Posted onFebruary 20, 2018byHenry Sneath|Comments Off on From Legal Tech/Law.Com news: A Bug Bounty for Discounts on Cyber Insurance
From our friends at Law.Com: In the growing market for cyber insurance, carriers are trying to compete on price. One carrier, Coalition is offering discounts if your company creates a partnership with a “white hat hacker” and establishes a bug bounty with that hacker. The hacker gets a bounty for finding vulnerabilities. Legal Tech author Rhys Dipshandetails the program in the article at this link: http://tinyurl.com/ydck3nxg
Dipshan reports that “bug bounties” are becoming a popular weapon in combating cyber attacks. “Unsurprisingly” Dipshan reports, “bounty programs are becoming increasingly common in the tech and corporate world, with companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Uber offering compensation for vulnerability disclosures. They also have caught on in the federal government as well, with the Department of Defense launching its “Hack the Pentagon” and “Hack the Air Force” programs.” Do you need a cyber bounty hunter?
Posted onFebruary 27, 2016byHenry Sneath|Comments Off on Huge CMU v. Marvell Patent Infringement Case Settled in Pittsburgh
Posted by Henry M. Sneath, Esq. – Chair of the Intellectual Property Group at Picadio Sneath Miller & Norton, P.C. (PSMN® and PSMNLaw®) in Pittsburgh, Pa. He may be contacted at hsneath@psmn.com or 412-288-4013. Website www.psmn.com or www.psmn.law
From “ars technica“* publication: One of the largest patent verdict cases ever was obtained by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh Federal District Court in 2012 in the courtroom of the Hon. Nora Barry Fischer as presiding judge. CMU won a $1.17 billion jury verdict in 2012 and the court enhanced the verdict to $1.54 Billion. The Federal Circuit cut the win significantly, by reducing the damages and eliminating the enhanced damages award, but kept the main verdict intact. The case was just settled here in Pittsburgh for $750 Million. It will allegedly be the second largest payment ever in a technology patent case. A thorough article on the matter with good links to the case history appears at web publication ars technica*(http://tinyurl.com/zwb26wg ).
In Newill v. Campbell Transp. Co., plaintiff sought to preclude defendant from introducing several of his Facebook posts into evidence on the bases that the posts were irrelevant or would be unfairly prejudicial. The case involved personal injury claims and employability issues. Defendant had obtained Facebook posts showing plaintiff engaging in physically taxing activities and posts showing plaintiff using “casual or rough language.” Defendant sought to use the physical activity posts to show that plaintiff retained the ability to engage in physical activities and sought to use the “language” posts to argue that plaintiff would have been employed had he not posted questionable language on Facebook.
The court held that the physical activity posts were relevant and admissible for the purpose of showing plaintiff could engage in physical activity but that his posts of “casual or rough” language were not admissible for supporting the claim that he remained unemployed because of these posts. With respect to the physical activity posts, the court ruled that plaintiff’s claim that he was embarrassed by the posts was not sufficient to preclude their admissibility generally. However, the court did state that it would be willing to assess particular posts at trial and whether there was a sufficient basis for excluding them under Federal Rule of Evidence 611 (granting the court discretion to bar harassment and undue embarrassment of a witness). As to the claim that the “language” posts interfered with plaintiff’s ability to find employment, the court held that this was speculation on the part of defendant’s expert, and therefore, they were inadmissible.
Newill v. Campbell Transp. Co., 2:12-cv-1344 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 14, 2015). The full opinion can be found here.
Do you work in an office that receives a single copy of a trade publication, which is passed around the office for multiple people to read? Be careful because such use may constitute copyright infringement—at least that is what one publisher argues.
In Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. v. The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC (“USW”), Civ. Action. No. 11-00428, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123080 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 29, 2013) (Judge Conti), Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. and Energy Intelligence Group (UK) Limited (collectively “EIG”) filed suit to seek damages from Defendant USW for sharing its single subscription to the “Oil Daily” with multiple USW employees. USW, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a labor organization, which provides collective bargaining services to its union members. USW subscribed to the Oil Daily, beginning in 1992. From 1992 to 1999, the Oil Daily was sent in paper copy. Starting in 1999, EIG began sending the Oil Daily in electronic form. USW subscribed to the Oil Daily through a subscription agent, EBSCO Information Services (“EBSCO”).
