Federal Circuit Reaffirms U.S. Patent Rights Not Lost if Product First Sold Overseas
On February 12, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("Federal Circuit") ruled in a 10-2 decision that foreign sale of a U.S. patented product does not exhaust the patentee's U.S. patent rights in the product sold. The Federal Circuit is the sole appellate-level court with the jurisdiction to hear patent case appeals. The decision is Lexmark Int'l v. Impression Prods., No. 2014-1619, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 2452, at *84 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 12, 2016) and involves Lexmark International, Inc. ("Lexmark"), a maker and seller of printers and toner cartridges. Lexmark sold the cartridges at issue abroad and in the U.S. Impression Products, Inc. ("Impression") acquired some of the cartridges sold abroad, which had been refurbished/recycled to allow for reuse, and...
