Patents Endow Their Holders With Certain Superpowers, But Only For A Limited Time. — Justice Kagan.

In 1990, an inventor obtained a patent for pressurized foam that can be shot in a way that mimics a spider’s string. Marvel Entertainment makes and markets products featuring Spider-Man, and Marvel began marketing a Web Blaster which shoots out foam, but without remunerating the inventor. Litigation for patent infringement ensured in 1997, and was eventually settled with an agreement Marvel would pay royalties to the inventor. A few years later, citing Brulotte v. Thys Co. (1964) 379 U.S. 29 [85 S.Ct. 176, 13 L.Ed.2d 99], Marvel brought an action for declaratory relief, asking the federal court to declare it need not pay the inventor any royalties after the end of the patent term in 2010. Marvel won at every level of the federal court.  The United States Supreme Court held: “The sole question presented here is whether we should over-rule Brulotte. Adhering to principles of stare decisis, we decline to do so. Critics of the Brulotte rule must seek relief not from this Court, but from Congress.” (Kimble v. Marvel Entm’t, LLC (U.S. Sup. Ct.; June 22, 2015) ___U.S.___ [135 S.Ct. 2401, 192 L.Ed.2d 463].)