In US patent cases, patent owners have always gotten injunctions, no matter what the circumstances. This threat of injunction is one of the levers that patent trolls have in pressing for settlements in otherwise questionable patent cases. As I wrote at the time, the May 15th decision of the US Supreme Court in eBay Inc. v. Mercexchange LLC provided a glimmer of hope.
In that decision, the Supreme Court held that judges do have leeway to withhold injunctive relief in patent cases. Now less than six weeks later, Patently-O points out this June 22nd decision in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (where patent appeals are heard) overturning a preliminary injunction in the patent case Abbott Labs v. Andrx Pharma.
It's just one incident, but it looks like a good sign to me – judges actually judging whether an injunction is justified.
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