The US Supreme Court today delivered its unanimous decision providing new insights into the doctrine of patent exhaustion. The opinion reverses the Federal Circuit and holds that under the exhaustion doctrine applies to the authorized sale of components that “substantially embody” a process patent. Here, Intel’s authorized sale of chip components to Quanta exhausted LGE’s patent rights. See Patently-O and the 53 comments the blog produced.
The impression is that the patentee overreached. Taken the critical approach the US Supreme Court seems to take to current patent practises and the CAFC pro-patent stance, it is not surprising that the Court found LG’s licensing practises to go beyond what the invention was really about and what a reasonable remuneration for the inventive work of the inventor and patent owner should be. See also prof. Hal Wegner on the LG vs. Quanta judgment