Legitimate Advocacy and Genuine Misrepresentation of Material Facts

The Federal Circuit has issued a decision inApotex Inc. v. UCB, Inc., upholding a district court's finding that Apotex's U.S. Patent No. 6,767,556 ("the '556 patent") is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct. Dr. Sherman, founder and chairman of Apotex, wrote the '556 patent application and is its sole inventor. The '556 is based on Canadian […]

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Critical Versus Optional, but Desireable Claim Elements

On August 6, 2014, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in ScriptPro, LLC v. Innovation Associates, Inc. In 2006, the Petitioner ScriptPro, LLC sued Innovation Associates, Inc. for infringement of claims 1, 2, 4, and 8 of U.S. Patent No. 6,910,601 ("the '601 patent"). The '601 patent describes a "collating unit" that […]

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Federal Circuit Invalidates Patent Claims As Non-Patentable Subject Matter

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Digitech Image Technologies v. Electronics for Imaging, Inc., upheld a decision that patent claims directed to a collection of numerical data that lacks a physical component or manifestation as well as an abstract idea of organizing data through mathematical correlations are invalid. The […]

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Court of Federal Claims Confirms Payment of Maintenance Fees Still Required

A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ("CFC") has upheld the statutorily-mandated maintenance fees required by the USPTO in order to keep issued patents in force. The owner of an issued patent must pay maintenance fees to the USPTO three times during the lives of their issued patents to keep them in […]

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