Morgan Lewis on Intellectual Property and Technology
June 2002

In this Issue:

• Presto Festo: Is Infringement by Equivalents Now a Vanishing Act?:
  The doctrine of equivalents (“DOE”) was developed to prevent piracy of a patented invention by someone making minor changes to avoid infringement.
• Harry & Louise: America's Concerned Couple Free to Speak for Now:
  On May 15, 2002, a Morgan Lewis team succeeded in defeating efforts to stop the airing of political advocacy television ads featuring actors Harry Johnson and Louise Caire Clark, known as “Harry & Louise.”
• And the Answer is...Interpretive Necromancy?:
  On June 3, 2002, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Holmes Group, Inc. v. Vornado Air Circulation Sys., Inc., 535 U.S. __ (2002), stating without dissent that the Federal Circuit does not have jurisdiction over an appeal based solely on a patent law counterclaim in a defendant’s answer if there was no patent law claim in the plaintiff’s complaint.
• In Rem Recovery of Domain Names:
  Morgan Lewis attorneys recently engineered a novel use of the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1125(d) and 1129, to achieve a final and significant judgment for a client less than 10 days after filing the complaint.

For the full story, please view the PDF.