HRFM Today

Trump’s Presidency and Intellectual Property Law

Written by: Matt Hulihan for the Daily Record

Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States on November 8, 2016.  The switch in Presidential party affiliation and resulting shift in upper-tier government personnel will have significant implications on many areas of the law.  The non-existent political track record of Trump compounds the mystery of what these implications will be.

Issues surrounding intellectual property (IP) law and policy were not even remotely central to candidate campaigns but there are questions about what effects the Trump presidency will have on patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property.

The US Supreme Court has reversed Apple’s $399 Million Dollar award for infringement

The US Supreme Court has reversed Apple’s $399 Million Dollar award for infringement of three Apple design patents. The Supreme Court found that the damages award was incorrectly based upon an interpretation that the “article of manufacture” covered by the design patents must be the entire smartphone as opposed to a component of the phone. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to determine if the article of manufacture should be the entire phone or a component thereof. Thus, the Court of Appeals will decide the issue of how the damages should be measured for Samsung’s infringement of Apple’s design patents.

Prepared by: Nick Mesiti, Managing Partner