Patent Law Weblog
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- Quo Vadis mRNA Vaccine Technology? The State of the IP Lawsuits
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Category: Patentable Subject Matter
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By Michael Borella — 35 U.S.C. § 101 states that "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof" is patent-eligible. However, the Supreme Court has traditionally acknowledged the existence of several exceptions to these categories — namely that laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract…
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By Donald Zuhn –- Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued further guidance for determining subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In addition to a memorandum on subject matter eligibility determinations that was issued to the patent examining corps, an updated list of court decisions (Supreme Court and Federal Circuit) addressing…
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By Michael Borella — Some things are rare. A visit from Halley's comet . . . the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series . . . a season of Game of Thrones without a major character's death . . . and a Federal Circuit panel finding that claims pass muster under 35 U.S.C. § 101. …
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"Quick Look Test" Used by District Court to Support Lack of Preemption and Find Software Claims Patent Eligible By Joseph Herndon — On April 15, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an Order Denying a Motion to Dismiss because the patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 5,870,087, was found to…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — In a recent book entitled Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, author Adam Cohen examines the case of Buck v. Bell, where Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that "[t]hree generations of imbeciles are enough" to justify the forced sterilization of a woman the State…
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Focusing on the Claims, the PTAB Denies CBM Review of a Market Research Patent By Joseph Herndon — On April 13, 2016, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a decision denying institution of a covered business method (CBM) patent review of U.S. Patent No. 8,041,805. This decision…
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PTAB Not Bound by Prior District Court Ruling on § 101 By Joseph Herndon — On March 30, 2016, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a Final Written Decision in a case captioned Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., LTD., and Apple, Inc. v. Smartflash LLC…
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U.S. District Court Disagrees with PTAB By Joseph Herndon — On March 25, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an Order in a case captioned Global Cash Access, Inc. v. NRT Technology Corp., and NRT Technologies, Inc., in which the District Court found the claims to be directed to an…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit affirmed the latest invalidation of genetic diagnostic claims last week, in Genetic Technologies Ltd. v. Merial L.L.C. While consistent with (and expressly relying upon) recent Federal Circuit precedent on this question, this case presents additional aspects deleterious to genetic diagnostic method patent holders. The patent at issue,…
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By Anthony D. Sabatelli* — In an interesting case decided last month, the Federal Circuit ruled that it cannot address whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's 2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility exceeds the scope of the Supreme Court's decisions in this area. This case was an appeal from a final decision…
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