Posts Tagged: "forum selection clause"

Wading into Contract Law Again, CAFC Says Forum Selection Clause Also Precludes IPRs

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) earlier today issued a precedential decision holding that the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware improperly denied Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.’s motion for a preliminary injunction in the court’s misreading of the plain language of a contract’s forum selection clause. The CAFC consequently reversed the decision and remanded for entry of a preliminary injunction (PI) enjoining Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. from proceeding with its seven inter partes review petitions (IPRs) against Nippon Shinyaku and requiring that Sarepta withdraw the petitions.

Federal Circuit’s Dodocase Vr Decision Provides a Roadmap for Limiting AIA Proceedings

If you are a patent owner asserting and licensing your patent, chances are you want to avoid an America Invents Act (AIA) proceeding, whether that proceeding is an Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post Grant Review (PGR) or Covered Business Method Review (CBM). This is separate from any belief about the fairness of the proceedings or about whether you believe your patent would survive; simply because of the added cost, it is likely that you do not want to be involved in one. All that said, the question is whether you can avoid it. The answer to that is “sometimes, yes.” No patent owner can be immune from AIA proceedings in the absolute. You cannot stop all routes of attack on your patent, but there is a chance that you can limit your exposure.

Supreme Court of Canada Rules on the Enforceability of Forum Selection Clauses in Online Contracts

The Supreme Court of Canada has just released a decision (Douez v. Facebook, Inc., 2017 SCC 33) that provides a framework for assessing the enforceability of forum selection clauses. The decision continues the trend of affording protection to consumers in the face of considerations of uneven bargaining power in un-negotiated online contracts referred to as “contracts of adhesion”… A few years ago, Facebook released an advertising product that used the name and picture of Facebook users, allegedly without their consent. BC’s Privacy Act offers a cause of action for breach of privacy rights. The Plaintiff in this case sought to adjudicate the alleged infringement of her privacy rights in BC courts (as part of a class action comprising Facebook users).

CAFC OKs Transfer Despite Forum Selection Clause

In a non-precedential opinion issued October 18, 2013, the Federal Circuit decision calls into question the overall utility of forum selection clauses in contractual relationships. In fact, Eli Lilly lost its bid to have its dispute with Genentech and City of Hope heard in the Northern District of California despite having a forum selection clause in the governing contract that stated the parties would litigate any dispute in the Northern District of California.