During oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp., Justice Anthony M. Kennedy mentioned the amicus brief filed by Carter Ledyard client Agilent Technologies, Inc. by name, noting that he found the brief “instructive.”
The case appeals a Federal Circuit decision holding that supplying a single, commodity component from the United States, for a multi-component invention manufactured overseas, can expose the supplier to U.S. patent liability for the full selling price of all worldwide sales of an entire multi-component product. Agilent’s amicus brief explained the practicalities of the global manufacturing operations and sophisticated supply chain management systems that are the norm today, and the severe implications for U.S. manufacturers from the Federal Circuit’s expansive reading of the law.
Carter Ledyard partner John M. Griem, Jr. is counsel of record for Agilent and counsel Judith Wallace assisted on the brief. Agilent’s Vice President for Global Intellectual Property, Bradford Paul Schmidt, also authored the brief for Agilent.
Mr. Griem and Mr. Schmidt also spoke at a post-argument panel discussion at American University’s Washington College of Law.