Divided infringement theory knocked out of joint? *

USA - January 27 2011
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week that to “use” a system for purposes of infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a), “a party must put the invention into service, i.e., control the system as a whole and obtain benefit from it.”

Co-authors: Frederick L. Whitmer, Renae A. Bailey, Steven D. Moore.

25 percent rule for damages is now 100 percent dead; expert reports must now predicate damages on the specific circumstances of the case, not general, arbitrary theories *

USA - January 10 2011
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week that a damage expert's arbitrary use of what had become a commonplace starting point for royalty rates in patent cases, the so-called "25 percent rule," is a "fundamentally flawed tool" for determining a reasonable royalty and "is thus inadmissible under Daubert and the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Co-authors: Audra A. Dial, Frederick L. Whitmer, Robert D.Tadlock.