Broadest Reasonable Interpretation is NOT Broadest Possible Interpretation In a decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week, In re Smith International, Inc., the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) decision affirming the Examiner’s rejections of some claims in an ex parte reexamination. The invention is directed to a downhole drilling tool for oil and gas […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Emphasizes “Why” is Important Part of Obviousness Rationales in Chemical Patent Cases In a recent decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, In re Stepan Company, the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision to affirm an examiner’s rejection that claims were obvious. The claims in the application were directed to ultra-high load, aqueous glyphosate salt-containing concentrates comprising water, a glyphosate salt in […] Continue Reading →
Kraft v. Kellog Co.: Objective Evidence of Non-Obviousness Earlier this month, the Federal Circuit decided Intercontinental Great Brands LLC (Kraft), v. Kellog Co., an appeal which arose from a patent infringement suit brought in the Northern District of Illinois. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant—Kellog, finding every claim of U.S. Patent No. 6,918,532 (the ‘532 patent) to be obvious […] Continue Reading →
Hollywood Studios Prevail Against Family-Friendly Video Streaming Site In a 3-0 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with Disney, Warner Bros., and Twentieth Century Fox by affirming an injunction that shut down movie filtering service VidAngel, Inc., saying that a ruling to the contrary would “create a giant loophole in copyright law”. VidAngel is a video filtering service that lets users stream films […] Continue Reading →
Trade Secrets: Lessons for Employers Two court cases have provided a potent lesson in the need to interview incoming employees from competitors, and when the so-called “nuclear option” is available, when it is your trade secret that walks out the door. The “nuclear option” is a portion of the Defend Trade Secrets Act that was passed in 2016. Among the […] Continue Reading →
YouTube “Reaction Video” Deemed Fair Use Much of the YouTube community breathed a sigh of relief last week as a New York federal court dismissed a lawsuit that had been brought against two of YouTube’s most popular personalities. On April 26, 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Ethan and […] Continue Reading →