The law regarding obviousness, like a pendulum, has swung over time between favorable to unfavorable positions depending upon one’s perspective.  In 1952, the requirement that an invention be “nonobvious” was codified in Section 103 of the Patent Act.  In 1966, the Supreme Court issued its seminal decision in Graham v. John Deere 383 U.S. 1 […] The post Possible Limit on the Use of “Common Sense” to Invalidate a Patent Claim for Obviousness Based on a Single Reference appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…

Recently issued Apple patent utilizing passive alignment technology for charging an electric car that does not require human initiation illustrates a possible solution to one of the many hurdles facing electric cars going mainstream. Filed on May 18th of 2020, granted less than five months later, and titled “Charging station with passive alignment mechanism,”[i] Apple’s […] The post New Apple patent Paves the Way for Passive Alignment and Charging Technology appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…

One of the finer points of practicing patent litigation in Texas, which is home to four federal judicial districts, is knowing whether a defendant in the DFW area is located north or south of the Dallas County line. The boundaries between the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern Districts of Texas are based on county lines. […] The post The Dallas County Line Matters in Texas Patent Litigation appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…

Gone are the days of pirate ships bristling with cannons and chests of stolen treasure.  Modern pirates operate computers, and their valuable targets are often intangible.  Nonetheless, their thievery remains a scourge of modern commerce . . . . at least it once was. Amazon’s newly patented technology (US10664797B2) is the equivalent of a full […] The post Pirates Beware: Amazon Patent Aims to Sink Shipments of Counterfeit Products appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…

There’s no way around it: patent litigation costs can come as a surprise to those who have not been involved in it.  One economic survey estimated that, in 2019, the cost of patent litigation through trial and post-trial motions ranged from $700,000 to $4 million[1] for cases where $1 million to $25 million was at […] The post Fee Structures for Managing Patent Litigation Costs appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…

In a relatively recent order denying a plaintiff’s application for preliminary injunction, Judge Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, considered whether certain “customer relationships” established by the plaintiff oil and gas investment firm constituted a “trade secret.” The defendants had left their employment at the investment firm […] The post Customer Relationships May Not Be Trade Secrets appeared first on Carstens & Cahoon.…