Patent Law Weblog
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- USPTO and DOJ Statement of Interest in Collision Communications: Another Thumb on the Scale in Favor of NPE Patent Plaintiffs
- Oasis Tooling, Inc. v. Siemens Industry Software Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2026)
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- BioNTech Sues Moderna over mRNA Vaccine Technology
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Category: Federal Circuit
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By Donald Zuhn — The Federal Circuit today vacated-in-part and affirmed-in-part an order by the District Court for the District of New Jersey granting summary judgment of invalidity of U.S. Reissued Patent No. 39,221 based on anticipation and obviousness. Plaintiff-Appellant Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. owns the '221 patent, which relates to a tramadol and acetaminophen…
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By Donald Zuhn — The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today decided that the appeal in Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co. warrants en banc consideration. In June, Ariad filed a petition for rehearing of the decision issued by the Federal Circuit on April 3 (see "Ariad Files Petition for…
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By Donald Zuhn — On July 24, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a joint motion with Plaintiffs-Appellees Dr. Triantafyllos Tafas and GlaxoSmithKline seeking to stay briefing and oral argument in Tafas v. Kappos (previously Tafas v. Doll) until 60 days after the U.S. Senate confirmed new Director David Kappos (see "Could the 'New…
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Common Sense, Perhaps, But Whose? By Kevin E. Noonan — The Supreme Court in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. established a standard (such as it is) of "common sense" in evaluating whether an invention is obvious. If the Court had been careful to follow the statute, it might have stressed more carefully that…
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Has Inequitable Conduct Met Its Match? By Kevin E. Noonan — There have been clear indications for some time that certain members of the Federal Circuit believe that the Court's inequitable conduct jurisprudence has gone astray from the "a high bar" Judge Rader (at right) believes the Court's earlier case law requires for establishing…
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For Stem Cells, It Seems That Conception Is Enough By Kevin E. Noonan — On Thursday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a District Court determination that the University of Pittsburgh had established, by clear and convincing evidence, that four inventors had been improperly named in U.S. Patent No. 6,777,231 and granting judgment correcting inventorship under…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Hal Wegner has shared with Patent Docs papers filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday, asking the Federal Circuit to defer proceedings on its en banc review of the panel decision in Tafas v. Doll. The basis for this request is to give Under Secretary-designate David Kappos…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit today ordered en banc review of Tafas v. Doll, vacating the panel decision of March 20, 2009. The Court's decision was reported per curiam and Judge Lourie did not participate in the decision to rehear the appeal en banc. The Court in its order noted that…
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By Donald Zuhn — On May 6, the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirming the final rejection of U.S. Application No. 10/618,526 for obviousness-type double patenting. Appellants Frits Jacobus Fallaux, Robert Cornelis Hoeben, Alex Jan Van Der Eb, Abraham Bout, and Domenico Valerio are the named…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the Federal Circuit affirmed the judgment of the District Court for the Central District of California granting Defendant-Appellee Oxford Gene Technology's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Oxford filed the motion to dismiss after Plaintiff-Appellant Autogenomics filed suit against Oxford seeking a declaratory judgment of invalidity,…
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