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He does seem to have an agenda. Our agreement may contain agreements to let intel manufacture and sell only to licensed distributors. We just don't know, yet. It would seem that he highlights only parts that affirms his stance. He could just as easily highlighted the following.

Contractual Limits: Although the defendant won in this case, the Supreme Court gave some glimmer of hope to those hoping to limit the scope of patent exhaustion through specific licensing terms. In this case, the court found that the LGE-Intel license did not limit the scope of what Intel could sell. Rather, the contract “broadly permits Intel to ‘make, use, [or] sell’” the invention. Under that interpretation of the contract, LGE’s patent rights over a particular component are extinguished as soon as that component is sold – regardless of whether the license included post-sale restrictions.

“LGE points out that the License Agreement specifically disclaimed any license to third parties to practice the patents by combining licensed products with other components. But the question whether third parties received implied licenses is irrelevant because Quanta asserts its right to practice the patents based not on implied license but on exhaustion. And exhaustion turns only on Intel’s own license to sell products practicing the LGE Patents.”

The practical impact is that the patentee has direct power through only the first level of the production/marketing process and forces the patentee to rely on contract rather than patent rules. This shift is less preferred by patentees because (1) contract law requires agreement and privity and (2) patent law typically results in stronger relief than contracts (despite eBay). Because there is usually a lack of privity with downstream users, and the manufacturer is unlikely to agree to be liable for improper downstream uses, it appears that a patentee will now have even more difficulty controling downstream users and purchasers.

Authorized: Despite the broad language of Adam v. Burke, the Supreme Court appears to have conceded that a license may include some restrictions. Interestingly, the court indicated, the sale might not have been authorized if sale had been done in a way that breached the contract between Intel and LGE.

“No conditions limited Intel’s authority to sell products substantially embodying the patents. Because Intel was authorized to sell its products to Quanta, the doctrine of patent exhaustion prevents LGE from further asserting its patent rights with respect to the patents substantially embodied by those products”

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008...

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