EIG’s suit involves 2,880 issues of the Oil Daily, which were published from December 1999 to March 2011. EIG owns valid U.S. copyright registrations for each of these publications and provides copyright notices on its website, articles, emails and publications, including on the Oil Daily itself. In February 2006, EIG sent a letter to all subscribers informing them that single-user subscriptions were not to be shared by multiple readers. This letter was not sent directly to USW but was sent to EBSCO. However, the court determined that EBSCO was USW’s agent and this constituted notice to USW, as well as EBSCO.
Mary Dimoff, USW’s librarian, was the sole subscriber to the Oil Daily. When she received the Oil Daily in hard copy, she maintained a list of USW recipients to receive the Oil Daily, and she routed the paper to these individuals over the course of three to four days. When Ms. Dimoff started receiving the Oil Daily in electronic form, she forwarded it to the recipients via email. Through various communications with EIG and EBSCO, Ms. Dimoff revealed to EIG that she was sharing her subscription, and EIG filed suit.
USW conceded that it copied and distributed the 2,880 issues of the Oil Daily. However, USW asserted that it was permitted to do so based upon several different defenses including, implied license, equitable estoppel, fair use, and laches. USW also argued that damages should be limited to the three-year period prior to the filing of the complaint. The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment on the defenses and the damages issues.
The court held that factual issues precluded the entry of summary judgment on all but one issue which was the equitable estoppel defense. The court concluded that it would be impossible for USW to prove that the equitable estoppel defense applied because it could not prove all four factors necessary to establish such a defense: (1) the plaintiff had actual or constructive knowledge of the defendant’s infringing conduct; (2) the plaintiff intended or expected that defendants would act on the plaintiff’s misrepresentations or concealments; (3) the defendant was ignorant of the true facts; and (4) the defendant relied on the plaintiff’s conduct to its injury.
The court found that USW had sufficient evidence to prove that EIG had at least constructive knowledge of the infringing conduct for approximately three years before filing suit and thus, met the first factor. However, USW could not prove the last three factors. As for the second factor, the court determined that EIG did not misrepresent or conceal its intent to assert its copyrights because it affixed its copyright notice on every edition of the Oil Daily. With respect to the third factor, the court rejected USW’s argument that it acted innocently because it had the notice of the copyright on the Oil Daily and because USW never followed up with EBSCO or with EIG to confirm if its actions were permissible. Finally, the court held that USW could not show that it relied on EIG’s conduct to its detriment because EIG provided the copyright notice directly on the Oil Daily and sent its terms and conditions to EBSCO. Therefore, EIG made no misrepresentations and did not conceal its copyrights.
The Energy Intelligence Group case is an interesting copyright case. For more details on the other defenses and the factual issues raised, you can read the entire case here.
By Henry M. Sneath, Esq. – Chair of the Picadio Sneath Miller & Norton, P.C. Intellectual Property Group. Contact him at hsneath@psmn.com
Last week a Pittsburgh federal court jury found on behalf of local university CMU against hard drive chip maker Marvell (See attached photo) on claims of patent infringement and willfulness. The $1.17 Billion award was huge by any standards and still faces post trial motions which could vacate the verdict or increase it for willfulness, which the jury found. Judge Fischer could grant any number of what will surely be multiple post trial motions including a motion for mistrial, which was made by Marvell counsel during CMU’s closing argument and on which she denied the motion without prejudice to rule on it after the announcement of a verdict. In other words, she could still grant a mistrial and vacate the one month trial and verdict. She could also increase the verdict by as much as threefold based on the willfulness finding. The article attached below indicates that no tech verdict this large has ever stood the test on appeal. Here is one of a number of good descriptions of the case as it has been written about extensively over the last week: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/jury-slams-marvell-with-mammoth-1-17-billion-patent-verdict/
Here also is an interesting video take on the case. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/david-martin-on-carnegie-mellon-marvell-patent-case-er1U0P~yQXC616MuXqU_Hw.html
The USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvania enacted local patent rules in 2005. The court has also been designated as one of a number of courts in the country that are part of a Pilot Program where patent filings will be monitored and wherein participating courts will establish certain practices for the administration of Patent cases. While patent filings have been rather flat in the Pa. Western District in the last few years, the number has skyrocketed in 2012. There were 11 Patent cases filed in 2011, but this year, through July, there have already been 28 filings, or more properly, 11 actual filings and 17 transfers of cases from the Eastern District of Texas, or which relate to those transferred cases.
