Category Archives: Intellectual Property

Oregon State in Mustard Seed Patent Dispute

10 Thursday Sep 2009

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Litigation, Oregon, Patent

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(AP) — BOISE, Idaho – Three Pacific Northwest universities face a federal lawsuit that accuses them of using, without permission, a Canadian inventor’s patented process to build a better yellow mustard seed.

Soheil Sharafabadi, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle, says the University of Idaho used his patent to produce new varieties of mustard seed with higher yields.

Washington State University and Oregon State University collaborated with the Idaho university, providing research stations and scientists, according to court documents.

The lawsuit, filed July 23, names all three schools and agricultural suppliers in Idaho, Washington, Montana and California that sell and distribute the mustard seeds Sharafabadi says were developed with his 1990 “Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum” patent (Patent No. 4,980,186).

Seed patent

Plaintiff: Soheil K Sharafabadi
Defendant: University of Idaho, Pacific Northwest Farmers Coop (Genesee), Pacific Northwest Farmers Coop (Colfax), Montana Specialty Mills LLC, McKay Seeds Company, LA Hearne Company, Oregon State University and Washington State University
Case Number: 2:2009cv01043
Filed: July 23, 2009
Court: Washington Western District Court
Office: Seattle Office [ Court Info ]
County: XX Outside US
Presiding Judge: Judge James L. Robart
Nature of Suit: Intellectual Property – Patent
Cause: 35:271 Patent Infringement
Jurisdiction: Federal Question
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

Full story here.

Oregon Man Sentenced for First-Degree Trademark Counterfeiting

29 Wednesday Jul 2009

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Litigation, Trademark

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OREGON CITY — A Happy Valley man will serve 40 days in jail for selling counterfeit Rolex watches, iPods and designer apparel on the Internet.  Gordon Kean Dye, 52, also will pay a $500 fine, pay for his extradition from Texas and remain on probation for two years after he completes his jail term.

Dye was arrested by FBI agents in September 2008, during a crackdown on intellectual property rights violations. After agents obtained a search warrant, they found Dye with several bogus items he bought in Mexico, including 20 bogus Rolex watches, Coach handbags, Nike apparel and items bearing the prestigious Prada label. The counterfeit goods were manufactured in China.

rolex

Dye faced charges in both Washington and Clackamas counties. Prosecutors in both counties worked together and negotiated coordinated pleas.

On Friday, Dye pleaded guilty in Washington County Circuit Court to second-degree trademark counterfeiting.

Today, he pleaded guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court to first-degree trademark counterfeiting, second-degree trademark counterfeiting and third-degree trademark counterfeiting.

Dye offered a simple apology to Judge Steven L. Maurer.

“I’m sorry for being here, your honor, in this courtroom,” he said.

Source: The Oregonian

coach-patch-tote

The Trademark Counterfeiting statute appears below.  Click the links above to see the penalty for each degree of counterfeiting.

CHAPTER 647—Trademarks and Service Marks; Oregon Revised Statutes 647.135
(1) A person commits trademark counterfeiting if the person knowingly and with the intent to sell or distribute and without the consent of the registrant uses, displays, advertises, distributes, offers for sale, sells or possesses any item that bears a counterfeit of a mark or any service that is identified by a counterfeit of a mark registered under this chapter or registered under this chapter or registered under 15 U.S.C. 1052 with knowledge that the mark is counterfeit.

(2) For purposes of this section, a mark is counterfeit if:

(a) It is a mark that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from a registered mark; and

(b) It is used on or in connection with the same type of goods or services for which the genuine mark is registered.

(3) A person does not commit trademark counterfeiting if the person has adopted and lawfully used the same or a confusingly similar mark in the rendition of like services or the manufacture of like goods in this state from a date before the effective date of registration of the service mark or trademark and continues to use the mark after the effective date of registration.

Stay out of trouble, kids!

