Patent Law Weblog
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- Apple v. Squires: USPTO Director Has Unlimited Discretion on IPR Institution
- The Ghost in the Machine: Why GenAI Can Be Both a Brilliant Researcher and a Terrible Advocate
- Bayer Files Suit Against Trio of COVID-19 Vaccine Makers
- Allen v. Cooper (4th Cir. 2026)
- To Require an Inventor ID, or Not to Require an Inventor ID – That Is the Question
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Category: Enablement
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 16th annual list of top patent stories. For 2022, we identified ten stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – On November 15th, the Federal Circuit handed down its opinion affirming all aspects of the District Court's decision in Pharmacyclics LLC v. Alvogen, Inc. The case illustrates once more the importance of the clear error standard in support of factual aspects of a district court's decision, even regarding ultimate questions of…
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High Court Will Tackle Proper Enablement Standard By Kevin E. Noonan – Constituting something of a surprise, the Supreme Court on Friday, November 3rd granted Amgen's petition for certiorari on the second of the Questions Presented in its petition: 2. Whether enablement is governed by the statutory requirement that the specification teach those skilled in the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — On May 23rd, U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California granted summary judgement to Defendant Sweegen, Inc. on its motion that Plaintiff Pure Circle USA Inc.'s claims in suit were invalid for reciting patent ineligible subject matter and for failing to satisfy the written…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 15th annual list of top patent stories. For 2021, we identified nine stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit continues its recent run of decisions extending the reach of the enablement requirement of 35 U.S.C. 112(a) to invalidate patents in Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. v. Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Inc. (albeit in this case, affirming denial of motion for JMOL in the face of a jury…
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By Michael Borella — The legal concept of obviousness is tricky. A claimed invention is found obvious if the prior art teaches or suggests all claim limitations and one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the relevant teachings of the references. The inherent subjectivity of such an analysis can…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed a jury verdict against Baxalta Inc., Baxalta US Inc., and Nektar Therapeutics for infringing Bayer Healthcare's patent to human blood clotting factor conjugates in Bayer Healthcare LLC v. Baxalta Inc. Bayer Healthcare sued Defendants on U.S. Patent No. 9,364,520, alleging willful infringement by Baxalta's…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — A little less than four years ago, the Federal Circuit rendered a decision in Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi that brought clarity to how the Court (and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) should apply the written description requirement in 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) to properly circumscribe the scope of claims to monoclonal antibodies. …
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Section 112 of the Patent Act as codified, entitled "Specification" in the statute, specifies the amount of disclosure required to support a patent claim (among other requirements). Section 112(a) contains three requirements: written description, enablement, and best mode (although the latter has been in something of a state of limbo…
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