[Patents] Re: High Court to Hear "Copycat-Products" Case

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

> http://cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6310539.html?tag=mn_hd

> The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an important patent case that
> could make it easier to develop knockoff products without running afoul
> of patent laws.

> On Monday, the court said it will consider whether to overturn a lower
> court ruling that limits a patent's scope. Oral arguments will take
> place sometime during the next session, with a decision expected after
> that.

Sounds like this is a case of how far equivalence arguments can be used.

> Many tech companies are closely watching the case, known as Festo v.
> Shoketsu Kinzoku Koygo Kabushiki, because it could affect how widely

Koygo ==> Kogyo

> patent laws can be applied to copycat products.

What else should patents be applied to, if not copycat products?

Maybe the patentee in this case does not have a suitable claim and needs
to rely on extensive interpretation using equivalence argumentation.

Is this article perhaps designed to mobilise another american jury against
a stereotype japanese copycat, and during this process tacitly pave the
way for European-style equivalence argumentation?

Under

        EU swpat consultation replies
        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/eukonsult00/

you can find a contribution from Guenther Schoelch, examiner at the
German Office, who warns that equivalence argumenation and other
formalisms in Europe will tend to make software patents worse here
than they are in the US.

--
Hartmut Pilch                                           http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation        http://swpat.ffii.org/
80000 signatures against software patents         http://www.noepatents.org/