John,
I'm sure Jubimer has better sources, but generally, the consensus is that since 1982 the patent appellate process has been streamlined in such a way as to favor the inventor. Specifically, the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (CAFC) was created:
heckel.org
"...CAFC (Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit). All patent decisions are appealed to this court rather than to the Appellate Courts throughout the United States. While the CAFC decisions can be appealed to, and overturned by, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court takes few patent cases and so the CAFC is the court which primarily determines the patent law....."
As I understand it, the creation of the CAFC led to a more uniform application of the patent laws. On a related note, just last Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a rare patent decision, reaffirmed the doctrine of equivalents, defined as follows:
"...doctrine of equivalents: A doctrine which says that even if a patent claim does not literally read on a possibly infringing device, it can be read more broadly providing it does not read on the prior art. It is designed to allow the inventor to assert a patent where the differences between the inventor's and an infringer's product are not substantial. (See Hilton Davis Chemical Company v. Warner-Jenkinson Company, Inc. 93-1088)......."
Consider the timing, a doctrine like that being reaffirmed by the highest court in the land on the day that Ampex was scheduled to go to trial! I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that Mitsubishi's lawyers had to sue for time to regroup and reconsider their war of attrition. Anybody in Northern California should be able to check the District Court.
The Mitsu countersuit alleging patent infringement was scheduled to start last Monday, 3/3/97, at 9:30 AM in a No. Cal. District Court. The bigger case, or the original patent suit alleging Breach of Licensing Agreement (per Jubimer, from 78 to 95) and Patent Infringement is scheduled to go to trial on 3/31/97 in a Delaware District Court.
If you follow the link above you will find more interesting stuff supporting Jubimer's point of view, among other things.
Gus |
