Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. Seb S. A.
563 U.S. 754 (2011) Cited 807 times 65 Legal AnalysesHolding that a finding of deliberate ignorance requires the defendant to "take deliberate actions to avoid learning of [wrongdoing]."
Precision Co. v. Automotive Co.
324 U.S. 806 (1945) Cited 1,066 times 9 Legal AnalysesHolding that clean-hands doctrine "presupposes [a court of equity's] refusal ... to be the ‘abetter of iniquity’ " (quoting Bein v. Heath , 47 U.S. 228, 247, 6 How. 228, 12 L.Ed. 416 (1848) )
Brooks Furniture Mfg. v. Dutailier Intern
393 F.3d 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2005) Cited 282 times 46 Legal AnalysesFinding that bad faith is not established when a court "reached a different conclusion on the merits of infringement"
Keystone Co. v. Excavator Co.
290 U.S. 240 (1933) Cited 586 times 7 Legal AnalysesHolding that an unconscionable act must have "immediate and necessary relation to the equity that he seeks"
ICU Medical, Inc. v. Alaris Medical Systems, Inc.
558 F.3d 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2009) Cited 177 times 8 Legal AnalysesFinding that importing limitations from the specification into the claims may be proper where the specification "repeatedly and uniformly describes the spike as a pointed instrument for the purpose of piercing a seal inside the valve."
Vaupel Textilmaschinen KG v. Meccanica Euro Italia S.P.A.
944 F.2d 870 (Fed. Cir. 1991) Cited 290 times 3 Legal AnalysesHolding that "the termination provisions in the agreements were entirely consistent with an assignment."
Intellectual Property Development, Inc. v. TCI Cablevision of California, Inc.
248 F.3d 1333 (Fed. Cir. 2001) Cited 199 times 2 Legal AnalysesHolding that a licensee had an exclusive license even though the license was granted subject to a prior nonexclusive license
Crooks v. Harrelson
282 U.S. 55 (1930) Cited 404 times 1 Legal AnalysesHolding the word “and” in its “ordinary sense” is a conjunctive word, requiring “not one or the other, but both see also e.g., City of Rome v. U.S., 446 U.S. 156, 172, 100 S.Ct. 1548, 64 L.Ed.2d 119
View Engineering v. Robotic Vision Systems
208 F.3d 981 (Fed. Cir. 2000) Cited 146 times 2 Legal AnalysesHolding that performing a pre-filing assessment of the basis of each infringement claim is . . . extremely important. In bringing a claim of infringement, the patent holder, if challenged, must be prepared to demonstrate to both the court and the alleged infringer exactly why it believed before filing the claim that it had a reasonable chance of proving infringement
Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. v. Genetics Institute, Inc.
52 F.3d 1026 (Fed. Cir. 1995) Cited 167 timesHolding that “[p]ractice of the invention by others may indeed cause [the nonexclusive licensee] pecuniary loss,” but “economic injury alone does not provide standing to sue under the patent statute”
Rule 11 - Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers; Representations to the Court; Sanctions
Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 Cited 36,047 times 145 Legal AnalysesHolding an "unrepresented party" to the same standard as an attorney
Rule 5 - Serving and Filing Pleadings and Other Papers
Fed. R. Civ. P. 5 Cited 22,284 times 16 Legal AnalysesAllowing service by filing papers with the court's electronic-filing system
Section 1927 - Counsel's liability for excessive costs
28 U.S.C. § 1927 Cited 8,866 times 81 Legal AnalysesGranting courts the power to charge "excess costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees reasonably incurred" due to "unreasonabl[e] and vexatious" conduct
Section 285 - Attorney fees
35 U.S.C. § 285 Cited 3,210 times 482 Legal AnalysesGranting district courts discretion to award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in exceptional cases
Section 1.321 - Statutory disclaimers, including terminal disclaimers
37 C.F.R. § 1.321 Cited 75 times 33 Legal AnalysesIncorporating the language of § 253