Should Anyone Care that Sexual Assault is “Out of Character” for Biden?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb considers what people mean when they say that a sexual assault allegation seems “out of character” for a particular person and explains why that reasoning is logically flawed. Focusing on differences between how people behave publicly and privately, Colb argues that the lack of an observed pattern of sexual misconduct is not evidence that a person did not engage in sexual misconduct on a specific occasion.

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Ciena Corp. v. Oyster Optics, LLC

Docket: 19-2117

Opinion Date: May 5, 2020

Judge: O'Malley

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Government & Administrative Law, Intellectual Property, Patents

Oyster sued, alleging that Ciena infringed several patents. Ciena petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for inter partes review of the asserted patents. The district court stayed the litigation. The Board concluded that Ciena had failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that any of the challenged claims were unpatentable. The Federal Circuit denied Ciena’s motion to vacate the decision. Ciena forfeited its argument that the members of the Board panel that issued the decision were not appointed in compliance with the Appointments Clause. Ciena requested that the Board adjudicate its petition and affirmatively sought a ruling from the Board members, regardless of how they were appointed. Ciena was content to have the assigned Board judges adjudicate its invalidity challenges until the Board ruled against it.

Uber Technologies, Inc. v. X One, Inc.

Docket: 19-1164

Opinion Date: May 5, 2020

Judge: Sharon Prost

Areas of Law: Intellectual Property, Patents

X One’s patent describes a “Buddy Watch application” that allows a mobile device user to add other mobile device users to her “Buddy List.” A user may set up “instant buddies.” For example, a stranded motorist may wish to be instant buddies with the driver of a tow truck, allowing each phone to show the location of the other phone on its moving map. Uber sought inter partes review asserting that claims of the patent were obvious, 35 U.S.C. 103, in view of prior art that generally describes transmitting location information between mobile devices. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board held the claims were not unpatentable. The Federal Circuit reversed. The Board erred in determining that the combination of prior art does not render obvious the limitation “software . . . to transmit the map with plotted locations to the first individual.” Because terminal-side plotting and server-side plotting, as described in prior art, would have been two of a finite number of known, predictable solutions at the time of the invention of the patent, a person of ordinary skill would have faced a simple design choice between the two, and would have been motivated to combine the teachings of prior art to achieve the limitation.