Supreme Court Rejects Patent Exhaustion Defense for Patented Bean Replanting

The Supreme Court has handed down its much anticipated decision in Bowman v. Monsanto Co., holding that the defense of patent exhaustion does not apply to the practice of planting and harvesting patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent holder's permission. The case centers on the Roundup Ready gene, which confers resistance to […]

Intrinsic Evidence Can Provide Adequate Support to Overcome Indefiniteness

In Biosig Instruments, Inc. v. Nautilus, Inc., the Federal Circuit reversed a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York finding a patent invalid for indefiniteness, relying on intrinsic evidence. Biosig Instruments, Inc. (“Biosig”) is the assignee of U.S. Patent No. 5,337,753 (“the ’753 patent”). The ’753 patent is directed […]

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 […]

New and Useful – April 10, 2013

· InIn re Hubbell the Federal Circuit confirmed the rejection of all of the pending claims in an application, filed with Jeffrey Hubbell, Jason Schense, Andreas Zisch, and Heike Hall as named inventors. The invention disclosed in the application was based on research performed while all of the named inventors were at California Institute of […]

New and Useful – April 5, 2013

· In Power Integrations, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. the Federal Circuit clarified several points relating to claim construction, determinations of non-obviousness, and calculation of damages. The court confirmed that claiming a “circuit” in conjunction with a sufficiently definite structure for performing the identified function is adequate to bar means-plus-function claiming. The court also […]

New and Useful – March 15, 2013

In Brilliant Instruments, Inc. v. GuideTech, LLC, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s order granting summary judgment of non-infringement of three related patents. The three asserted patents relate to circuits that measure the timing errors of digital signals in high-speed microprocessors. The inventor of the three patents left employment with the plaintiff, GuideTech, and […]

New and Useful – February 21, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Addresses Jurisdiction In Patent Related Case

Federal Circuit Addresses Subject Matter Jurisdiction in Patent-Related Cases

In Semiconductor Energy Lab. Co., Ltd. v. Yujiro Nagata, the Federal Circuit weighed in on federal subject matter jurisdiction and provided two important reminders: (1) Just because a cause of action originates from a patent, standards in the patent statute, or even from other patent litigation, it is the present cause of action and claims […]

Accent Packaging, Inc. v. Leggett & Platt, Inc.: Reminders on Claim Construction, Discovery Matters

In Accent Packaging, Inc. v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., the Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement. Accent is the assignee of U.S. Patents 7,373,877 (the '877 patent) and 7,412,992 (the '992 patent). The patents are drawn to a wire tier device useful for […]