In ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2010), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that patent litigation settlement agreements can be relevant in a different proceeding to the issue of the reasonable royalties that may be owed by a different infringer of the same patent(s).  Last week, in In re…

Mr X was ordered to pay damages for the infringement of a French patent No. 87‑03865, relating to a massage device, by a decision of the Cour d’Appel of Limoges on 10 September 2001. In the absence of an appeal on a point of law, this decision became irrevocable. However, in a separate action, the same patent was subsequently…

Laboratoires Negma (hereinafter referred to as “Negma”) is the exclusive licensee of European patent No. 0 520 414 which relates to a method for the preparation of diacetylrhein (also called diacerein) having a specific degree of purity as well as diacetylrhein obtained by this process and a pharmaceutical composition containing this compound. Such European patent was first filed…

by Stephan Lieck The Düsseldorf Regional Court had to decide whether it is misleading under competition law that the former proprietor of a patent advertises with the fact that there is patent protection for a product (wrongful representation of an article as patent-ed/arrogation of patent), although the patent had expired at the time of arrogation…

The German company Hewlett-Packard GmbH (hereinafter referred to as Hewlett-Packard) was granted on 31 March 1993 the European patent EP 0 309 596, entitled “pumping apparatus for delivering liquid at high pressure”. Under an assignment contract dated 29 October 1999, registered in the French Patent Register on 21 August 2000, the German company Agilent Technologies Deutschland GmbH (hereinafter referred to as Agilent) became the…

Rambus and Micron have been involved in complex patent litigation in Italy since 2000. Things started when, in 2000, Rambus enforced the Italian designation of its patent EP 0525068 on SDRAM memories against Micron before the Court of Monza, obtained an ex parte seizure order and executed the same at the important manufacturing plant that…

The question at issue was whether a verbal preparatory agreement between the parties on a patented invention had given rise to a valid license agreement and ensuing entitlement to damages. The Supreme Court affirmed an earlier Court of Appeals decision, for the most part, by finding that a (patent) license agreement must be in written…