According to a June 28, 2017 press release, Dutch healthcare company Philips has agreed to buy Colorado Springs-based Spectranetics Corporation, a cardiac device manufacturer, for approximately 1.9 billion euros ($2.16 billion), inclusive of Spectranetics’ cash and debt. Philips states in the press release that the acquisition of Spectranetics will expand and strengthen Philips’ Image-Guided Therapy Business Group.
In an order issued in Petroleum Geo-Services Inc. v. Westerngeco LLC, IPR2016-00407, IPR2016-00499, Paper 29 (P.TA.B. Jul. 5, 2017), the PTAB terminated the proceedings after the parties indicated that they had settled their dispute.
On May 23, 2017, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (“District Court”) denied a motion for summary judgment that the patent claims asserted in a lawsuit brought by TecSec, Inc. (“TecSec”) are invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101.[1]
Fitbit recently announced plans to build sleep apnea diagnostics into its wrist-worn activity tracking devices, stating that it expects do so within a year. If successful, Fitbit may be able to address a market that is expected to have $6.7 billion in revenue by 2021.
In a recent precedential decision, In re University of Miami, Serial No. 86616382 (T.T.A.B. June 6, 2017), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “TTAB”) clarified the scope of the doctrine of trademark mutilation.
Previously, we reported the outcomes of remands from the Federal Circuit to the PTAB in IPR cases through 2016. [https://www.knobbe.com/news/2017/02/ipr-appeals-outcomes-fed-circ-remands-ptab-law360]. This note is an update to that report, surveying the outcomes and status of remands to the PTAB in the first half of 2017.
New York City took a step toward its goal of becoming a life sciences hub with a $5 million grant from the mayor’s office to BioLabs@NYULangone, a biotech incubator in Manhattan formed from a collaboration between BioLabs and New York University’s Langone Medical Center. The $5 million grant is part of the first tranche of funding from Mayor Bill Blasio’s LifeSci NYC program, a $500 million initiative to increase the number of life sciences startups in NYC.
In Ex Parte Hafner, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) reversed the Examiner’s rejection that claims directed to an energy transaction plan were subject-matter ineligible. Ex parte Hafner et al., No. 2015-002200 (P.T.A.B. Jan. 31, 2017). This decision provides guidance for navigating the changing landscape of software patents in a post-Alice era.
In a non-precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that the claims at issue in Easyweb Innovations, LLC. v. Twitter, Inc. (“Easyweb”) were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter. The parties agreed that claim 1, reproduced below, of the 7,685,247 patent represented the claims at issue.
On June 1, 2017, noted music and fashion photographer Danny Clinch filed suit in the Southern District of New York in connection with the use of two photographs of famed rapper Tupac Shukar (“Tupac”) on t-shirts. The defendants include clothing retailers, Urban Outfitters, Inc. and Forever 21, Inc., manufacturer Bioworld Merchandising, Inc., and licensors, Planet Productions LLC and Amaru/AWA Merchandising, Inc. (collectively “Defendants”).
