Time To Strengthen IP Injunctive Relief?

Apple’s iPhone woes in China suggest that it’s time for U.S. courts and legislators to make it easier for a patent holder to get injunctive relief here, writes Richard Lloyd on the iam intellectual property blog. The Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v MercExchange made it more difficult to get that relief, and that was the point at which “the pendulum started to swing away from strong patent rights in the world’s largest IP market,” according to Lloyd, and the emphasis became validity challenges and abusive litigation. This issue could become fodder in the presidential campaign, Lloyd observes. If China does end up blocking the iPhone, it will feed nicely into Donald Trump’s narrative that the U.S. is being pushed around, by China among others.