In the wake of press reports of abusive patent behavior, the North Carolina legislature followed other states and passed a state law designed to curb abusive patent practices. The Abusive Patents Assertions Act (the Act), passed in 2014, creates a state law tort action for a bad faith assertion of patent infringement. A business that believes it has been …
On May 13, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) announced its judgment in Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v. Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Consteja González. The decision required Google to delist certain internet search results when a search query was made using an individual’s name. Commentators worldwide have referred to this delisting as the …
As part of a growing phenomenon, patent holders are increasingly making voluntary, public commitments to limit their patent’s enforcement and other exploitation. While most of these commitments are FRAND commitments, in which patent holders promise to license their patents to manufacturers of standardized products on terms that are “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory,” a growing number of voluntary patent pledges are made …
