Decision in an IP Matter, Plus a Presidential Proclamation Not "Final" and Not Reviewable Under APA

Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. v. Alpine Elec. of Am., Inc., No. 09-1544, concerned a patent infringement suit by Encyclopedia Britannica against various defendants, involving patents relating to a multimedia database search system for retrieving textual and graphical information.  In affirming the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants in declaring the patents invalid as anticipated by foreign patent application, the court held that section 120 requires each application in the chain of priority to refer to the prior applications, and here, the patents in suit cannot claim priority as the '955 application failed to specifically reference the earlier filed '917 application and did not claim priority to the '917 application.     

Michael Simon Design, Inc. v. US, No. 09-1571, concerned an appeal brought by three importers of foreign made goods from the Court of International Trade's denial of their request for judicial review of certain modifications to the U.S. Tariff schedule made by Presidential proclamation.  In affirming the decision, the court held that the Commission's recommendations under section 3005 are not "final" and consequently are not subject to judicial review under the APA.  Further, the trial court correctly held that the Presidential proclamation at issue was not reviewable based on the claim that the Commission's recommendation was legally flawed.     

Related Resources:

• Full text of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. v. Alpine Elec. of Am., Inc
• Full text of Michael Simon Design, Inc. v. US