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Quote:he U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on Tuesday that could shift the balance of power in patent litigation from large patent holders to smaller licensees. Although the case has been returned to the lower court, the effect of the decision, even though deemed a narrow one, will reverberate as numerous licensed patents are now potentially open to a new attack from even good licensees.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed down a decision that affects the value of licenses for patents.

In particular, the decision was a repudiation of an established doctrine set forth by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which held that a patent licensee in good standing cannot generally challenge the patents under the agreement; instead, an actual dispute or at least apprehension of a lawsuit must first arise before the licensed patents can be challenged for invalidity...