Shades of Gray unclaw灰色 unclaw.pptVIP

Shades of Gray Exhaustion and IP Enforcement in a Global Marketplace First-Sale Doctrine “[T]he right to vend is exhausted by a single, [authorized,] unconditional sale, the article sold being thereby carried outside the monopoly of the patent law and rendered free of every restriction which the vendor may attempt to put upon it.” Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg. Co., 243 U.S. 502, 516 (1917). “[W]here one has sold an uncompleted article which, because it embodies essential features of his patented invention, is within the protection of his patent, and has destined the article to be finished by the purchaser in conformity to the patent, he has sold his invention so far as it is or may be embodied in that particular article.” United States v. Univis Lens Co., 316 U.S. 241, 250-51 (1942). LGE’s Patents Originated with Wang Laboratories Managing memory (DRAM), maintaining cache coherency, and prioritizing requests for access to the system bus Wang went bankrupt in 1992. LGE purchased the patents. Accused systems used SDRAM and other features that were not developed until 3-4 years after the patents’ priority dates LGE’s License to Intel LGE granted Intel a broad license to make, use, or sell products that practice the LGE patents. LGE placed no conditions on Intel’s rights. Authorized sale? LGE and Third Parties LGE disclaimed any license to third parties (Intel’s buyers) to combine the Intel products with non-Intel products. LGE required Intel to send its buyers notice of LGE’s disclaimer Quanta ignored the notice from Intel. Did Quanta infringe on the LGE patents? Did Quanta breach an implied contract with LGE? Unanswered Questions Substantial Embodiment Foreign Sales Authorization Covenants not to Sue Implied License Compulsory Licenses Substantial Embodiment Easy in Quanta – No other uses for accused products. Harder Question Pfizer Discovery: Atorvastatin causes a 10-fold boost in the effectiveness of PPAR-γ agonists in lowering