Many cases have been heard before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dealing with substantive patent issues, like questions involving anticipation under 35 U.S.C. §102, obviousness under 35 U.S.C §103, or patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101. Constitutional issues have been rare, with the exception of Oil States which questioned the constitutionality …
Category: fed circuit watch
opinions by ct appeals for federal circuit (patent, trademark, some copyright)
Fed Circuit Watch: Fed Circuit Declines to Expand Design Patent Law
On July 23, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit publicly released an intriguing design patent ruling involving design patents covering Ford’s F-150 truck. In Automotive Body Parts Assn. v. Ford Global Techs., LLC,[1] the Fed Circuit declined to expand trademark law’s functionality doctrine to design patent law, and also declined to create …
Fed Circuit Watch: Issued Patents are Presumptively Valid and Patent-Eligible
On June 25, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down CellSpin Soft, Inc. v. Fitbit, Inc.,[1] in what is an important case dealing with patent-eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101, further hardening by the Fed Circuit that factual allegations in the pleadings can support patent-eligibility. Further, Cellspin held that issued patents are …
Fed Circuit Watch: No State Sovereign Immunity in IPR
On June 14, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit delivered its long-awaited opinion on state sovereign immunity in post-grant proceedings in Regents of the Univ. of Minnesota v. LSI Corporation.[1] Like it ruled in the sister case last year, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharms. Inc.,[2] dealing with tribal sovereign immunity, …
Fed Circuit Watch: EV Battery Claims Found Patent-Ineligible
What had opened with a promise of clarity for patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101 took a detour with the ChargePoint, Inc. v. SemaConnect, Inc.,[1] decision issued on March 28 2019, by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Four patents were at-issue, all owned by ChargePoint: U.S. Patent Nos. 8,138,715 (‘715), …
Fed Circuit Watch: Treatment Method Claims Found Patent-Eligible
The third treatment method case in the last year that was challenged as patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101 has been found eligible by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a recent case, Endo Pharms. Inc. v. Teva Pharms. USA, Inc.,[1] decided March 28, 2019. Endo owns U.S. Patent No. 8,808,737 …
Fed Circuit Watch: Cat’s Out of the Bag: Continuous Reduction to Practice is Reasonable Diligence
Arctic Cat Inc. has been involved in a few patent-related cases in recent years, including one case from 2018 which we discussed on this blog dealing with the law of obviousness’s motivation to combine analysis under 35 U.S.C. §103. Its most recent foray into the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit resulted in its …
Fed Circuit Watch: Network Intrusion Claims Found Patent-Eligible
On March 20, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in SRI Int’l, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc.,[1] in which claims directed to network intrusion were found patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101. While the ruling is a welcome sign of patent-eligibility, the ruling itself is convoluted in its rationale and difficult to …
Fed Circuit Watch: Dietary Supplement Claims Found Patent-Eligible
In its second patent-eligibility ruling in a few weeks, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Natural Alts. Int’l, Inc. v. Creative Compounds, LLC,[1] on March 15, 2019, in which it found claims directed to dietary supplements in six patents to be patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101. Natural Alternatives International (NAI) was recently …
Fed Circuit Watch: No Standing to Appeal When Biosimilar Product Withdrawn
Sometimes substantive patent issues are never dealt with in cases, but rather dispositive issues are handled by procedural mechanisms. One case in point is Momenta Pharms., Inc. v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.,[1] which the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on February 7, 2019. BMS owns U.S. Patent No. 8,476,239 (‘239), entitled “Stable protein …