Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights commentary on the importance of patent marking, an article describing a Federal Circuit decision that may allow federal contractors to purchase more foreign-made parts, and commentary on the Supreme Court’s pending copyright case, Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
At Comparative Patent Remedies, Thomas Cotter highlighted that in Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. “the Federal Circuit reaffirmed the importance of patent marking to the recovery of damages for pre-complaint infringement.” According to Cotter, “the court is right on the law, but the result is a bit ridiculous as a matter of policy.” Cotter further states that “the patent marking statute makes little sense in the modern world.”
Daniel Seiden reported for Bloomberg Law that “[a] wide range of federal contractors stand to benefit from a new Federal Circuit ruling on the origins of a hepatitis drug, which could allow them to rely more on foreign-made parts or components while still satisfying ‘Buy American’ restrictions.” Seiden notes that the Federal Circuit ruled in Acetris Health, LLC v. United States that “[a] hepatitis drug made by Acetris Health LLC is a U.S.-made end product . . . and should have been considered for a government contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though the active pharmaceutical ingredient comes from India.”
Rina Diane Caballar commented for IEEE Spectrum on Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., in which “Google petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 to review both copyright and fair use rulings against the company.” According to Caballar, “[i]ntellectual property scholars, computer scientists, software developers, and even Google’s rivals—tech companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Mozilla—have backed the company, filing supporting briefs to the court.” According to Caballar, “if the Supreme Court upholds the Federal Circuit’s ruling—especially in the case of APIs being eligible for copyright—some experts think chaos will ensue.” Notably, Caballar did not comment on the amicus briefs filed in support of Oracle, including the brief of the federal government and numerous other individuals, companies, and non-profit organizations. (You can always find up-to-date links to Supreme Court filings on the case’s case page. That page automatically updates with each filing in the case. Each case page also includes links to every post where we discuss the case and recent filings.)