Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in one case
of interest to the business community:
Patent Act—Infringement by Exportation of
Components
Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp., No.
14-1538
A U.S. patent typically does not protect an inventor from the
manufacture and use of his invention abroad. But Section
271(f) of the Patent Act provides that it is infringement to export
from the United States a "substantial portion" of the
unassembled components of a patented invention "to actively
induce the combination of such components outside of the United
States."
Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether
Section 271(f) prohibits the exportation of a single component of a
patented invention if the component is a commodity that is suitable
for non-infringing use. The Court will review the Federal
Circuit's determination that a single, commodity component can
violate Section 271(f) if the component is a sufficiently important
part
