Media Coverage
Source: Law360
Media Coverage
01.09.14
A recent Federal Circuit ruling on important patent decisions will limit the U.S. International Trade Commission’s authority to hear some patent cases, allow more prevailing defendants to recover attorneys’ fees and make it easier to prove obviousness, attorneys say. Handed down in the fourth quarter, this is among the top Federal Circuit rulings since October 2013, which have the potential to create implications for intellectual property law.
In one of the recent rulings, Suprema Inc. v. ITC, the Federal Circuit ruled that the commission has no authority over suits where an accused product does not infringe when it is imported and only infringes once it is in the U.S., effectively barring the ITC from hearing cases based on a theory of induced infringement.
William Atkins, a partner in Pillsbury’s Northern Virginia intellectual property practice, commented in Law360.
By scaling back on the type of patent cases that can be brought to the commission, “[t]he decision will have a significant impact on ITC strategy going forward,” said Atkins.