This webinar will consider what new legal battles are likely to follow from last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Life Tech v. Promega. The decision reversed the Federal Circuit by finding that Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Life Technologies unit did not infringe by shipping a single component of Promega’s patented invention overseas, in a case involving Section 271(f)(1) of the Patent Act.
In parsing that statute, the Justices declined to rule on how close to “all” of an invention’s components must be exported in order to be the “substantial portion” that is needed to infringe. Presumably, that determination will be argued in front of a jury. It is also not clear whether it will be a judge or the jury who will answer the question of exactly how many “components” are defined within a patent. Patent owners will want to argue that there are multiple components in the part of an invention shipped overseas, while alleged infringers will want to include many parts of a patent in one component.
Our panel, which includes the head of IP for a large technology company and two litigators, each of whom was involved in an amicus brief in the case, will also discuss strategies for patent prosecution and global supply chain management going forward. For instance, inventors may want to look harder at procuring foreign patents in countries where competitors are likely to repackage or use components of an invention that now is patented only in the U.S.
Speakers:
- Paul Berghoff, McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP
- Irena Royzman, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
- Bradford Schmidt, Agilent Technologies
