It may raise question marks over the use of a patent that depends heavily on competitor technology, though.
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Google also proposed giving Oracle 0.015% of revenues for use of a second patent which is valid until April 2018.
Advocates of change say judges who deem a patent to have been infringed should use more discretion in deciding between awarding damages and a course of action that could close all or part of a business.
Last year, a U.S. firm was granted a patent for a traditional Indian home remedy - the use of turmeric as an antiseptic.
Indeed, the Prozac patent that was overturned in court was not the patent on the compound, which expires in 2001, but a patent on the use of the compound to treat depression.
Since 2008, Spangenberg and his company TQP have launched suits against hundreds of firms, claiming that their use of a common cryptographic protocol in the HTTPS-encrypted portions of their web properties violates the patent invented by Jones and acquired by TQP in 2006.
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The New York-based drug giant filed a lawsuit last year in the U.S.District Court inDelaware, alleging both Cialis and Levitra infringe a recent Viagra "method-of-use" patent.
An additional refinement is major analyst jockeys on these volatile growthies use a dividend discount model which gives weight to the negative impact of drug patent expirations 5 to 10 years out.
At root, this case tests whether courts can realistically enforce their judgments, including, as in this case, the judgment that a patentee has been denied the right to control the use of its patent.
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If EchoStar prevails, similarly-situated companies will have even less incentive to seek out deals with patent-holders, instead relying on the courts to carve out for them an extended period of unlicensed use with a bill that comes due years later assuming the patent holder can afford to litigate for years and in an amount almost certainly far below the actual benefit conferred.
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Critical mass seems to be growing for serious patent reform legislation in the U.S. At the CES Innovation Policy Summit, the best-attended session so far featured Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who is co-sponsoring a bill which would severely limit the ability of holding companies to use the patent system to extort settlements, especially in the highly-litigated information technology sector.
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Holders of SEPs are obliged to licence the patent's use to competitors in return for a fee on so-called fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (Frand) terms.
Shares in ailing 131-year-old camera maker Eastman Kodak spiked on Monday after the U.S. International Trade Commission announced it would review a patent-infringement claim against Apple and Research In Motion over the use of image preview technologies, patented by Kodak in 2001.
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Bowman argued that he should be able to use those second-generation seeds for a natural and foreseeable purpose of planting and that Monsanto's patent rights were exhausted after its initial sales of the seeds.
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Patent law gives inventors the exclusive rights to use or license their inventions, for a fixed period of time, to encourage disclosure and allow them to benefit from and recoup the cost of their invention.
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