KSR Patent Ruling Protects Bra Makers and Comcast

Patent Law

KSR Patent Ruling Protects Bra Makers and Comcast

Posted Sep 4, 2008, 07:32 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year making it easier to invalidate patents is having an impact in the Northern District of California and even in the plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas.

The ruling in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. said an invention is not entitled to a patent if it is the result of only “ordinary innovation” and “does no more than yield predictable results.”

Many intellectual property cases are heard in California’s Northern District, and lawyers defending infringement claims have obtained some big victories there based on the KSR ruling, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.).

In a July ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco invalidated a patent involving digital television and dismissed a $140 million infringement claim against Comcast Corp., the story says.

In June, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of San Francisco invalidated three Stanford University patents on a method to measure the amount of HIV in someone's blood.

The Supreme Court ruling is having an affect in other federal courts, too. In a case in Marshall, Texas, a federal judge invalidated a patent for a bra to be used with sheer clothing and tossed a suit against the makers and sellers of the adhesive NuBra, according to the Daily Journal story and a press release.

U.S. District Judge John Love said in last month's ruling that the patent was obvious, and that the patent holder was unable to show that the NuBra's cleavage-enhancing ability was due to features of the patent.

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