Sotomayor’s Supreme Court Case History – Intellectual Property

27 Wednesday May 2009

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Litigation

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During Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s 17 years as a federal judge, the U.S. Supreme Court has reviewed her decisions on at least eight occasions, including the following copyright case:

Tasini vs. New York Times, et al (1997), 972 F. Supp. 804: As a district court judge in 1997, Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who asserted that various news organizations, including the New York Times, violated copyright laws by reproducing the freelancers’ work on electronic databases and archives such as “Lexis/Nexis” without first obtaining their permission. Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers and said that publishers were within their rights as outlined by the 1976 Copyright Act. The appellate court reversed Sotomayor’s decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate decision (therefore rejecting Sotomayor’s original ruling). Justices Stevens and Breyer dissented, taking Sotomayor’s position.

Source: CNN

Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s Pick for Supreme Court, has IP Background

26 Tuesday May 2009

Posted by in Federal Initiatives, Intellectual Property

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sotomayorPresident Obama has selected Sonia Sotomayor to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by retiring Justice Souter. Prior to being selected to the federal bench in 1991 by George Bush, Sotomayor was in private practice in New York…and her specialty was intellectual property law. She represented clients like Ferrari and Fendi in intellectual property, commodities trading and business cases.

The president had said publicly that he wanted a justice who combined intellect and empathy — someone who could understand the troubles of everyday Americans.

From an IP viewpoint, let’s hope her background can help the Supreme Court make some sense out of upcoming copyright and patent litigation.

Here is a brief biography of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

Age 54 (Born June 25, 1954)

Judicial Career
– U.S. Appeals Court judge, 2nd Circuit, 1998-present
– U.S. District Court judge, 1992-1998
– Nominated to federal bench by Bush in 1991, Clinton in 1997

Government/Legal Career
– Former N.Y. County Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1984
– Former private practice attorney, Pavia & Harcourt, New York, 1984-1992

Politics
– Confirmed by Senate 67-29 in 1998
– Confirmation to current seat took over 1 year
– Was opposed by majority of Republican senators
– Was unopposed in 1991 confirmation process

Education
– J.D., Yale Law School, 1979
– B.A., Princeton, 1976 (summa cum laude)

Academic Positions
– Adjunct Professor, New York University School of Law since 1998
– Lecturer-in-law, Columbia Law School since 1999

Professional Associations
– American Bar Association
– Puerto Rican Bar Association
– Hispanic National Bar Association
– Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage
– New York Women’s Bar Association

Judicial Committees & Activities
Former Member, Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness
in the Courts

Other Activities
– Former Member, Board of Directors, New York City Campaign Finance Board
– Former Member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency
– Former Member, Board of Directors, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education
Fund
– Former Member, Board of Directors, Maternity Center Association
– Former Member, New York City Campaign Public Finance Board (Mayor’s
Appointee)
– Former Member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency
(Governor’s Appointee)

Honors & Awards
– Herbert L. Lehman College, Degree of Law Honoris Causa, 1999
– Brooklyn Law School Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001
– Princeton Univ., Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001

Publications
– Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed
Rights, 88 Yale Law Journal 825 (1979)
– Sonia Sotomayor & Nicole A. Gordon, Returning Majesty to the Law and
Politics: A Modern Approach, 30 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 35 (1996)

iTunes DRM pits Apple against EFF, Beaverton-based OdioWorks

30 Thursday Apr 2009

Posted by in Intellectual Property

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against Apple on Monday.

Here’s the story so far: Late last year, an anonymous contributor to the BluWiki wiki site began a discussion about a project called Ipodhash, whose goal was to reverse-engineer the digital rights management system in the latest version of Apple’s iTunes.  The ultimate purpose of Ipodhash was to let iPhone and iPod users run alternatives to iTunes, such as Banshee and Songbird. Hackers have been successful at cracking Apple’s system in the past.  In November ’08, Apple lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to the host of the BlueWiki site, Beaverton, Oregon based OdioWorks.  Apple’s claim was that Ipodhash violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

For the full story and analysis, see The Industry Standard.