Adidas wins 305 million dollars as damages

Collective Brands Inc. sold sports shoes having two and four stripes on their sides; Adidas sued Collective for trademark infringement of its mark having three stripes. After comparing the shoes sold by Collective with those of Adidas, the district court in Portland held Collective liable for actual and punitive damages and profits of 305 million dollars. This is considered to be one of the highest damages awards in US Trademark jurisprudence.

AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy settle patent case

AstraZeneca holds patents over Nexium, an anti-ulcer drug. The Company filed a patent infringement suit against Ranbaxy in 2005 alleging that Ranbaxy is infringing its patents relating to Nexium. Ranbaxy applied to USFDA for marketing approval of a low cost version of Nexium and has recently been granted the approval. Under the settlement agreement, Ranbaxy agreed to launch the generic version of Nexium in 2014 after the expiry of AstraZeneca's first patent on the molecule. As a part of the settlement deal, AstraZeneca agreed to outsource to Ranbaxy, a part of the supply and manufacture of Nexium. Ranbaxy agreed under the deal that AstraZeneca's patents are valid and enforceable.

Microsoft loses patent suit against Alcatel-Lucent

The US District Court of San Diego held that Microsoft is liable for infringing two patents owned by Alcatel-Lucent. The patents held by Alcatel-Lucent relate to handwriting recognition technology and menu structure for selecting calendar dates. The jury ordered Microsoft to pay damages to the tune of 367 million dollars to Alcatel-Lucent. Microsoft plans to appeal against the decision of the court.

Rakesh Roshan’s movie, Krazzy 4, was restrained by High Court with regard to the songs "Break-Free”, the title track and their remixes on a complaint filed by Ram Sampath (advertisement-jingle composer). It is believed that Rakesh Roshan had taken permission from Ericsson for using the tune in its movie but came to know later when the case was filed by Sampath that Ericsson was not the legal owner of the tune. Finally Rakesh Roshan reached a settlement with Ram Sampath for allowing the use of the tune in its movie with a settlement amount of Rs. 2 crores.