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 — In a decision that will surprise no one who has followed the situation in the past six months (see "Federal Circuit Special Committee Recommends One-Year Suspension of Judge Newman"), the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit has ordered Judge Pauline Newman to be suspended from the court for one year.…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — There has been some comment in certain quarters regarding the recent penchant for the Federal Circuit to issue Rule 36 summary affirmances instead of full-fledged opinions as had been the Court's practice for much of its 40-year existence (see, e.g., D. D. Crouch, Wrongly Affirmed without Opinion, 52 Wake Forest…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — In those (in retrospect) halcyon days more than a decade ago (before Mayo, Myriad, Alice, and the subject matter eligibility quagmire arose), perhaps the most significant Supreme Court decision was KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc. (2007), where the Court addressed the proper standard for determining obviousness for the first…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit decided a question left open during a recent spate of opinions involving the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (ODP): the effect patent term adjustment (PTA) can (or should) have on creating circumstances where ODP will operate to find a patent invalid in the absence of…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – The Federal Circuit reviewed the latest decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in an inter partes review that claims 3-6 and 10 of U.S. Patent No. 6,548,019 are obvious, in Rembrandt Diagnostics LP v. Alere, Inc.; prior proceedings were reported at Alere, Inc. v. Rembrandt Diagnostics, LP, 791…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has benefited, particularly after enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, from the deference to its factual findings mandated by the Supreme Court's interpretation in Dickenson v. Zurko of the application (deferential for factual determinations) of the standard-of-review provisions in the Administrative Procedures Act. …
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By Kevin E. Noonan – A Special Committee of Federal Circuit judges (consisting of Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, former Chief Judge Sharon Prost, and Judge Richard Taranto) that has been investigating for several months allegations against Judge Pauline Newman related to her competency to remain on the bench, released an Order on July 31st suspending the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – In earlier times, the Federal Circuit, responding to efforts by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reject patent applications directed to biotechnology-related inventions, held (In re Brana) that utility of such inventions did not require demonstration of therapeutic effectiveness, those determinations being the purview of the FDA. Among other things,…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – One of the wonderful (as in, it makes one wonder) and frustrating (which needs no explanation) aspects of patent law is that just when you think a question is settled it either isn't or the conventional interpretation is called into question. The Federal Circuit was created to minimize such instances, and…
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By Michael Borella — Establishing a prima facie case of obviousness based on a multiple prior art references generally requires that the references teach or suggest all claim elements and that one of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references to achieve the invention as claimed. During patent prosecution, rebutting…
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