Patent Litigation Venues: Is a Computer Server Room Really a Place of Business?

By Jo Dale Carothers

The U.S. Supreme Court’s in TC Heartland v. Kraft Food, and subsequently the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in In re Cray Inc., addressed where patent litigation can be filed under the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. §1400(b). Specifically, the patent venue statute provides that “[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in either 1) “the judicial district where the defendant resides” or 2) “where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business.”

In TC Heartland,

“Honey Badger Don’t Care”: The Rogers test and Trademark Infringement

By James Kachmar

Christopher Gordon is a comedian who created a viral video about the honey badger with the notable catch phrase, “Honey Badger Don’t Care,” among others. He later trademarked that phrase and sued greeting card companies for trademark infringement for using that phrase, or a variation thereof, without his permission. As a result, the Ninth Circuit was recently asked to revisit the test set forth in Rogers v. Gramaldi,

Federal Circuit Limits Patent Infringement Damages

By Audrey Millemann

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has taken aim at sky-high patent infringement damages. In Power Integrations, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 18177 (July 3, 2018), the court limited the use of the rule that allowed patent owners to recover damages based on the total sales of the infringing product, even if the patent covered only a part of the product.

Power Integrations owned two patents covering switching regulators in power supply controller chips.