273-1 Federal Circuit Holds University of Texas is Immune from Involuntary Joiner, Holds Case against Potential Infringer may Proceed in School’s Absence - The Federal Circuit recently affirmed-in-part, reversed-in-part,...more
Entities with patent-related relationships with state universities scored a victory under the rarely implicated (at least for patent practitioners) doctrine of sovereign immunity. For patent holders, sovereign immunity comes...more
In a conundrum worthy of a law school civil procedure examination, plaintiff Gensetix found itself apparently with no remedy for infringement by Baylor College of Medicine, Diakonos Research Ltd., and William Decker of...more
We live in a time of contradictions and confusion, and today we aim to explore how some such tensions have manifested themselves in the area of intellectual property law. On the one hand, we have a national and...more
LSI and Ericsson petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of several patents owned by the University of Minnesota (UMN). UMN moved to dismiss each IPR based on state sovereign immunity. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board...more
Under constitutional principles of United States law, states generally enjoy sovereign immunity. This immunity, enshrined in the 11th amendment of the US Constitution, bars private parties from bringing lawsuits against the...more
One-year Clock for Filing IPR Petition Applies to Litigants and Parties that Become Privies of the Litigant Prior to Institution. In Power Integrations, Inc v. Semiconductor Components, Appeal No. 2018-1607, the Federal...more
In Regents of the Univ. of Minn. v. LSI Corporation, Fed. Cir., No. 18-01559, the Federal Circuit extended the inability to stand behind 11th Amendment Sovereign Immunity to patents owned by individual states, such that they...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Prost, Moore, and Wallach. Appeal from the Northern District of Florida. Summary: When a state entity sues for patent infringement, it waives sovereign immunity as to all defenses,...more
The University of Minnesota (UMinn) and Toyota Motor Corp. (Toyota) co-own U.S. Patent 8,394,618 (the ’618 patent). After Reactive Surfaces Ltd. filed a petition for IPR of the ’618 patent, UMinn and Toyota filed a motion to...more
Sovereign Immunity - Sovereign immunity exempts a sovereign from the jurisdiction of a court - States are entitled to sovereign immunity under the 11th amendment Seminole Tribe of Fla v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 (1996) ...more
A closely watched case on sovereign immunity, Reactive Surfaces Ltd., LLP, v. Toyota Motor Corp., IPR2017-00572, has now been terminated by the patent owner’s request for adverse judgment....more
Sovereign immunity refers to the doctrine that the government cannot be sued without its consent. Specifically, the 11th Amendment precludes federal courts from exercising jurisdiction over states in suits brought by private...more
The PTAB has again addressed sovereign immunity in the context of an IPR. Reactive Surfaces, LTD. petitioned for IPR of U.S. Patents No. 8,394,618 and 8,252,571. The ’618 and ’571 patents are co-owned by Toyota Motor...more
In separate non-precedential decisions issued by three different panels, the PTAB has permitted state university patent owners to invoke the Eleventh Amendment in Inter Partes Review proceedings. Each panel found that IPR...more
"12th Man" Suit Forces Aggies to Call an Audible on Traditional Copyright Defenses - Texas A&M University's "12th Man" is at the center of a legal blitz facing the University's Athletic Department. On January 19, 2017,...more
On May 23, 2017, the PTAB granted the University of Maryland’s (UM) motion to terminate inter partes review based on UM’s sovereign immunity in Neochord, Inc. v. Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore and Harpoon Medical, Inc.,...more
Addressing the application of the sovereign immunity defense under the 11th Amendment in the inter partes review (IPR) context, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) dismissed three IPR petitions, finding that the...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) dismissed three inter partes review (IPR) proceedings involving the University of Florida based on sovereign immunity. As background, the University of Florida Research Foundation...more