On June 8, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products, LLC concerning the First Amendment freedom-of-speech defense for a parody in a trademark infringement case. In a unanimous decision, the Court agreed with Jack Daniel's and held that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not protect the maker of the "Bad Spaniels" dog chew toy that parodies the Jack Daniel's whiskey bottle from an infringement claim. 

日本語 ▪ 简体中文 ▪ 繁體中文 ▪ عربي

Photo Credit: Aron Visuals

The three-month “sunrise period”, during which any European patent application/patent could be “opted out” of the exclusive competence of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in advance of the start of operation of the Court, ended on May 31, 2023. However, applicants/proprietors may still opt out their European patent applications/patents at least for the next 7 years, provided no action has already been brought before the UPC.

日本語 ▪ 简体中文 ▪ 繁體中文 ▪ عربي

Photo Credit: Unervi Gonzalez

In Yita LLC v. MacNeil IP LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reminded patent owners and applicants that in order for commercial success of an invention to support non-obviousness, the required nexus between the claimed invention and its commercial success cannot rest solely on a claim element that is known in the prior art.

日本語 ▪ 简体中文 ▪ 繁體中文 ▪ عربي

How Many Microprocessors is “a Microprocessor”?

Photo Credit: Vishnu Mohanan

How should the indefinite article “a” or “an” in a claim be construed?  Should it be construed to mean “one” or “one or more”? For example, if a claim recites “a microprocessor” followed by a list of its functions, should the claim be construed as requiring a single microprocessor or one or more processors that perform the recited functions? If the claim covers multiple microprocessors, must at least one of them perform all of the recited functions, or is it sufficient for the microprocessors to perform the recited functions collectively, even if no single microprocessor performs all of them?  

日本語 ▪ 简体中文 ▪ 繁體中文 ▪ عربي