Full Federal Circuit Narrowly Applies Patent Misuse Doctrine
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that an anti-competitive agreement between two companies to restrict the availability of one of their patents in favor of two others is not misuse of the favored patents. Applying the patent misuse doctrine narrowly, the court determined that the patents at issue are enforceable. The case involves the technology for recordable compact discs and rewritable compact discs.
