Good afternoon Readers,

I wanted to alert you to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics.  This decision revolves around "the ability of a patent owner to collect royalties from customers downstream of the patent owner’s licensee" as quoted in the recent K&L Gates Intellectual Property Alert that came out regarding this decision.

Check out K&L Gates' IP alert here:  http://www.klgates.com/newsstand/Detail.aspx?publication=4617 to find out more about this decision and the implications it could have for you.  K&L Gates attorney Mark Wittow, mark.wittow@klgates.com is the person who can tell you more about this.  The case deals with "patent exhaustion" doctrine and enforcement of patent claims with downstream users.

Suffice it to say that this is a complicated but important issue that most technology companies should be aware of and protect itself against, as either patent owner or as one who is putting patents into practice.