Federal Circuit Defines “manufactured” Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498

By Blog Staff

In FastShip, LLC v. United States, decided on June 5, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) defined the term “manufactured” pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498. The statute states that a patent owner can sue the U.S. government for infringement when “an invention [covered by a U.S. patent] is […]

A Commentary on Women in the Profession and MVS

By Heidi Sease Nebel

A recent article appeared in the Lexis Nexis news piece “Law360”, describing the dismal results of their annual “Glass Ceiling Report”. The article concluded that there had been “limited progress” for female attorneys in a male-dominated profession. Women have represented over 40% of law school students for decades, according to the American Bar Association, yet, […]

PTAB to Consider When Conference Materials are Prior Art

By Blog Staff

In a consolidated appeal from two related Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“PTAB”) decisions, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed-in-part and vacated-in-part the PTAB’s findings. The CAFC affirmed the PTAB’s conclusion that challenged claims would not have been obvious over two specific references. However, the CAFC vacated the PTAB’s determination that […]

Patent Eligibility of Bioinformatics Innovations

By Sarah M.D. Luth

Bioinformatics has increasingly become of interest in the last decade. Bioinformatics generally refers to the use of computational methods used to compile, analyze, visualize effects, and predict trends or outcomes for oftentimes large data sets. Bioinformatics tools can be applied to gene regulation, immunology, drug repositioning, drug identification, and virtually any other application where a […]

Federal Circuit Clarifies Means-Plus-Function Limitations

By Blog Staff

On June 1st, in Zeroclick, LLC v. Apple Inc, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) vacated and remanded a district court decision that several patent claims asserted against Apple Inc. were invalid. The district court held that the claims contained means-plus-function limitations and that the specifications did not disclose sufficient […]

Fraudulent Invention Development Company Banned

By Kirk M. Hartung

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement of a lawsuit against an invention development company which permanently enjoins the company from further business due to fraudulent and deceitful conduct with inventors. Scott Cooper and his companies, World Patent Marketing and Desa Industries, Inc., used bogus success stories to get clients to pay thousands […]

Federal Circuit Judges Encourage Congress to Act on Patent Eligibility

By Kirk M. Hartung

Patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C 101 has been a hot topic in the past few years and in view of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including the 2014 caseAlice Corp. Pty. Ltd. V. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347.  In Alice, the Supreme Court concluded that abstract ideas are not patentable, absent something more, […]

In Re: Durance

By Blog Staff

In In Re: Durance, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) vacated the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) ruling affirming an examiner’s obviousness rejection of a patent application related to a microwave vacuum-drying apparatus and method. The CAFC remanded for consideration of the applicants’ reply-brief arguments because they were properly […]

No Sympathy for Samsung

By Gregory Lars Gunnerson

In May, an eight-member California federal jury awarded Apple a staggering $500+ million verdict as a result of a patent litigation lawsuit that has been ongoing for at least 7 years. The verdict has proved to be particularly puzzling for patent law professors and other patent advocates that disagree over whether an article of manufacture in relation […]

USPTO Director Andrei Lancu Takes a Look at Early Prosecution

This week, the USPTO Director, Andrei Iancu, testified before the House Judiciary Committee. In his written statement Director Iancu wrote on topics related to early prosecution that would result in lower costs to clients and would speed up the process of obtaining a patent. A new pilot program that will allow for a pre-search Examiner […]