McAfee, Air Liquide, Oracle: Intellectual Property
McAfee Inc.’s Secure Computing unit, a maker of programs that block Internet viruses and spam, lost an appeal to overturn a patent-infringement verdict won by Finjan Inc.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington yesterday upheld a finding that Secure Computing’s Webwasher products infringe aspects of Finjan’s patents 6,092,194, 6,804,780 and 7,058,822.
The appeals court, which specializes in U.S. patent law, sent the case back to determine how much closely held Finjan is owed for sales that occurred between the March 2008 trial and the August 2009 ruling in which a judge ordered Secure Computing to stop selling the infringing software.
The jury awarded $9 million in damages. U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet increased the amount to more than $13.7 million because the jury found the infringement to be intentional.
McAfee, which is being acquired by Intel Corp., has said it redesigned the software to avoid using Finjan’s inventions so the order wouldn’t affect sales of its products. McAfee is based in Santa Clara, California.
The case is Finjan Inc. v. Secure Computing Corp., 2009- 1576 and 2009-1594, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington). The lower court case is Finjan Software Ltd. v. Secure Computing Corp., 06cv369, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
EU Patent Patchwork Is Too Costly, Helps U.S., Chinese Rivals
The European Union risks handing a competitive advantage to the U.S. and China if it fails to change a patent system which companies, such as Air Liquide SA, say costs too much.
“There’s an urgency to find a solution to de-block this point on competitiveness for our companies,” Michel Barnier, the EU’s internal-market commissioner, said at a conference in Brussels Nov. 3. “We won’t be credible if prices for our patents in Europe are above those of U.S. patents.”
Barnier’s remarks come a week before ministers from the 27 EU nations gather to discuss a new proposal for a region-wide patent system. The EU patent, an idea that’s been discussed for some 40 years, was thought dead in 2004 after member nations failed to agree on the language system to go with it.
Now, four years after the European Commission revived the plans, the EU-wide system is closer than ever, according to the head of Europe’s patent agency, which acts independently from the EU.
“We’ve never been this close to an agreement,” Benoit Battistelli, president of the European Patent Office, said in an interview in Brussels. The Munich-based EPO is the only place for companies to apply for a multi-national patent, which has to be defended in each country once it is granted.
“This fragmented litigation market in Europe for patents is costing us a lot,” Thierry Sueur, vice-president of intellectual property at Air Liquide, the world’s biggest producer of industrial gases, said at the event in Brussels.
Belgium, holder of the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of the year, foresees a language framework similar to that of the EPO. Patents would be granted in French and German as well as English. Spain has opposed plans to exclude Spanish.
“Any political solution should protect linguistic diversity,” Alberto Casado Cervino, director general of the Spanish Patent Office, said at the Brussels event.
Air Liquide’s Sueur said continued clashes over languages will hurt European companies like his. “We have no time for fancy theories, we’re fighting hard to win over our competitors from the other side of the ocean or from China.”
Apple Seeks Patent for Virtual IPhone ‘Gun’ for Game-Playing
Apple Inc., maker of the iPad and the iPhone, is seeking a patent on a technology that will enhance the ability of players to use their iPhones as game tools.
According to application 20100279768, published yesterday in the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the technology covered by the patent would enable players to use their iPhones as simulated guns.
The “gun” attachment would permit players to target others in a “real world gaming environment,” according to the application. This would be achieved through the use of the phone’s sensors, including its global positioning device and accelerometer.
The technology also may enable the player to guide “a virtual ball through a virtual maze or steer a virtual car or boat through a virtual racetrack,” Cupertino, California-based Apple said in its application.
Apple filed the application in April 2009 with assistance from Boston’s Fish & Richardson PC.
For more patent news, click here.
Trademark
Coca-Cola Claims U.K. Restaurant’s Sign Infringes Trademark
Coca-Cola Co. accused a restaurant in the U.K.’s Hampshire region of infringing a trademark for its Relentless energy drink, the BBC reported.
The Relentless Stake & Lobster house in Southsea received a 17-page legal document demanding that the restaurant’s name be changes, according to the BBC.
The Atlanta-based beverage company said the restaurant’s sign looked too similar to the label used on its energy drink, the BBC reported.
The restaurant owner told the BBC he was “gobsmacked” by the complaint from Coca-Cola and that he named his restaurant after his father’s fishing boat.
New York State Residents Charged With Criminal Infringement
Three residents of New York’s Oneida County were charged with felony trademark counterfeiting, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported.
