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Carlton Fields, P.A., Assists IEEE-USA WASHINGTON (5 September 2001) - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - United States of America (IEEE-USA) filed an amicus curiae brief last Friday, 31 August, before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Festo Corporation v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., LTD patent case. A copy of the brief and other relevant resources are available at http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/policy/01aug31festo.html. In Festo, the Court will be considering to what extent the holder of an amended patent is barred from asserting patent rights against another inventor whose design is substantially the same as the patented invention. As an alternative to the "flexible bar" and "absolute bar" standards advocated by the opposing sides in Festo, IEEE-USA is asking the Court to consider a "foreseeable bar," where holders of an amended patent give up protection for only those things that were foreseeable by persons familiar with the associated technology. Carlton Fields, P.A. of Tampa (www.carltonfields.com) prepared the brief pro bono. Andrew Greenberg served as counsel of record and headed a team of 10 lawyers and legal assistants. Carlton Fields also has Florida offices in Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach. "We saw this as an important question before the Supreme Court affecting not only patent owners and inventors, but everybody who benefits from innovation in the United States," Carlton Fields' President and CEO Thomas Snow said. "We were pleased to help present the position of IEEE-USA to the Court." IEEE-USA President Ned Sauthoff praised the firm's outstanding work. "Carlton Fields attorneys provided the background research for our intellectual property committee, and then prepared an excellent brief to convey our position to the Court," Sauthoff said. "This is a landmark case that may establish fundamental rules of patent policy for the new millennium." IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE created in 1973 to promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 230,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. For more information, visit us online at http://www.ieeeusa.org. The Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.--United States of America | Top of Page | News Releases | IEEE News | IEEE | IEEE-USA | Last Updated: 5
Sept. 2001 |
