Word: patents
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...years ago, executives at Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing flew into a rage. The tape, which sets fractures faster than plaster, was remarkably similar in design and function to a casting tape developed by 3M scientists. The St. Paul-based company quickly sued, charging J&J with violating four of its patents. Last month a federal court backed 3M and ordered J&J to pay $116 million in damages and interest -- the fourth largest patent-infringement judgment in history...
...battle is widening -- U.S. companies filed more than 5,700 intellectual- property lawsuits last year in contrast to 3,800 in 1980 -- and the stakes can be enormous. In the biggest patent-infringement case to date, Eastman Kodak was ordered last October to pay $900 million for infringing on seven Polaroid instant-photography patents. In a $100 million trademark suit, Mirage Studios, creator of the hugely popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, is demanding that AT&T refrain from using such terms as turtle power and cowabunga in a 900-number telephone service for kids. In a far- reaching copyright...
...reason is that many countries offer only feeble protection to intellectual property. Realizing that such laxness will exclude them from much world trade as well as hobble native industries, nations everywhere are revising laws covering patents, copyrights and trade names. Malaysia, Egypt, China, Turkey, Brazil and even the Soviet Union have all recently announced plans either to enact new laws or beef up existing safeguards. In an effort to win U.S. congressional support for a proposed free-trade pact, Mexico last month revealed plans to double the life of trademark licenses to 10 years and extend patent protection...
...offer the world's strongest protection of intellectual property, reinforced by more than a dozen laws passed since 1980. The most significant by far was the 1982 overhaul of the patent and trademark courts. Previously divided into 12 separate districts, each with its own interpretation of the law, they made defending inventions and creative works almost impossible. Infringers could go "forum shopping" for the most favorable court district and operate with near impunity. The reorganization ended the legal hodgepodge by creating a single Court of Appeals that has tended to favor patent holders, who now win 80% of all infringement...
...courts have increased the use of juries, which tend to side with plaintiffs and award big monetary damages. Last year a Detroit jury awarded inventor Robert Kearns a $10 million judgment against Ford for violating Kearns' patents on intermittent windshield wipers. A San Francisco jury two months ago ordered Intex Plastics to pay inventor Charles Hall $5 million in damages for violating his patent on the water...