April 25, 2007
Positive IP law rulings
Two good rulings recently:
1) The judge in Capital v. Foster handed down a ruling denying the RIAA's request to reconsider the award of attorney's fees to the defendant. The judge had ordered such fees after denying the option to dismiss without prejudice, establishing a judgment on the merits for the defendant. Attorney's fees being an incredibly expensive part of litigation, this is great precedent.
2) The Federal Circuit granted a permanent stay of the injunction against Vonage in the Verizon v. Vonage patent infringement case. Verizon had previously won a finding that Vonage had infringed on three Verizon patents, and won an injunction against Vonage preventing them from signing up any new customers and casting the future of that company in doubt. Vonage isn't out of the woods yet, but at least they're not dead.
This comes on the heals of the announcement of a patent reform bill which looks to significantly improve upon the current system.
