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 Michael Borella — Most software inventions are functional in nature. The focus is not on what the invention is so much as what it does. The same physical hardware can be programmed by way of software to carry out an infinite number of different operations. Thus, it is not uncommon for software inventions to be…
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By Michael Borella — One of the more substantive questions in the recent interpretation of what encompasses patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 is whether facts should play any role in the analysis. The Supreme Court has not been perfectly clear on this issue, and the Federal Circuit appears to have taken both sides…
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When the PTAB Attacks! By Andrew Williams — In the past few years, the public's perception of the patent system in the United States has been at a low point. One of the causes of this lack of confidence in the system has been the increase in abusive patent litigation from entities that have been…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Judge Pauline Newman has been concerned regarding constitutional issues raised by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board's implementation of inter partes review as provided by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (codified at 35 U.S.C. § 311 et seq.). Specifically, Judge Newman's concerns involve separation of…
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Shapes and Shading of Graphical User Interface Not Enough to Uphold Validity By Joseph Herndon — In a nonprecedential decision, the Federal Circuit found all challenged claims directed to a graphical user interface of a U.S. Patent obvious over a combination of prior art. Valmont Industries, Inc. appealed from the final decision of the Patent…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Ever since the Supreme Court loosened the reins on declaratory judgment actions in patent cases twelve years ago, in MedImmune v. Genentech, courts have decided cases fleshing out the metes and bounds of the factual predicates thereof. One of the most persistent questions is what is the extent to which…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Last week, the Federal Circuit found all patent claims invalid for obviousness in an inter partes review, in Praxair Distribution, Inc. v. Mallinckrodt Hospital Products IP Ltd. But the Court did not render its decision without engendering a judicial disagreement between the majority and Judge Newman on the proper role…
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By Michael Borella — SAP America, Inc. (SAP) filed a declaratory judgment action in the Northern District of Texas, alleging that U.S. Patent No. 6,349,291 of InvestPic, LLC (InvestPic) was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The District Court invalidated the '291 patent during the pleadings stage. InvestPic appealed the ruling to the Federal Circuit. Claim…
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By Donald Zuhn — On Monday, the Federal Circuit affirmed the determination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board in an inter partes review that claim 6 of U.S. Patent No. 7,582,621 is unpatentable for obviousness. On appeal, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the assignee of the '621 patent, challenged the Board's…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The proper application of the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (2017), under recent Federal Circuit precedent (see In re Cray, Inc.) continues to be explicated in the district courts. The…
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