Cecilia Choy, Ph.D.
Subscribe to Cecilia Choy, Ph.D.'s PostsCecilia Choy, Ph.D., focuses her practice on intellectual property matters and is a certified patent agent. Read Cecilia Choy's full bio.
Doctrine of Equivalents Analysis Should Not Be Simple Binary Comparison
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Mar 17, 2021
Posted In Patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded a district court’s claim construction and grant of a defendant’s summary judgment motion of non-infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, finding that a reasonable juror could find that the accused products performed substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve substantially the...
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A Shoe-In? Fleet Feet Gives Injunction Appeal the Moot Boot
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Feb 11, 2021
Posted In Trademarks
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed a preliminary injunction as moot where the enjoined party had discontinued the use complained of and had no future plan to restart it. Fleet Feet, Inc. v. Nike, Inc., Case No. 19-2390 (4th Cir. Jan. 26, 2021) (Diaz, J.) The Court denied the enjoined party’s...
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2020 IP Law Year in Review: Copyrights
By Christina (Tina) L. Martini, Jodi Benassi and Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Feb 2, 2021
Posted In Copyrights
Executive Summary Copyright jurisprudence in 2020 was, in many ways, a study in the scope of copyright protection. While certain courts brought century-year-old precedent to the forefront to interpret the scope of copyrights, other courts ruled overruled 40 years of precedent to even the playing field between popular works and works that are less known....
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2020 IP Law Year in Review: Patents
By Amol Parikh and Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Jan 28, 2021
Posted In Patents
Executive Summary In 2020, the US Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit continued to refine key aspects of intellectual property law on issues that will have an impact on litigation, patent prosecution and business strategy. This Special Report discusses some of the most important decisions. The Federal Circuit issued several panel...
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Res Judicata on Procedural Grounds Precludes Similar Claims Arising After Prior Judgment
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Sep 2, 2020
Posted In Patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court decision that res judicata can apply to dismissals on procedural grounds and to claims arising after a prior judgment. Sowinski v. California Air Resources Board, Case No. 19-1558 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 21, 2020) (Newman, J.) Richard Sowinski is the inventor of a...
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A Party May Have Standing Even with Incorrect Patent Assignment
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on May 27, 2020
Posted In Patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision that a reformation of an incorrect assignment supports Article III standing and affirmed the court’s prejudgment interest award. Schwendimann v. Arkwright Advanced Coating, Inc., Case Nos. 18-2416, 19-1012 (Fed. Cir. May 13, 2020) (Wallach, J.) (Reyna, J. dissenting).
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Assignor Estoppel Does Not Apply to AIA Challenges
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on May 7, 2020
Posted In America Invents Act, Patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reiterated that while assignor estoppel prevents a party that assigned a patent to another party from later challenging the validity of the assigned patent in district court, it does not preclude the party from challenging the validity of the assigned patent in an America Invents Act...
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“Lightly Sketched” Characters Not Copyrightable
By Cecilia Choy, Ph.D. on Apr 2, 2020
Posted In Copyrights
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed that “lightly sketched anthropomorphized characters representing human emotions” were not copyrightable. Daniels v. Walt Disney Co., Case No. 18-55635 (9th Cir. Mar. 16, 2020) (McKeown, J.). Denise Daniels created The Moodsters Company. The Moodsters were five named characters, each color-coded to an emotion. The Moodsters...
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