaratory judgment (DJ) actions concerning patents, whether a patent owner’s conduct is sufficient for there to be a real and immediate controversy is the usual jurisdictional hurdle. In BASF Plant Science, LP v. Nuseed Americas Inc., a District of Delaware court recently examined a different issue–who must be named as a defendant to support DJ jurisdiction when there is an exclusive patent licensee.

While the Supreme Court’s decisions in Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc. and Highmark Inc. v. Allcare Health Management System, Inc. significantly relaxed the standard for awarding attorney fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285, a recent decision by the Federal Circuit provides a reminder of the limits to a district court’s discretion. In Checkpoint Systems, Inc. v. All-Tag Security S.A., the Federal Circuit found that the district court abused its discretion in awarding fees to All-Tag because Checkpoint’s conduct relied upon by the district court did not render the case exceptional.

According to a recent Supreme Court decision, when it comes to the applicability of patent exhaustion, “restrictions and location are irrelevant; what matters is the patentee’s decision to make a sale.” In Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., the Supreme Court confirmed that the authorized sale of a patented article by a patentee exhausts all patent rights in that article, even where the patentee and the buyer agree to post-sale restrictions on the use and resale of the article. The Court also held that the authorized sale of a patented product abroad triggers patent exhaustion, just as a sale in the U.S. does.

A party can raise lack of subject-matter jurisdiction at any time during a litigation. Illustrating this point, recently in Joao Control & Monitoring Systems, LLC v. Telular Corporation a patentee saved its unasserted patent claims from the Court’s invalidity order by arguing that the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the unasserted claims.

In 2014, Joao Control & Monitoring Systems, LLC sued Telular Corporation for allegedly infringing two patents related to systems for remotely monitoring property. Joao’s complaint asserted that Telular infringed one or more claims from each patent, but did not identify any specific claims. Telular counterclaimed for declaratory judgment of invalidity for both patents.