These latter 17 cases have related to the same or similar patents held by a company called Maxim Integrated Products, which is suing numerous big name companies, and which is being sued in declaratory judgment actions by many other big name companies. Many of their suits were filed, not surprisingly in Texas Eastern, but were transferred to Pa. Western.
Declaratory Judgment actions followed and have been filed here by other companies whom Maxim allegedly threatened with suit. The patent (s) at issue relate to the transfer of “cash” between secure devices (eg: mobile to mobile). The Summary of the Invention in this ‘510 patent is set forth as:
“The present invention is an apparatus, system and method for communicating a cash equivalent electronically to and from a portable module. The portable module can be used as a cash equivalent when buying products and services in the market place. The present invention comprises a portable module that can communicate to a secure module via a microprocessor based device. The portable module can be carried by a consumer, filled with electronic money at an add-money station, and be debited by a merchant when a product or service is purchased by the consumer. As a result of a purchase, the merchant’s cash drawer will indicate an increase in cash value.”
We will follow these cases and report more in the future.
As reported earlier, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania was chosen to be one of 14 District Courts nationwide to participate in a 10-year Patent Pilot Program to study the effects of providing specialized patent judges on patent litigation. On October 12, 2011, the Court issued an order setting forth the procedures it will use in implementing this program. Among other things, the Court identified four judges who are designated as the official Designated Patent Judges for the Court:
Under the Court’s guidelines, patent cases are still randomly assigned to all Judges in the District, regardless of whether they are Designated Patent Judges. However, a non-Designated Patent Judge has the option of declining the case. If he or she does so, the case will be randomly reassigned to one of the Designated Patent Judges.
Since the Court’s implementing order, it has added twonew Designated Patent Judges:
The Court has created a special Patent Pilot Program page on its website, which has a variety of information about the program, including the Court’s Local Patent Rules.
Yesterday, the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in FLFMC, LLC v. Wham-O, Inc. (No. 2011-1067) to decide whether the patent false marking statute (35 U.S.C. § 292) is constitutional under the “Appointments” and “Take Care” clauses of the United States Constitution (Article II, Sections 2 and 3). The panel is comprised of Judges Linn, Dyk, and Prost, and attorneys representing FLFMC, Wham-O, the US government, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America argued before the Court. An audio recording of the argument can be heard here.
The district court below (from the Western District of Pennsylvania) dismissed FLFMC’s lawsuit, finding that it lacked standing to bring the action, and FLFMC appealed to the Federal Circuit.
It is difficult to predict how the Court will rule from the argument yesterday, but we can get an idea of some of the key issues that the Court is wrestling with. The argument chiefly focused on two key issues—(1) is there a sufficient government notice requirement in the statute and (2) does the government have sufficient control over the litigation to satisfy its constitutional obligations?
Does § 292 Require Notice to the Government?
As to the first issue, counsel for FLFMC noted that there is a provision for giving the USPTO notice of any lawsuit involving a patent (35 U.S.C. § 290) and many plaintiffs are giving the government notice as a matter of routine practice. Counsel for Wham-O countered that many plaintiffs are not giving notice under § 290 or otherwise and that § 290 only requires notice within 30 days of filing suit, by which time many cases have been settled and dismissed. In either case, the government is not getting adequate notice to fulfill its constitutional obligations. The government conceded that the notice under § 290 does not specifically indicate that the lawsuit involves allegations of false marking, so the government would have to specifically investigate every patent case filed to determine whether it involved false marking, as opposed to infringement, for example.
The Court clearly was concerned about the apparent lack of notice, and the panel questioned whether it could create a notice requirement to preserve the constitutionality.
Does the Government Have Sufficient Control of the Litigation?
The other key issue was the government’s ability to intervene and control the litigation. On its face, the statute is silent about government control and intervention. Counsel for FLFMC argued that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure give the government the right to intervene because it has a stake in the outcome of the lawsuit, and that the Court can look to these Rules in determining the constitutionality. The Court seemed to accept this argument. Counsel for Wham-O countered that while the government may be able to intervene, it has no ability to control the litigation. It cannot force a dismissal of the lawsuit or reject a settlement. It can only ask the Court for assistance, which puts the government in no better a position that any other amicus or intervenor. There was also some dispute over whether civil litigants should be precluded from bringing suit if the government has already filed a criminal action.
