Twenty Meet Federal Circuit Deadline

Twenty companies have met last week’s June 19 deadline and filed amicus briefs with the US Federal Circuit, to see restrictive patent laws overturned in the US. The case between Impression Products and Lexmark, is over patent rights on the first sale of cartridges outside the USA, and prebate (also known as ‘shrinkwap’ licenses) cartridges sold inside the United States.

On April 14, the panel of 3 Federal Circuit judges called for a rare “en banc” hearing where all 17 Federal Circuit judges must deliberate on the case. And the panel also invited friend of the court briefs, or “amicus briefs”, to be lodged to support either side of the argument.

Twenty companies, from a wide range of industries and professional organisations filed amicus briefs to see a change in the current laws, including the American Retailers Association, Intel, Google, CostCo and Samsung. The patent attorney heading the Impression Products argument, Ed O’Connor (pictured), expects the Attorney General’s submission, due to be filed next Monday, June 29, will also support his case.

O’Connor told RT Media he was pleased at the bigger than expected response, but is not surprised.  “This has become an en banc case,” he explained. “So it means the court is seriously considering changing fundamental law. Up until now the Jazz Photo and Mallinckrodt laws have been well set but that could all change.” You can watch RT Media’s exclusive interview with Mr O’Connor at http://www.irecyclingtimes.com/News-Detail?news_column_id=3&news_id=5027&fromInTouch=true

The full bench hearing of all Federal Circuit judges has now been set for October 2 with their decision probably not being announced until the new year.

The full list of amicus briefs includes:

• Association of Medical Device Reprocessors

• Association of Service and Computer Dealers International, Inc. and Owners’ Rights Initiative

• Association of the Bar of the City of New York

• Auto Care Association, Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association and International Imaging Technology Council

• Conejo Valley Bar Association

• Computer & Communications Industry Association

• Costco Wholesale Corporation and Retail Litigation Center, Inc.

• Intellectual Property Law Association

• Intellectual Property Professors and American Antitrust Institute

• LG Electronic, Inc., Dell Inc.,

• Google Inc., Intel Corporation, L Brands Inc., Newegg Inc., Ninestar Image Tech Limited, QVC, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SAS Institute, Inc., Xilinx, Inc.

• Licensing Executives Society

• New York Intellectual Property Law Association

• Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Source Hardware Association, the Digital Right to Repair Coalition, and Public Citizen, Inc.

• Quanta Computer, Inc., Acer, Inc.

• HTC Corporation and HTC America, Inc.

• SK Hynix Inc.

• Recycling Times Media Corporation

• SanDisk Corporation

• Texas Instruments Inc.

Following discussions with both OEMs and the Aftermarket, RT Media Corporation is one of the companies included in filing an amicus brief.

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