Slashdot Mirror
Supreme Court Considers When US Patent Violations Are 'Induced' Abroad (arstechnica.com)
The US Supreme Court today will take up a case that will determine how much help an overseas manufacturer can get from the U.S. without running afoul of US patent laws. From a report on ArsTechnica: The case originates in a dispute between two competitors in the field of genetic testing. Both Promega Corporation and Life Technologies (selling through its Applied Biosciences brand) make DNA testing kits that can be used in a variety of fields, including forensic identification, paternity testing, medical treatment, and research. Promega licensed several patents to Applied Biosystems that allowed its competitor to sell kits for use in "Forensics and Human Identity Applications." The license forbade sales for clinical or research uses. In 2010, Promega filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying that Life Technologies had "engaged in a concerted effort to sell its kits into unlicensed fields," thus infringing its patents. A Wisconsin federal jury found that Life Tech had willfully infringed and should pay $52 million in damages. But the district judge overseeing the case set aside that verdict after trial, ruling that since nearly all of the Life Tech product had been assembled and shipped from outside the US, the product wasn't subject to US patent laws.
Looks like a deliberate attempt to export patent-controlled technology for an end use that violated a patent license. I hope they get the book thrown at them for manipulating jurisdictions this way.
Next time, don't use legalzoom forms for your contract. Pay some shyster to insert "worldwide" after "The license forbade sales for clinical or research uses."
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Based on this ruling, Samsung is not guilty of infringement, since the Apple devices and Samsung devices are both made overseas. ...And then this happened:
Samsung case goes back lower court; Apple can't be granted all profits for a infringing device as damages.
https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-apple-scores-supreme-court-win-patent-design-infringement-case/
This is a fairly common issue in biotech. US patent office tends to grant patents far too easily in biotech, resulting in a situation where a product is patent-protected in the US, but not abroad. The decision is absolutely right, Life Technologies licensed the product for the US market, but not the rest of the world, as there was no need for that. The patented parts of the product were not produced in the US, so there was no US-based transaction of the protected property. The analogous situation would be that Sony was suing a distributor for distributing a movie whose copyright is still in place in the US, but has expired abroad on the basis that the DVD's that the movie is distributed on were produced in the US.
This is an interesting issue, sure, but it really just comes down to whether the meaning of "substantial portion of the components" can really include the (apparent) one-of-five components originating in the U.S.
Much more interesting to me is the underlying assumption that the Supreme Court was asked, but declined, to consider: whether you can "induce" yourself to infringe a patent. The pertinent part of the statute reads: "whoever... supplies or causes to be supplied... a substantial portion of the components of a patented invention... in such manner as to actively induce the combination of such components... in a manner that would infringe the patent."
It's probably true that Congress intended to stop any overseas infringement with U.S. parts, but I don't think that's what they actually said.
china makes cheap knockoffs and there rules make so they can get away with it / the JV rule where the ownership usually is 51%-49% with the foreign firm owning the majority.
Donald Trump says racist and bigoted stuff, and advocates racist and bigoted policies, but I'm dehumanizing.
I'm sorry that your side of the country is so fucking stupid.. There is that better?
As far as Trump's alleged victory whose votes he doesn't want to count...
Imagine that - the Republican state government gave the black side of town defective voting machines, and now is refusing to count their votes, because of discrepancies caused by defective voting machines.
Sounds like Donald Trump and the KKK / GOP don't have to make America hate again, because America already discards black votes.
Isn't an inconsistency in votes a prime reason to perform recount, not a reason to block one?
Not in the black part of town. Not when the KKK / GOP are in charge.
Isn't this a simple contractual dispute? Probably there is no such thing as a simple contractual dispute. It just doesn't seem to be about patents as it is about licensing. Look up "Apple"? Yeah yeah, trademarks, but the idea is there.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
OK, couple things:
Imagine that - more votes counted than ballots cast in DEMOCRAT-controlled areas of Michigan.
Nowhere in the article does it say which number was higher: votes or ballots.
But let's suppose your assumption is correct. Is there any possible explanation given in the article?
"He blamed the discrepancies on the city’s decade-old voting machines, saying 87 optical scanners broke on Election Day. Many jammed when voters fed ballots into scanners, which can result in erroneous vote counts if ballots are inserted multiple times. Poll workers are supposed to adjust counters to reflect a single vote but in many cases failed to do so, causing the discrepancies, Baxter said."
So shitty old hardware in the poor neighborhoods doesn't work well. And your solution isn't to fix or replace the shitty old hardware, it's to throw the votes out.
I think there's a term for that, and it might rhyme with "voter suppression".
Nope, no sig
No patent protection on tech manufactured overseas?
Different things are patentable in different countries. For instance, America allows patents on software, and DNA sequences. Many other countries do not. There are also issues of jurisdiction. In this case the infringing product was sold in the UK, so maybe it should be resolved in British courts.
calm down drew
A Wisconsin federal jury found that Life Tech had willfully infringed and should pay $52 million in damages. But the district judge overseeing the case set aside that verdict after trial, ruling that since nearly all of the Life Tech product had been assembled and shipped from outside the US, the product wasn't subject to US patent laws.
It's infringement under US Patent law to make, use, or sell a patented invention in the US. However, it's also infringement to import a patented invention, made elsewhere, into the US. So you can't, for example, escape liability by saying "oh, we don't manufacture in the US. We manufacture in Mexico and then heave them over Trump's wall to waiting buyers." So, something had been assembled and shipped from outside the US would still be subject to US patent laws if it was being shipped to the US.
In this case, LifeTech manufactures their kits in the UK and sells them in Europe (and elsewhere). One component of the kit is manufactured in the US and shipped from the US to the UK, and the question is whether that component brings those sales under US patent law.
So, just to clarify, the summary should be "since nearly all of the Life Tech product had been assembled and shipped from outside the US to locations outside the US, the product wasn't subject to US patent laws."
Move along Annytamy
"I think there's a term for that, and it might rhyme with "voter suppression"."
By who? The city has been Democrat controlled since I lived there in the 60s. Did the Republicans come in and take over the election?
Just another day in Paradise
The Michigan state house and senate are both Republican controlled. Who do you think approves the budget for new voting machines?
Michigan's aging voting machines a 'catastrophe waiting to happen'
They knew about this in advance.
Nope, no sig
The Michigan state house and senate are both Republican controlled. Who do you think approves the budget for new voting machines?
Michigan's aging voting machines a 'catastrophe waiting to happen'
They knew about this in advance.
Oh, and I suppose they collude to only put the good machines outside of the city. Seriously, wtf does that have to do with voter suppression? Tin foil hat much, or do you have actual evidence you can link to?
Just another day in Paradise