Federal Circuit

Pfizer Inc. lost an appeals court bid to revive its patent on the hypertension drug Norvasc, a ruling that opened the door to generic competition. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington denied Pfizer's request to reconsider a March 22 ruling that the patent was invalid. The March ruling allowed Mylan Laboratories Inc. to make a generic version of Norvasc. Apotex Inc.

Unocal Corp., mired in a patent battle with five of the world's biggest oil companies over clean-burning fuel, did not steal the idea from a smaller company, a federal appeals court said. El Segundo-based Unocal was accused of infringing a patent for clean-burning fuel owned by inventor William Talbert and his Talbert Fuel Systems Patents Co. The U.S.

The "wrench case"--Peter M. Roberts vs. Sears, Roebuck & Co.--has shipped eastward from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to Washington. Twice it made round trips to the Supreme Court, which declined to review rulings of the 7th Circuit Court. Twice later, it came to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the Federal Circuit, the first visit ended last November, when the court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Bernard M. Decker, who, on June 5, ordered a new trial.

In his slate-blue suit and Republican-red tie, John Yoo stands out as discordantly formal among the denim- and turtleneck-clad faculty at Boalt Hall School of Law. Never mind how his politics play in what he derides as "the People's Republic of Berkeley." The former Bush administration lawyer who drafted what his critics call the "torture memos" is reviled by many in this liberal East Bay academic enclave, a feeling that is mutual though not, Yoo insists, wholly unpleasant. "I think of myself as being West Berlin during the Cold War, a shining beacon of capitalism and democracy surrounded by a sea of Marxism," Yoo observes, sipping iced tea in the faculty club lounge, a wan smile registering the discomfort of colleagues walking by en route to the bar. He sees his neighbors as the human figures of "a natural history museum of the 1960s," the Telegraph Avenue tableau of a graying, long-haired, pot-smoking counterculture stuck in the ideology's half-century-old heyday.

Walt Disney Co. has won an appeals court ruling that protects the Burbank entertainment giant's trademarks to the valuable Winnie the Pooh characters. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington upheld a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that blocked Stephen Slesinger Inc.'s challenges to Disney's control of the trademark for the Hundred Acre Wood clan. The ruling appears to end a 21-year legal odyssey against Disney by Stephen Slesinger's family.

A few months ago, the obstacles that stood between American Wireless Systems Inc. and thousands of potential pay-TV customers were hills and trees, which sometimes block microwave radio broadcasts to home antennas. Now, the company's hurdles include probes by federal investigators and state securities regulators, and a national controversy about con artists operating in the wireless cable industry.

The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb a $74-million judgment against Dish Network Corp. for violating a patent held by TiVo Inc. involving digital video recorders. Without comment, the justices declined to consider Dish's appeal. In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed with a lower court that digital video recorders distributed by Dish, formerly known as EchoStar Communications Corp., violated the software elements of Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo's patent.

The Federal Communications Commission asked a U.S. appeals court to reinstate some rules previously overturned that encourage television, radio and cable-TV companies to recruit women and minorities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in January that the agency's diversity rules were unconstitutional, the second time the court had struck down the regulations.

A U.S. appeals court upheld most of a ruling that Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry e-mail pager infringed patents, delaying a judge's order to halt sales of the device in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington told U.S. District Judge James Spencer to rewrite his 2002 injunction to reflect decisions made on appeal. Research in Motion had agreed to pay $450 million to settle a dispute with NTP Inc., a closely held patent-licensing company.

A U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit filed by Tyco International Ltd.'s Nellcor unit against Masimo Corp. over a patent for machines that measure the oxygen content in blood. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said a judge in Los Angeles who ruled against Nellcor had incorrectly interpreted Nellcor's patent. The lawsuit is one of several between the two companies, and the ruling gives Tyco a chance to try to win damages from closely held Masimo.