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Transnational electronic systems and patent infringement.

Authors :
Stern, Richard H.
Source :
IEEE Micro. Nov/Dec2005, Vol. 25 Issue 6, p85-88. 4p.
Publication Year :
2005

Abstract

The article focuses on a court case between two companies, NTP Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), regarding patent infringement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for all patent cases took a look at whether operators of transnational electronic systems with some components in the U.S. and some in other countries can be held liable for patent infringement. A transnational system can consist of subsystems, some of which can of necessity be located in one place or at least in one country. It is often possible to obtain patent claims to a subsystem of a given system, where the subsystem is adapted to cooperate or co-act with the system. In NTP Inc.'s case, the defendant was RIM's BlackBerry electronic mail system, which has customers in the U.S. and important parts of the system in Canada. The patentee NTP Inc. had to face a problem that U.S. patent law ordinarily applies only to patent infringement committed within the U.S. NTP Inc. had claims to Internet communication processes, some of whose steps RIM Ltd. carried out in Canada. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just recently issued patentability guidelines stating that henceforth no patents should issue on electronic signals, because they are intangible. INSET: Claiming subsystems: What the courts allow..

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
02721732
Volume :
25
Issue :
6
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
IEEE Micro
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
19406153
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1109/MM.2005.121