Please find below a case summary of a Federal Circuit decision from this month that has patent exhaustion and licensing context. In High Point SARL v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 15-1235 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 16, 2016), the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s determination that High Point’s claims were exhausted under the doctrine of patent exhaustion by licenses given by AT&T to Lucent, Siemens and Ericsson. First, the Court construed “any or all products and services of the kinds” in the broad licensing agreement to cover products broader than those that had the “same features or functionality” as those sold at the time of execution of the agreement when the protected products and services are described in general functional terms. Second, Siemens’ license to divestitures including a license to a divestiture that was a joint-venture with a third-party Nokia was valid. This was proved by contrasting evidence of another license…
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