Archives: Federal Circuit

‘No One Can Own the Law’: Supreme Court Holds Annotations to State Statutes Are Not Protected by Copyright

The Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision on April 27, 2020, in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, upholding the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling that the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) is not entitled to copyright protection. The majority’s decision found that the OCGA falls under the “government edicts” doctrine: “government officials empowered to speak with the force … Continue Reading

Supreme Court Unshrouds the ‘On Sale’ Bar as Applied to Secret Sales

By Erin Caldwell on January 25, 2019 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

This week, the Supreme Court issued a decision holding that a secret sale qualifies as prior art. At issue was whether the America Invents Act (AIA) changed the “on sale” bar to patentability to exempt secret sales as prior art.[1] The case, Helsinn Healthcare v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, arose out of agreements entered into by … Continue Reading

USPTO Memo Addresses Eligibility of Method-of-Treatment Claims in View of Federal Circuit Decision

By David Farsiou on June 18, 2018 Posted in Federal Circuit

In a memorandum dated June 7, 2018 (Memo), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) set out new guidance concerning method-of-treatment claims, which should be welcome news for patentees. The memo addressed the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, 887 F.3d 1117 (Fed. … Continue Reading

Core Wireless: Moving Beyond Eligibility as the Exception to the Exception?

By Brendan Clark on February 8, 2018 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

January was an exciting month for patent professionals still attempting to make sense of the fallout from the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International decision. Hot on the heels of its Jan. 10 decision in Finjan, Inc. v. Blue Coat Systems, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Core … Continue Reading

Finjan v. Blue Coat Systems: Attaching Security Profile to a Downloadable Is Patent Eligible

By Michael Stein on January 16, 2018 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

In Finjan v. Blue Coat Systems, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rendered a decision containing interesting rulings on patentable subject matter (affirming the District Court determination that certain claims were patent eligible) and reasonable royalty damages (vacating part of a jury verdict for failure to adequately apportion the royalty base). This article … Continue Reading

Amdocs Highlights Panel Dependency of §101 Decisions at Federal Circuit

By Michael Stein on November 2, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

In Amdocs v. Openet Telecom, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court ruling that the claims of several patents were invalid under 35 USC § 101.[1] Judge Plager authored the opinion for the court, and he was joined by Judge Newman. Judge Reyna authored a lengthy dissent objecting to the overall approach taken by the … Continue Reading

Patent Exhaustion Case Could Have Enormous Impact on Multinational Businesses

By Michael Stein on October 18, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

Earlier this year, the Federal Circuit ruled en banc in Lexmark v. Impression,[1] the most significant exhaustion ruling since the Supreme Court’s Quanta decision.[2] In response to Impression’s cert. petition, the Supreme Court called for the views of the Solicitor General. The U.S. has now filed its brief, recommending cert. be granted on both questions. … Continue Reading

A Split Panel of the Federal Circuit Debates the Standards for Definiteness

By Allen Sokal on October 3, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

In Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sprint Communications Co. LP, Appeal No. 2016-1013 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 23, 2016), the panel, consisting of Chief Judge Prost (authoring the opinion) and Judges Newman and Bryson, unanimously reversed the district court’s summary judgment of invalidity for indefiniteness under 35 U.S.C. § 112, para. 2. But Judge Newman vigorously rejected the … Continue Reading

Federal Circuit Holds PTAB Unreasonable in Denying Motion to Amend

By Allen Sokal on September 2, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit

In Veritas Technologies LLC v. Veeam Software Corp., Appeal No. 2015-1894 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 30, 2016), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s conclusion of obviousness but vacated its denial of a conditional motion to amend and remanded for the PTAB to address the patentability of the substitute claims. The patent owner, Veritas, argued for a … Continue Reading

Federal Circuit Provides Guidance on Use of Common Sense in Obviousness Analysis

By Sarah Dukmen on August 15, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

Last week, in Arendi S.A.R.L. v. Apple, the Federal Circuit reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding of invalidity in an inter partes review that relied on “common sense” to supply a claim limitation that was not disclosed by the prior art. When used to support a finding of obviousness, common sense is … Continue Reading

Federal Circuit Helps Clarify What Constitutes a Commercial Sale under Pfaff

By Herbert Hoffman on July 18, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

In The Medicines Co. v. Hospira Inc., Appeal No. 2014-1469 (Fed. Cir. July 11, 2016), the Federal Circuit issued a unanimous en banc decision ruling that the on-sale bar was not triggered by a supplier’s sale of manufacturing services to an inventor largely because the title to the invention and the right to market the … Continue Reading

High Court Relaxes Standards for Enhanced Damages in District Court Patent Litigation

By Brian Saunders on June 16, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

On June 13, 2016, in a much-anticipated joint holding in Halo/Stryker, [1] the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Federal Circuit’s rigid test for willful infringement under Seagate and conferred discretion on district courts, “narrowed” by nearly 200 years of judicial practice, to award enhanced damages to patent owners under 35 U.S.C. § 284 for “egregious … Continue Reading

Apportioning for the Standard When Valuing Standards-Essential Patents

By Kevin Flynn on June 8, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), a national research organization of Australia, recently filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court. CSIRO presents the following question: Is the Federal Circuit’s promulgation of rigid legal rules to control the weight to be given by the trier of fact to evidence of patent infringement damages … Continue Reading

In re Tam: Still No Trademark Registration for The Slants

By Nancy R. Frandsen and Lisa Bollinger Gehman on April 5, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Trademark

In the continuing saga of whether Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment, the rock band The Slants will have to wait a little longer before it knows whether it can register its trademark THE SLANTS. The Slants, a band composed of Asian-American musicians, has received a significant … Continue Reading

Federal Circuit Upholds Inequitable Conduct Ruling in Ohio Willow Wood Company

By Joshua Branson on March 14, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

In the latest iteration of Ohio Willow Wood Company[1] (OWW), the Federal Circuit upheld a district court ruling of inequitable conduct against OWW despite the presence of a litigation screen. The Federal Circuit had affirmed summary judgment on invalidity, reversed a summary judgment ruling of no inequitable conduct, and remanded the case to the Southern … Continue Reading

Upcoming Federal Circuit Decision Presents Opportunity for Clarification of Patentable Subject Matter

By Brendan Clark on February 25, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

Since Alice,[1] consistently defining the bounds of statutory subject matter in computer arts confounds even the most experienced attorneys. E-commerce software combining visual elements of multiple parties’ websites is patent eligible,[2] but a motion-tracking system claiming inertial sensors is not.[3] While the results have cut sharply against patent holders asserting or prosecuting software properties, legal … Continue Reading

Federal Circuit Tasked With Analyzing Evidence For Proof That Defendant Had the State of Mind Necessary For Induced Infringement

By Scott Simpkins on February 24, 2016 Posted in Federal Circuit, Patent

On January 19, 2016, the Supreme Court issued a grant-vacate-remand order in a dispute between rival medical device companies Medtronic and NuVasive. The order directs the Federal Circuit to revisit its decision in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 1920 (2015). Commil clarified that … Continue Reading