Patent Law Weblog
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- BioNTech Sues Moderna over mRNA Vaccine Technology
- CNIPA Issues Letter on Identity of Foreign Inventors
- 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
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Category: Federal Circuit
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By Donald Zuhn –- At about this time last year, the Supreme Court reversed the Federal Circuit's determination that there are circumstances in which a party may be liable for infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1) for supplying or causing to be supplied a single component of a patented combination outside the United States (see…
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By Michael Borella — Aatrix brought an infringement action against Green Shades in the Middle District of Florida, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,171,615 and 8,984,393. Green Shades filed a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on the grounds that all asserted claims were not eligible for patent under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The patents in suit…
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By Donald Zuhn –- Last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in favor of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with respect to the USPTO's determination of Patent Term Adjustment ("PTA") for U.S. Patent No. 8,658,675. In particular, the Federal Circuit…
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By Michael Borella — This first five or so weeks of 2018 have been busy for Federal Circuit 35 U.S.C. § 101 jurisprudence. At last count, four substantive decisions have come down so far (including this one, but not including Rule 36 judgments without opinion). Out of these, two have found the claims at issue to…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – Although having built up a track record for several years and several thousand petitions and "trials," inter partes review proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act are still relatively new. As a statute administered by an administrative agency having the power (and duty) to promulgate rules effecting implementation of that statute,…
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By Donald Zuhn –- Last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed the rejection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board of claims 1-7 of U.S. Patent No. 6,284,471 as being unpatentable under the doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting. Janssen Biotech, Inc. and New York University ("Janssen"), co-assignees of the '471 patent,…
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By Michael Borella — As patent-eligibility stands in 2018, it can be difficult to determine whether a graphical user interface (GUI) with an innovative layout and/or functionality meets the requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 101. On one hand, a GUI is almost by definition fundamentally tied to computer operation, and arguably has no non-computer analog. On…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – One of the most important (if not the most important) inquiries in performing due diligence involving acquisition of a patent portfolio is ensuring that the entity asserting ownership of the patents actually has proper title (in what can be a complex chain, starting with the inventors). This is particularly true in…
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By Michael Borella — The year's first substantive patent-eligibility decision from the Federal Circuit is a rare victory for the patentee. It is also further evidence that the outcome of an eligibility analysis may be more dependent upon how the analysis is carried out than the actual language of the claims under review. Finjan asserted several…
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By Andrew Williams — On Monday, the en banc Federal Circuit held in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp. that PTAB time-bar determinations under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) are appealable because they do not fall within the scope of the judicial-review prohibition of § 314(d). This decision overruled Achates Reference Publishing, Inc. v. Apple Inc.,…
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