Patent Lecture - Dreyfuss talk now posted

I'm pleased to announce that the video of Professor Rochelle C. Dreyfuss's delivery of the Fifth Annual Finnegan Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property at American University, Washington College of Law is now available here. The lecture is "What the Federal Circuit Can Learn from the Supreme Court -- and Vice Versa."

In her talk, Professor Dreyfuss first reviewed the history of the Federal Circuit's creation, and then analyzed why the Supreme Court has taken such increased interest in reviewing Federal Circuit decisions on substantive matters of patent law in recent years. She drew attention to the difficulties of the expert Federal Circuit, sitting between generalist trial courts and a generalist Supreme Court. You'll have to watch the video to hear her specific recommendations for both the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court. Also, be sure not to miss the lively question and answer period that followed, which closes with an eloquent comment by Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman.

An edited transcript of the lecture will be published later this year in the American University Law Review's annual review of Federal Circuit decisions.

Patent Law Lecture at American

What the Federal Circuit Can Learn from the Supreme Court -- and Vice Versa

Please join us for the Fifth Annual Finnegan Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property on October 20, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. This year's lecture will be delivered by Professor Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Pauline Newman Professor of Law at New York University Law School.

Abstract:

For over a quarter century, the Federal Circuit has been in the business of using its special expertise to revise key aspects of both procedural and substantive patent law. In the court’s early years, the Supreme Court largely refrained from reviewing its jurisprudence. However, in the last decade, the two tribunals have engaged in a vibrant dialogue. In this presentation, Professor Dreyfuss will examine their interaction, asking questions about the role that specialists should be permitted to play in tailoring law to the needs of technologically complex and emerging industries, and the extent to which generalists can helpfully intervene to keep this law in the mainstream and attuned to other social values and related developments, such as open innovation.

When: October 20, 2009, 5:00 p.m. Reception | 6:00 p.m. Lecture
Where: Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Room 603
Registration: http://www.wcl.american.edu/secle/register
or call 202-274-4445
Webcast: Live and On Demand: http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/webcast.cfm

Josh Sarnoff's New Blog - Inherently Sarnoff

Congratulations to Josh Sarnoff, who joins the blogosphere with his new blog - Inherently Sarnoff. Josh is my colleague at the Washington College of Law, and he has interesting thoughts and perspectives to contribute to the online dialog about patent law and related matters. For those unfamiliar with patent law, the title of his blog refers to the doctrine of inherency under which a claimed invention can be found to fail the test of novelty because the invention, or one of its elements, is inherent in the prior art. Welcome Josh!

Patent Injunctions after eBay

I've recently posted a new piece: "Patent Injunctions and the Problem of Uniformity Cost."

Here's the abstract:

In eBay v. MercExchange, the Supreme Court correctly rejected a one-size-fits-all approach to patent injunctions. However, the Court's opinion does not fully recognize that the problem of uniformity in patent law is more general and that this problem cannot be solved through case-by-case analysis. This Essay provides a field guide for implementing eBay using functional analysis and insights from a uniformity-cost framework developed more fully in prior work. While there can be no general rule governing equitable relief in patent cases, the traditional four factor analysis for injunctive relief should lead the cases to cluster around certain patterns that often will have an industry-specific cast. This Essay identifies these patterns and summarizes the guideposts that courts and litigants should look for when conducting the traditional analysis in patent cases.

The Article is available on the Web from three places:

http://www.mttlr.org/volthirteen/carroll.pdf
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=992275
http://works.bepress.com/michael_carroll/