What’s Next?
Given the tenor of the argument, it seems safe to say that the Court has some concerns about the constitutionality of the false marking statute. Whether those concerns rise to the level of invalidating the statute is another question. What will be interesting is how the decision in this case will affect the legislation pending in Congress that rewrites the false marking statute (HR 1249, § 16 and S 23, § 2(k)). Should the Court hold that the current false marking statute is unconstitutional, it may require Congress to revisit the amendments to that statute.
Additional Materials
The parties’ Federal Circuit briefs can be found here.
The District Court order finding no standing can be found here.
On June 8, 2011, Chief Judge Gary L. Lancaster announced that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts selected the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to be one of 14 Districts Courts to participate in a 10-year Patent Pilot Program. As part of this program, the Courts will funnel the majority of patent cases to designated patent judges in each district with the intention of providing litigants with Judges that have special training and interest in hearing these cases. As the U.S. Court press release stated:
“In the pilot program, patent cases filed in participating district courts are initially randomly assigned to all district judges, regardless of whether they have been designated to hear such cases. A judge who is randomly assigned a patent case and is not among the designated judges may decline to accept the case. That case is then randomly assigned to one of the district judges designated to hear patent cases.”
The Administrative Office selected Courts with an established history and interest in patent litigation and those with local patent rules already in place (the Western District of Pennsylvania implemented its local patent rules back on April 1, 2005). The fourteen District Courts selected by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts were:
Eastern District of New York
Southern District of New York
Western District of Pennsylvania
District of New Jersey
District of Maryland
Northern District of Illinois
Southern District of Florida
District of Nevada
Eastern District of Texas
Northern District of Texas
Western District of Tennessee
Central District of California
Northern District of California
Southern District of California
The Western District of Pennsylvania’s participation in this pilot program, along with its local patent rules already in place, reinforces that Pittsburgh is an attractive venue for litigants wishing to resolve patent disputes.
As discussed in an earlier post on this blog, the federal courts will be requiring all electronic filers to move to the PDF/A standard for ECF filings. The Western District of Pennsylvania announced that it is beginning its transition to this format now, and all filings starting on January 1, 2012 must be in the PDF/A standard (link to Court’s PDF announcement).
The PDF/A format should be a longer lasting file format that will allow attorneys and the public to access these records well into the future. The PDF/A standard requires that the files be self-contained and not refer to use any information outside of the file itself. So, all the fonts and other information will be embedded inside the file. There are two types of PDF/A formats—the PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-1b formats. The “a” format requires strict tagging of information, while the “b” format is less stringent. As a practical matter, one will likely need the original source file (for example, the original Microsoft Word file) to create a PDF/A-1a file. This will make it more difficult to convert standard PDF files into PDF/A-1a files. On the other hand, because the PDF/A-1b format is more forgiving, and it should be possible to convert standard PDF files into this format. It appears that the federal courts will accept either PDF/A format.
There are a variety of websites offering advice and tutorials to help ease the transition to the PDF/A format. The Adobe Acrobat for Legal Professionals website recently posted a tutorial on using the save as feature in Acrobat 9 and X to create or convert files into the PDF/A format. It also hosted a webcast on the topic that can be viewed here.
Contact our Pittsburgh Intellectual Property, Cyber and Data Security, Trade Secret, DTSA and Technology Attorneys at Houston Harbaugh, P.C. through IP and Litigation Sections Chair Henry M. Sneath at 412-288-4013 or sneathhm@hh-law.com. While focusing first on health care and prevention issues for family, friends and employees, we are also beginning to examine the overall Covid Law related issues in business litigation, contract force majeure, trusts and estates litigation and insurance coverage issues that will naturally follow the economic disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some posts herein are from the HH-Law resources of PSMN® and PSMNLaw®. Business Litigation. Pittsburgh Strong® and DTSALaw®, PSMN® and PSMNLaw® are federally registered trademarks of HH-Law. See Firm Website at: https://www.hh-law.com/Professionals/Henry-Sneath.shtml
From “ars technica“* publication: One of the largest patent verdict cases ever was obtained by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh Federal District Court in 2012 in the courtroom of the Hon. Nora Barry Fischer as presiding judge. CMU 
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