Patent Injunctions on Appeal: An Empirical Study of the Federal Circuit\u27s Application of \u3cem\u3eeBay\u3c/em\u3e

More than ten years after the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in eBay v. MercExchange, the availability of injunctive relief in patent cases remains hotly contested. For example, in a recent decision in the long-running litigation between Apple and Samsung, members of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit divided sharply on whether an injunction was warranted to prevent Samsung from continuing to infringe several smartphone features patented by Apple. To date, however, nearly all empirical scholarship regarding eBay has focused on trial court decisions, rather than the Federal Circuit. This Article represents the first comprehensive empirical study of permanent injunction decisions by the Federal Circuit following eBay. Through an original dataset on appeals from almost 200 patent cases, we assess the impact of the Federal Circuit on the availability of permanent injunctions. The findings from this study indicate the Federal Circuit is generally more favorable to prevailing patentees regarding injunctive relief than the district courts following eBay. District courts that grant an injunction after a finding of liability are highly likely to be affirmed on appeal, whereas district courts that deny an injunction have a statistically significant lower affirmance rate. This suggests the Federal Circuit is generally inclined toward a property rule rather than a liability rule as a remedy against future patent infringement. It also appears to lend support to claims by scholars and others that the Federal Circuit, as a specialized court with a large number of patent cases, is more pro-patentee than the generalist district courts. Finally, the implications of this and other empirical findings from the study are considered

Patent Injunctions on Appeal: An Empirical Study of the Federal Circuit\u27s Application of \u3ci\u3eeBay\u3c/i\u3e

More than ten years after the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in eBay v. MercExchange, the availability of injunctive relief in patent cases remains hotly contested. For example, in a recent decision in the long-running litigation between Apple and Samsung, members of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit divided sharply on whether an injunction was warranted to prevent Samsung from continuing to infringe several smartphone features patented by Apple. To date, however, nearly all empirical scholarship regarding eBay has focused on trial court decisions, rather than the Federal Circuit. This Article represents the first comprehensive empirical study of permanent injunction decisions by the Federal Circuit following eBay. Through an original dataset on appeals from almost 200 patent cases, we assess the impact of the Federal Circuit on the availability of permanent injunctions. The findings from this study indicate the Federal Circuit is generally more favorable to prevailing patentees regarding injunctive relief than the district courts following eBay. District courts that grant an injunction after a finding of liability are highly likely to be affirmed on appeal, whereas district courts that deny an injunction have a statistically significant lower affirmance rate. This suggests the Federal Circuit is generally inclined toward a property rule rather than a liability rule as a remedy against future patent infringement. It also appears to lend support to claims by scholars and others that the Federal Circuit, as a specialized court with a large number of patent cases, is more pro-patentee than the generalist district courts. Finally, the implications of this and other empirical findings from the study are considered

Data management study, volume 5. Appendix A - Contractor data package technical description and system engineering /SE/ Final report

Technical description and systems engineering contractor data package for Voyager spacecraf

Quantized Vortex States of Strongly Interacting Bosons in a Rotating Optical Lattice

Bose gases in rotating optical lattices combine two important topics in quantum physics: superfluid rotation and strong correlations. In this paper, we examine square two-dimensional systems at zero temperature comprised of strongly repulsive bosons with filling factors of less than one atom per lattice site. The entry of vortices into the system is characterized by jumps of 2 pi in the phase winding of the condensate wavefunction. A lattice of size L X L can have at most L-1 quantized vortices in the lowest Bloch band. In contrast to homogeneous systems, angular momentum is not a good quantum number since the continuous rotational symmetry is broken by the lattice. Instead, a quasi-angular momentum captures the discrete rotational symmetry of the system. Energy level crossings indicative of quantum phase transitions are observed when the quasi-angular momentum of the ground-state changes.Comment: 12 Pages, 13 Figures, Version

Risks and Assets: A Qualitative Study of a Software Ecosystem in the Mining Industry

Digitalization and servitization are impacting many domains, including the mining industry. As the equipment becomes connected and technical infrastructure evolves, business models and risk management need to adapt. In this paper, we present a study on how changes in asset and risk distribution are evolving for the actors in a software ecosystem (SECO) and system-of-systems (SoS) around a mining operation. We have performed a survey to understand how Service Level Agreements (SLAs) -- a common mechanism for managing risk -- are used in other domains. Furthermore, we have performed a focus group study with companies. There is an overall trend in the mining industry to move the investment cost (CAPEX) from the mining operator to the vendors. Hence, the mining operator instead leases the equipment (as operational expense, OPEX) or even acquires a service. This change in business model impacts operation, as knowledge is moved from the mining operator to the suppliers. Furthermore, as the infrastructure becomes more complex, this implies that the mining operator is more and more reliant on the suppliers for the operation and maintenance. As this change is still in an early stage, there is no formalized risk management, e.g. through SLAs, in place. Rather, at present, the companies in the ecosystem rely more on trust and the incentives created by the promise of mutual future benefits of innovation activities. We believe there is a need to better understand how to manage risk in SECO as it is established and evolves. At the same time, in a SECO, the focus is on cooperation and innovation, the companies do not have incentives to address this unless there is an incident. Therefore, industry need, we believe, help in systematically understanding risk and defining quality aspects such as reliability and performance in the new business environment

Nonlinear Band Structure in Bose Einstein Condensates: The Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation with a Kronig-Penney Potential

All Bloch states of the mean field of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a one dimensional lattice of impurities are presented in closed analytic form. The band structure is investigated by analyzing the stationary states of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger, or Gross-Pitaevskii, equation for both repulsive and attractive condensates. The appearance of swallowtails in the bands is examined and interpreted in terms of the condensates superfluid properties. The nonlinear stability properties of the Bloch states are described and the stable regions of the bands and swallowtails are mapped out. We find that the Kronig-Penney potential has the same properties as a sinusoidal potential; Bose-Einstein condensates are trapped in sinusoidal optical lattices. The Kronig-Penney potential has the advantage of being analytically tractable, unlike the sinusoidal potential, and, therefore, serves as a good model for experimental phenomena.Comment: Version 2. Fixed typos, added referenc

Atomtronics: ultracold atom analogs of electronic devices

Atomtronics focuses on atom analogs of electronic materials, devices and circuits. A strongly interacting ultracold Bose gas in a lattice potential is analogous to electrons in solid-state crystalline media. As a consequence of the band structure, cold atoms in a lattice can exhibit insulator or conductor properties. P-type and N-type material analogs can be created by introducing impurity sites into the lattice. Current through an atomtronic wire is generated by connecting the wire to an atomtronic battery which maintains the two contacts at different chemical potentials. The design of an atomtronic diode with a strongly asymmetric current-voltage curve exploits the existence of superfluid and insulating regimes in the phase diagram. The atomtronic analog of a bipolar junction transistor exhibits large negative gain. Our results provide the building blocks for more advanced atomtronic devices and circuits such as amplifiers, oscillators and fundamental logic gates