Archive for the ‘Intellectual Property’ Category

Never Ending Story Ends!

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Last December, we commented on a trademark infringement case, A Never Ending Story?, which involved Darden’s Olive Garden restaurant accusing rival Red Lobster of infringing the Never Ending Pasta Bowl® federally registered trademark through the latter’s “Never Ending Shrimp” promotion.  The parties have now settled on a permanent injunction which entails Red Lobster will never again use the offending designation “Never Ending” for its food-related promotions on any materials, websites, etc.  No answer, defenses, or actual damages were claimed, but it is interesting that Darden seems to have been granted a monopoly on the “Never Ending” adjective in the restaurant business, regardless of how descriptive of the actual product offering it is; Did Red Lobster yield too soon for a crustacean?

 

Another Business process Patent Invalidated Based on Bilski

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Arguing that the claims in the patents Accenture Global Services was trying to enforce contained “abstract ideas” and failed the “machine or transformation” test as file transfers do not transform a physical thing, defendant Guidewire Software has prevailed on Summary Judgment for Invalidity. Read More at the Docket Report. We’ll have a full analysis soon.

Case: Accenture Global Services GmbH, et. al. v. Guidewire Software Inc., 1-07-cv-00826 (DED May 31, 2011, Order) (Robinson, J.)