Contact Sessions
James Skelley | Technology Lawyer
SESSIONS
Sessions are online meetups for discussing recent legal news, general education, and sharing various of James' research. The next scheduled session is:


You can find a complete listing of upcoming sessions and request to join HERE.
(Informal 1-2 line summaries, which certainly should not be relied upon for legal or other research purposes)
RECENT CASE HIGHLIGHTS
    • CAFC affirms JMOL overturning a jury infringement verdict, basically finding the trial evidence dispositive of noninfringemnet:
      "The trial evidence established that the AutoHop code runs in the background even when a viewer has not enabled the AutoHop feature, but that AutoHop only skips commercials if (1) a user has enabled it prior to starting an episode and (2) the episode is playing, not in fast-forward or rewind. These two conditions (AutoHop on and episode playing) are encoded in separate variables within the AutoHop source code. When AutoHop encounters a segment bookmark, it checks whether both conditions are satisfied. If the user has enabled commercial skipping and the device is not in rewind or fast-forward, AutoHop skips the commercial; otherwise, it lets the commercial play. That evidence permitted only one conclusion: AutoHop did not provide for the direct disablement of navigation objects."
      Similarly, the evidence and record pushed against proferred DOE arguments:
      Nor is it possible to set aside that distinction under the doctrine of equivalents . . . the trial record does not contain any other “particularized testimony and linking argument as to the insubstantiality of the differences between” AutoHop’s announcement files and the structure described by the ’799 Patent . . . Moreover, ClearPlay’s theory would erase the claims’ meaningful structural and functional distinction between a “single-object” approach and one that shares elements across multiple objects, even though the ’799 Patent treats that distinction as one “in kind,” not degree."
      Ergo, JMOL affirmed.
    • CAFC precedentially remands for the DCT to consider two trade secrets damages models the DCT dismissed (i.e., unjust enrichment and the jury award based on contract damages). Indeed, "the plain language of both the DTSA and the MUTSA allow for unjust enrichment caused by the misappropriation of the trade secret that is not accounted for when calculating damages for actual loss" so it's unclear from my superficial reading why the DCT thought it appropriate to set it aside (furthermore, the Michigan code says: "Damages can include both the actual loss caused by misappropriation and the unjust enrichment caused by misappropriation that is not taken into account in computing actual loss.").
      "We disagree with the district court’s reading of Sixth Circuit precedent. Though the Sixth Circuit did uphold damages awards that were calculated using royalties-based damages models in Vitro Corp. and Mid-Michigan, it did not preclude the plaintiff from seeking unjust enrichment damages altogether . . . The district court’s preclusion of unjust enrichment damages impacted Versata’s ability to seek damages throughout this case, including at trial and during posttrial proceedings. Accordingly, we partially vacate the district court’s JMOL zeroing out the jury’s damages award and remand for a new trial on damages for trade secret misappropriation."
      CAFC likewise reverses the DCT's finding of lack of evidence for the jury contract damages award:
      "We therefore conclude that the district court erred when it determined that Versata did not present any evidence that would allow the jury to calculate damages with reasonable certainty. Versata’s and Ford’s expert testimony, the submission of the MSSA and the 2011 addendum, and the jury instructions given by Versata’s counsel during closing arguments all amount to sufficient evidence that provided the jury with a discernible path to properly calculate damages. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s reduction of breach of contract damages and reinstate the jury award of $82,260,000 to Versata."
      Finally, CAFC affirms the denial of JMOL ("[W]e conclude that Versata presented sufficient evidence to support its claim for trade secret misappropriation").
    • A couple rather vanilla obviousness and claim construction opinions today, but this one provides a (very brief, but still helpful) true positive regarding motivation to combine analysis:
      "[W]e find no clear error in the district court’s analysis of the skilled artisan’s motivation to modify the reduction step of Kondo specifically. As the district court noted, both experts agreed that many of the steps of Kondo would have been considered for modification, including the reduction step . . . And Dr. Dichtel presented significant testimony about why a skilled artisan would have sought to modify Kondo’s reduction step, including cost savings, improvement of the reaction’s safety profile, post-processing simplification, and knowledge that the hydrogenating agent was already being used in molar excess . . . This evidence, tethered to the chemical realities of the reaction, is a far cry from the conclusory expert testimony our case law rejects . . . We therefore decline to find clear error in the district court’s choice to credit this testimony."
      So, some things to look for when constructing your own non-conclusory argument.
    • In another patent standing case, this one precedential, CAFC reverses and remands finding that "Plaintiff retained an exclusionary right sufficient to satisfy the “irreducible constitutional minimum of standing.”"

