Intellectual Property Experience of Nominee John G. Roberts

In a recent newsletter, the AIPLA profiled recent Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts — focusing on his intellectual property experience.  The general consensus is that Roberts is in favor of strong, principled intellectual property rights and that those rights are well founded in the language of the constitution.

Example Roberts cases:

1. Feltner v. Columbia Pictures, 523 U.S. 340 (1998) (Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial on statutory copyright damages);
2. TrafFix v. Marketing Displays, 532 U.S. 23 (2001) (utility patent is strong evidence but not conclusive evidence that trade dress claim is invalid);
3. Intergraph v. Intel, 195 F.3d 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2001) (question of whether prior license covered patents in suit); and
4. Universal Studios v. Peters, No. 04–5138 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (business meter stamp is not equivalent to a postal service stamp when attempting to cure a late claim)