New York, NY, July 5, 2007 LAWFUEL – Class Action Litigation Newswire – Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP (“SRZ”) is pleased to announce that the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) has agreed to review a final initial determination by an administrative law judge in the Seiko Epson ink cartridge investigation. SRZ had requested, on behalf of its client, Zhuhai, China-based Ninestar Technology Co., Ltd., that the commission review and reverse the determination, which found that Ninestar and 23 other companies violated Seiko Epson Corp.’s patents for ink cartridges. The June 29 decision by the ITC is the first time it has agreed to review patent invalidity issues under the altered legal standard for patent obviousness set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark decision of KSR International v. Teleflex Inc.
Following the KSR International decision, Schulte Roth & Zabel filed a letter with the ITC outlining the significance of the KSR International decision and contending that the new standard set by the Supreme Court for patent obviousness compelled a review and warranted a reversal of the initial determination upholding the validity of various Seiko Epson patents. The new standard set by the Supreme Court is that “when a patent ‘simply arranges old elements with each performing the same function it had been known to perform’ and yields no more than one would expect from such an arrangement, the combination is obvious.” Accordingly, the Commission determined to review whether those portions of the administrative law judge’s findings of invalidity for obviousness “are consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR International…”
“We are pleased the ITC has decided to review the initial determination,” said Joel Lutzker, partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel and chair of the firm’s intellectual property department. “The new patent obviousness standards set by the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR International v. Teleflex Inc. reflects a shift in jurisprudence for the benefit of industry competition and, ultimately, consumers themselves. Ninestar has fought long and hard in this case to protect the investment the company has made in independently developed technology and we look forward to full Commission review of the initial determination.”
Ninestar Technology manufactures and distributes printer consumables for brand name companies, including Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark, Xerox and Brother. Products include replacement inkjet cartridges for desktop printers, laser toner cartridges, cartridges for large format printers, chip resetters, refill kits, ribbon, toner, CDR, floppy, photo paper , replacement inkjet cartridges and replacement laser toner cartridges.
Schulte Roth & Zabel (www.srz.com), with 450 lawyers, offers legal counsel in Intellectual Property, Investment Management, Private Equity, Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities, Asset-Based Lending, Structured Products, Litigation, Business Reorganization, Banking, Real Estate, Individual Client Services, Employment and Employee Benefits, Tax, and Environmental Law.
