Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- REGENEXBIO Inc. v. Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2026)
- 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)
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Category: Federal Circuit
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By Kevin E. Noonan — One of the limitations of our judicial system is that it is inefficient in overcoming error. This drawback is most pronounced at the Federal Circuit, where precedential decisions can only be overcome by en banc reconsiderations, which (perhaps rightly) occur infrequently (and are not a guarantee that error will be…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last week, in Natural Alternatives International, Inc. v. Iancu, the Federal Circuit affirmed a determination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board in an inter partes reexamination affirming the Examiner's rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,067,381 as being anticipated or obvious over…
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By Michael Borella — Almost two years ago, we covered a dispute in the Southern District of New York (which began in the Eastern District of Texas) involving plaintiff AlphaCap, a non-practicing entity that aggressively asserted its patents against a number of targets, including Gust. In short, when Gust didn't quickly settle, AlphaCap offered to dismiss…
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Federal Circuit Distinguishes Obviousness between Apparatus and Method Claims By Aaron Gin – On September 13, 2018, the Federal Circuit affirmed three final written decisions of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board that held unpatentable various claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,091,940, owned by ParkerVision. The '940 patent, entitled "Method and System for Frequency Up-Conversion,"…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit reversed a finding of non-obviousness in a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision in an inter partes review, in an opinion handed down Monday in E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Synvina C.V. The patent was directed to methods for oxidizing 5-hydroxymethylfurfural or derivatives…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The varying appellate fortunes of patentees regarding the question of obviousness is illustrated nicely in the Federal Circuit decision in Orexo AB v. Actavis Elizabeth LLC handed down earlier this month. The statute, 35 U.S.C. § 103, was intended to tether the question of obviousness to the prior art (and…
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By Joseph Herndon — Zheng Cai DBA Tai Chi Green Tea Inc. appealed an opinion of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) cancelling registration of his mark "WU DANG TAI CHI GREEN TEA" due to a likelihood of confusion with Diamond Hong, Inc.'s registered mark, "TAI CHI," pursuant to…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Determining obviousness is always a reconstruction, imperfectly done, of a past that never was. The prior art is consulted and the question asked, would the worker of ordinary skill in the art have been able to achieve the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success? Of course, this question…
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Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB in Appeal of CRISPR Interference By Kevin E. Noonan — Barring the unlikely event that the Federal Circuit rehears en banc today's decision in Regents of the University of California v. Broad Institute, Inc. (or, even more unlikely, that the Supreme Court grants certiorari), the interference between the Broad Institute and…
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By Joseph Herndon — Luminara Worldwide, LLC appealed from three inter partes review (IPR) decisions, in which the Patent Trial and Appeal Board held unpatentable a total of 31 claims across Luminara's three patents. On appeal, Luminara challenged the Board's decisions as to one claim from each patent and asserted that the Board's application of…
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