On May 6, 1851, U.S. Patent No. 8,080 issued to John Gorrie on the Ice Machine.
May 5 Patent of the Day
On May 5, 1885, U.S. Patent No. 317,049 issued to William H Walker and George Eastman on Roll Holder for Photographic Films.
May 4 Patent of the Day
On May 4, 1852, U.S. Patent No. 341,214 issued to C. Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter on Recording and Reproducing Speech and Other Sounds (the disc-shaped record).
On May 3, 1966, U.S. Patent No. 3,249,473 issued to Nick Holonyak, Jr., on the Use of Metallic Halide as a carrier Ga in the Vapor Deposition of III-V Compounds (making LED’s in the visible light spectrum).
May 2 Patent of the Day
On May 2, 2006, U.S. Patent No. 7,036,154 issued to Lynn A. McVay on a Game Bird Decoy Apparatus.
May 1 Patent of the Day
On May 1, 1849, U.S. Patent No. 6420 issued to Samuel F. B. Morse on Improvements in Electric Telegraphs.
April 30 Patent of the Day
On April 30, 1912, U.S. Patent No. 1,025,075 issued to Frank J. Schumann on a Vending-Machine, adapted for postage stamps or tickets — and yet we still wait on long lines to buy both.
Venue for Patent Infringement Cases is Well Established; a Corporate Defendant can be Sued Wherever it Can be Found
In In re TLC Heartland LLC, [2016-0105] (April 29, 2016), the Federal Circuit denied Heartland petition for mandamus directing the District of Delaware to either dismiss or transfer the patent infringement suit brought by Kraft against Heartland in the District of Delaware.
Heartland is a limited liability company organized and existing under Indiana law and headquartered in Indiana. Heartland was not registered to do business in Delaware, has no local presence in Delaware, has not entered into any supply
contracts in Delaware or called on any accounts there to solicit sales, although it did admit to shipping 44,707 cases of the accused product to the District of Delaware that generated at least $331,000 in revenue.
The Federal Circuit found that Heartland failed to show its right to mandamus was clear and indisputable, rejecting the argument that Heartland did not reside in Delaware for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), and rejecting the argument that the District Court lacked specific personal jurisdiction.
The Federal Circuit rejected Heartland’s contention that amendments to the venue statute statutorily overruled VE Holdings‘ determination 1988 amendments to the venue statute made the definition of corporate residence in the general venue statute, § 1391(c), apply to the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1400.
The Federal Circuit also rejected Heartland;s argument that specific jurisdiction only gives the court jurisdiction over those acts occurring in the district. The Federal Circuit rejected the result that to get jurisdiction over all of the acts of infringement, Kraft would have to sue in each state, or sue defendant where it is incorporated.
Venue continues as it has since VE Holdings — a corporate infringer can be sued wherever it can be found.
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April 29 Patent of the Day
On April 29, 2008, U.S. Patent No. 7,366,979 issued to Steven Spielberg and Samuel Gustman on a Method and Apparatus for Annotating a Document. Yes — that Steven Spielberg.
An Illuminating Discussion About Design Patents
Design patents protect the aesthetic appearance of a product or portion of the product. The aesthetic appearance is affected by a number of things, including whether the product is illuminated. However, how does one capture in the USPTO’s preferred black and white line drawings that fact that some or all of the design is illuminated? Pretty much the way you would think. Take, for example, U.S. Patent No. D688245 on a Contoured Mouse, which illustrates illumination with a burst of radiating dashed lines:
the patent explains that the “dash-dot-dash lines shown in Fig 8 represent the illumination at the finger wheel and these lines form no part of the claimed design.” This same technique was used in U.S. Patent No. D688,664, also on a contoured mouse.
Discover Financial Service used a similar technique to illustrate an illuminated portion on their Discover Card in U.S. Patent No. D685419:
The patent explaining that “The circle is the boundary of the illuminated portion. The radiating lines illustrate the glow of the illumination.” Radiating lines were also used to indicate illumination on an MR scanner in U.S. Patent No. D682,026:
Still other examples include: an electronic data module with illuminated region in U.S. Patent No. D670696:
An illuminated cup rim in U.S. Patent No. D670419:
Illumination can be claimed in a design patent, it is simply a matter of illustrating the illumination in the drawings, and describing the drawings properly.