Latest Case This Week: M & K Holdings, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Fed. Cir.)

No Good Men?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb comments on a film called “Promising Young Women,” which purports to be a feminist movie about date rape. While Professor Colb describes the movie as interesting, thought-provoking, and “definitely” worth seeing, she argues that it suggests a view of men and sexual assault that is erroneous and potentially even anti-feminist.

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Last Call at the Bar: Grading the Briefs in Trump Impeachment 2.0

DEAN FALVY

Dean Falvy, a lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, offers thoughts on the legal tactics and briefs filed by each side in former President Trump’s second impeachment trial. Mr. Falvy argues that if Trump can survive a second impeachment vote, it will show that he is still operating where he has always believed himself to be: well beyond the reach of the law.

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M & K Holdings, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Docket: 20-1160

Opinion Date: February 1, 2021

Judge: William Curtis Bryson

Areas of Law: Intellectual Property, Patents

The patent at issue is directed to an efficient method for compressing video files; its claims generally concern “a method of decoding a moving picture in inter prediction mode,” in which “one or more reference pictures are used to estimate motion of a current block” over the time of the video. In inter partes review, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board found all claims unpatentable. The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and vacated with respect to claim 3. The court rejected an argument that the Board erred by relying on references that do not qualify as prior art printed publications under 35 U.S.C. 102. Substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that persons of ordinary skill in video-coding technology could have accessed the references with reasonable diligence; those references constitute printed publications within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. 102. The Board erred by finding claim 3 anticipated when the petition for inter partes review asserted only obviousness as to that claim.