More than $183,000 worth of merchandise was seized, including suspected fake North Face clothing, Ugg boots and Coach, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana handbags, according to the newspaper.
The fake goods were found at the suspects’ homes and at rental-storage facilities in three New York towns -- Utica, Schuyler and Westmorland, the newspaper reported.
The defendants, who also were charged with misdemeanor conspiracy, are required to appear on court next week, according to the Post-Standard.
Assemblies of God Sues Retailer for Infringing Trademarks
The General Council of the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal Christian church based in Springfield, Missouri, sued the proprietors of two Stockton, California, stores for trademark infringement.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago, stems from the alleged sale of counterfeit versions of emblem patches, t- shirts and other items bearing the church’s trademarks. The church also accuses the defendants of unauthorized use of Internet domain names that mirror some of its ministry groups, such as “Royal Rangers,” “Missionettes” and “Frontiersman Camping Fellowship.”
The defendants are two separate stores -- Ranger Supply Store and Valley Homebuyer Services -- and three Stockton residents the church says are the proprietors. They also are accused of copyright infringement by copying the text and images on the church’s website and using them on unauthorized sites.
The church asked the court to bar defendants’ infringement, and to order the seizure and destruction of all infringing materials in their possession, as well as forfeiture or cancellation of infringing domain names.
Additionally, the church asked for money damages, including defendants’ profits attributable to their alleged infringement, and asked that all damages be tripled to punish the defendants for their actions. The church also requested $3 million for infringing the domain names, and for awards of attorney fees and litigation costs.
The church is represented by William T. McGrath, Maureen Beacom Gorman, and Tiffany D. Gehrke of Chicago’s Davis McGrath LLC.
The case is General Council of the Assemblies of God v. Ranger Supply Store Inc, 1:10-cv-07050, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
For more trademark news, click here.
Trade Secrets/Industrial Espionage
Oracle’s Ellison to Testify Nov. 8 at SAP Trial
Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison, who has said the new head of rival Hewlett-Packard Co. oversaw “industrial espionage” when he was at SAP AG, will testify Nov. 8 at a trial between Oracle and SAP, a lawyer said in court.
Geoffrey Howard, an Oracle attorney, told U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, that date is his best estimate for when he will call Ellison as a witness. Hamilton asked about high-profile witnesses to make arrangements for potential media interest.
Ellison said in an Oct. 26 statement that Oracle plans to produce evidence that Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker was involved in an effort to steal Oracle software while at SAP.
HP says Apotheker had a limited role in the SAP software maintenance unit where the downloads took place, and claims Ellison is seeking to harass him.
Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, the second- largest maker of software for business applications behind SAP, sued its competitor in 2007. It seeks at least $2.3 billion in damages for what a former SAP unit acknowledges were fraudulent downloads of Oracle software that infringed Oracle copyrights.
The case is Oracle Corp. v. SAP AG, 07-01658, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).
Copyright
U.S. Copyright Office Targeted in Denial-of-Service Attack
An anti-copyright group that has targeted content owners and intellectual property rights enforcement groups since September, yesterday attacked the U.S. Copyright Office and managed to disable its website temporarily, the TorrentFreak website reported.
After the denial-of-service attack began at 3 p.m. London time, the Copyright Office was completely offline for half an hour and then began to come back up again slowly, according to TorrentFreak.
Past targets of the action, performed by a group that calls itself “Anonymous,” included the Motion Picture Association of American, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Intellectual Property Office, TorrentFreak reported.
Anonymous released a statement saying it attacked the Copyright Office website because it was “perpetuating the system that is allowing the exploitative usage of copyright and intellectual property,” according to TorrentFreak.
For more copyright news, click here.
IP Talk
U.K. Plans to Revamp IP Laws ‘for Internet Age,’ Cameron Says
The U.K. will review its intellectual-property laws with an eye to updating them to fit “the Internet Age,” Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech in east London yesterday .
“The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain,” Cameron said. “The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States.”
Cameron wants eastern London, including the areas around Old Street, Shoreditch and the Olympic Park, to be developed as a “technology city,” he said. He said that Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Intel Corp., McKinsey & Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. have committed to investing in projects in the area.
Cameron also said more needs to be done to provide funding to small and mid-sized enterprises setting up in the capital.
To contact the reporter on this story: Victoria Slind-Flor in Oakland, California, at vslindflor@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
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