Following our previous post on Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, the Supreme Court today has decided to uphold the longstanding rule in Brulotte v. Thys, which states that a patentee cannot continue to receive royalties for sales made after the expiration of the patent. Standing by the principle of stare decisis, the Court reasoned that in case after case, it construed 35 USC 154 to preclude measures that restrict free access to formerly patented inventions.

The Supreme Court today granted certiorari in a case asking whether its prior decision in Brulotte v. Thys Co., 379 U.S. 29 (1964) should be overruled, which previously held that a licensee's obligations are absolved after the expiration of a patent, and that royalty payments for a patent cannot continue beyond the life of that patent.