The examples of States avoiding liability for patent infringement by pleading sovereign immunity in a federal-court patent action are scarce enough, but any plausible argument that such action on the part of the State deprived patentees of property and left them without a remedy under state law is scarcer still.
The Federal Circuit requires a showing of bad faith before imposing liability on patent holders for damage done to alleged infringers.
Finally, we suggest that a research exemption or limited liability for patent infringement be implemented, as has been done for surgical techniques, which could craft a functional balance between the rights of inventors and the best application of personalized genomics for improved medical care.
"Partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do," the next one said.
"Even an attorney reading the technology agreement might not understand that it purports to subject one to patent liability in Missouri," where Monsanto is based, Judge Clevenger continued.
Manufacturers of commodity chemicals and electronic components including Agilent Technologies, which filed a brief in the case, were particularly worried they might get tagged with patent liability for exporting items that wound up in infringing products overseas.
The Article concludes by examining whether this trend is likely to continue in the future, particularly given a 2006 Supreme Court decision that appears to diminish the holdup threat by recognizing the possibility of liability rules in patent suits, as well as recent case law that may call into question certain types of software patents.
Exporting a single commodity can't trigger patent liability, the court ruled in Life Technologies v. Promega, because that doesn't comply with the requirement that an infringer export "all or a substantial portion" of the "components" needed to create a patented product.
Yes, drug stocks have liabilities, from looming patent expirations to possible innovation-squelching regulation from a Democratic White House.
At best, it's Google water-testing VP8 to gauge its patent liabilities; at worst it's a weak signal if they reverse course.
