On April 17, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in Apator Miitors ApS v. Kamstrup A/S,[1] that in order for a patent assignee to swear behind a reference by antedating its own conception, it must do so by more than just merely providing the inventor’s statement of conception. The facts are …
Author: Yonaxis
SCOTUS Watch: IPRs Do Not Violate Article III or Seventh Amendment
Article III of the U.S. Constitution states: The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.[1] Also, the Copyright and Patent Clause of the U.S. Constitution states: The Congress shall have power . . …
Fed Circuit Watch: Plain Claim Language Not Narrowed Unless Patentee Explicitly Disclaims Scope
An interesting study in organic chemistry appeared at the Federal Circuit. On April 16, 2018, a Fed Circuit panel in Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. v. Emcure Pharm. Ltd.,[1] held that plain claim language will be construed narrowly absent the patentee’s clear disclaimer limiting its scope. First a primer on stereochemistry, which is the study …
WesternGeco Damages Case Before SCOTUS in Doubt After Fed Circuit Ruling
A recently-issued decision from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit may have implications on a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp.,[1] was issued May 7, 2018, and may affect how the Supreme Court rules in a related case involving the same parties and patents …
SCOTUS Watch: Tech & Privacy Collision Avoided When Microsoft Email Server Case Dismissed as Moot
Normally, this blog is devoted to intellectual property issues specific to technology, much of which is case law analysis primarily in the areas of patent, trademark, and copyright laws. However, as is often the case in real-life when different laws clash, so do intellectual properties with other areas of law. The right of privacy is …
Fed Circuit Watch: Personalized Medicine Method Claim Passes Alice Test for Subject Matter Eligibility
This case, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Int’l Ltd.,[1] arrived to the appeals court through an unusual, but not uncommon, route: a 35 U.S.C. §271(e)(4)(A) infringement resulting from a 21 U.S.C. §355(j) application, or the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) (aka, generic drug approval process). However, the other aspect of this case is that …
Fed Circuit Watch: Knowles Déjà Vu as PTAB Not (Necessarily) Bound to Prior Court Claim Construction
In a case of déjà vu, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Knowles Electronics LLC v. Iancu,[1] on April 6, 2018. This case bears striking resemblance to an earlier-issued case this term, Knowles Electronics LLC v. Cirrus Logic, Inc., of which the issues were previously discussed on this blog. The panels …
Fed Circuit Watch: Google Use of Java APIs Not Fair Use
One of the most important copyright cases was recently decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, addressing Google’s use of Java code owned by Oracle. On March 27, 2018, in Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC,[1] the Fed Circuit held that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java code was not fair use. This …
Fed Circuit Watch: No Overlap Required for Prima Facie Obviousness Between Claimed & Prior Art Ranges
On March 27, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in In re Brandt, which is just another case in a long line of cases dealing with ranges and obviousness under 35 U.S.C. §103. The facts are as follows. Gregory A. Brandt and John B. Letts, the application-at-issue’s two inventors, and Firestone …
CannabIP: U.S. Patent No. 9,889,100 B2
U.S. Patent No. 9,889,100 B2 issued on February 13, 2018, for “Cannabidiol for Treatment of Severe and Refractory Graft-Versus-Host Disease.” The inventor is Moshe Yeshurun, and the applicant/assignee is Mor Research Applications Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel. Mor Research is the patenting and licensing division of Clalit Health Services, the largest of four state-mandated HMOs …