The 2015 en banc Federal Circuit opinion in Akamai V refined divided infringement, but left room for further judicial fine tuning. One such shift took place last December, in a Federal Circuit panel decision, Tropp v. Travel Sentry. That opinion considered when multiple parties can be found to have infringed a patent together —- and it could lead to greater liability for joint infringement. It also likely means such decisions will have to be made by jurors, not judges. Another 2017 earlier Federal Circuit opinion, Lilly v. Teva, addressed divided infringement in the context of the pharmaceutical industry for the first time.
Our panel includes the winning appellate attorney for the inventor/plaintiff in Tropp, who will discuss how the new opinion fits into the framework created by Akamai V., an attorney who manages litigation for a high tech company, and a litigator who won summary judgment for a defendant in an Eastern District of Texas case involving divided infringement . They will consider recent federal district court decisions involving divided infringement, including Sonrai Sys. v. AMCS Group., PersonalWeb Techs v. IBM, and Progme Corp. v. Comcast Cable, and discuss how the outcomes for similar fact patterns might be different in light of Tropp.
Speakers:
- John Carlin, Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto
- Paul Hughes, Mayer Brown LLP
- Frank Nuzzi, Siemens Corp.
