Federal Circuit Revives SynQor Patent

By Julie L. Spieker

On February 22, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision that SynQor’s US Patent No. 7,072,190 was unpatentable. SynQor’s ‘190 patent relates to technology that converts DC current from one voltage to another for use in large computer systems and data communication equipment. […]

Court-Mandated Claim Limitation: The Complexity of Simplification

Patent cases often present many complex issues because a given case can feature a patent portfolio where each patent within the portfolio has a high number of litigable claims. One way district courts have attempted to increase the efficiency of patent litigation is through court-mandated claim limitation. When a case involves multiple parties and multiple […]

Court-Mandated Claim Limitation: The Complexity of Simplification

Patent cases often present many complex issues because a given case can feature a patent portfolio where each patent within the portfolio has a high number of litigable claims. One way district courts have attempted to increase the efficiency of patent litigation is through court-mandated claim limitation. When a case involves multiple parties and multiple […]

Geographical Scope of Permanent Injunctions Challenged

  Federal trademark rights are generally enforceable throughout the United States.  However, confusion can arise where contrary decisions have been made by district courts in different geographical regions relating to the same mark. The Fourth Circuit’s March decision in Georgia Pacific Consumer Prods. LP v. Von Dreble Corp, an appeal from the Eastern District of […]

New and Useful – April 23, 2013

· InK-Tech Telecoms v. Time Warner Cable, the Federal Circuit confirmed that the standard for evaluating the adequacy of complaints alleging direct patent infringement remains Form 18 of the Appendix of Forms to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Form 18"). K-Tech filed separate complaints against Direct TV and Time Warner Cable (“TWC”) on the […]

Second Circuit: If you want a court to order the USPTO, ask in your pleadings, not after you win

In a recent decision, the Second Circuit affirmed a district court's decision in a trademark case not to enter an order pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1119. § 1119 permits a court to enter an order regarding registrability and cancellation of marks at the USPTO. The prevailing defendant asked the district court to order the […]

Today’s lesson for litigators: make sure you present all your arguments to the district court

In a decision Tuesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's holding that two patents were invalid under the on-sale bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). The inventor filed a declaration during prosecution that the invention was reduced to practice before the critical date of the patents, and thereafter sold the claimed method, also before […]

When exclusion order based on multiple patents, failure to appeal under each may render appeal moot

In a decision last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed the United States International Trade Commission's finding of infringement and validity. The claims were brought under three patents that all claimed priority to a common parent application, and thus would ordinarily all expire on the same day. However, one of the three patents was subject to […]

Reverse doctrine of equivalents still a losing argument at the Federal Circuit

In a decision Wednesday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's finding of patent validity and patent infringement. The Federal Circuit found no error in the district court's holding that the reverse doctrine of equivalents was inapplicable and that claim preclusion prohibited the defendant from raising other validity challenges. Specifically, the defendant did not establish […]

No claim preclusion unless second accused product essentially the same as product in first suit

In a Tuesday decision, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court finding that a patent infringement suit was barred by claim preclusion. At issue was whether a claim for patent infringement was barred under the doctrine of claim preclusion when that claim could have been brought in a prior case. The patentee sued for infringement […]