      Basically, Plaintiff granted a worldwide, exclusive license to MWV, but with a bunch of conditions and joint enforcement requirements. While those restrictions likely gutted "all substantial rights" to sue under 281, CAFC is here making the point that Article III standing is a distinct inquiry, for which a single exclusionary right suffices.

      Why care? Well . . .
      "The distinction . . . matters: constitutional standing “is a jurisdictional requirement” that is “incurable if absent at the initiation of suit,” whereas a statutory standing defect is “curable by joinder” . . . Accordingly, a plaintiff may have constitutional standing without satisfying the additional statutory requirement of possessing “all substantial rights” . . . In attempting to reconcile our precedents, some district courts have drawn a bright line between our cases addressing constitutional standing and those addressing statutory standing, concluding that cases addressing one side of that line have little, if any, relevance to cases on the other side . . . although the two standing inquiries are distinct, the same facts bearing on whether a patent owner has granted “all substantial rights” to a licensee to enable the licensee to have statutory standing may also bear on whether the owner retained “an exclusionary right” sufficient for constitutional standing."
      And so, now focusing on Article III on these facts . . .
      "In this case, Plaintiff retains a sublicensing veto that (while it must be reasonably exercised) prevents Ingevity from granting sublicenses absent Plaintiff’s consent or free of Plaintiff’s royalty interest . . . That consent right over sublicensing helps preserve Plaintiff’s exclusionary interest because it prevents the licensee from unilaterally authorizing an accused infringer’s practice of the patents without Plaintiff’s approval and royalty interests. Moreover, “infringement would amount to an invasion of [Plaintiff’s] legally protected interest” in the patents because it deprives it of royalties to which it is entitled as a patent owner . . . Plaintiff’s right to sue, right to veto sublicenses, and royalty interests confirm that Plaintiff retains an exclusionary right, establishing that Plaintiff retains a concrete stake in excluding unauthorized practice of the patents and a mechanism to enforce that interest . . . On these facts, Plaintiff retained an exclusionary right sufficient for Article III standing, namely the non-illusory right to sue that their licensee, Ingevity, could not nullify through unilateral, royalty-free sublicensing." (emphasis added)
      (License drafters take note!).

      In any event, reversed and remanded so that the analysis may continue.
    • This is another application of the recent precedential principle that "when a patent owner retains a right to sue third parties for patent infringement that is not rendered illusory by the rights granted to a licensee, that patent owner retains an exclusionary right sufficient for constitutional standing" (though, of course, you're probably still going to need joinder).
More . . .
ABOUT
James Skelley is a solo practitioner based in Mountain View, California since 2015, focusing primarily upon technology transactions and intellectual property procurement. James' practice also serves as an "incubator" for new legal service technologies / methodologies and a "living example" of their application. To this end, James regularly partners with larger law firms and with his clients so as to improve the practice of intellectual property law.

LEGAL PRACTICE AREAS
  • Utility / Design / PCT Patent Prosecution
  • Open Source Diligence
  • Technology Transactions (typically as a team)
  • Litigation / Inter Partes Review Support (typically as a team)
  • James tends NOT to handle low-volume trademark work (though referrals are available)
LICENSING
  • USPTO - #59458 - 10/16/2006
  • California - #257829 - 12/01/2008
  • District Columbia - #1014986 - 08/05/2013
CONTACT
  • James is available by email, 8x8 hangout, and in-person meetups in the Valley.
  • Email is typically the best way to reach James.
TECHNICAL FIELDS
  • Machine Learning / Robotics
  • Cryptograpy / Cryptocurrency / Smart Contracts
  • Medical Device
  • Computational Biology (primarily modeling and proteomics)
  • Signal Processing (primarily wireless and compression)
  • Quantum Physics (primarily semiconductor) / Electromagnetics (antennae, waveguides, etc.)
  • Manufacturing / 3D Printing
  • James tends NOT to handle pure chemistry applications (though referrals are available), however James HAS handled matters involving computational proteomics, cellular modeling, and diagnostic lab protocols
SOFTWARE
LAWMUX BITES
LawMux Bites are (very) short, one-page summaries of various legal concepts, cases, and technologies. As informal summaries, you certainly shouldn't rely upon them as legal advice / for business use, but they can help orient you if you're new to the subject matter.

LAWMUX BITES
PAPERS / ARTICLES