Patent Owners Beware of Prior Adjudication Involving Related Patents By Joseph M. Hallman When patent claims are construed and interpreted in an adjudicative proceeding, such as patent infringement litigation in federal court or in an adjudicative proceeding before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), a preclusive effect can arise which can affect the validity of claims of related patents. For example, on December 8, 2022, in Google […] Continue Reading →
Congressional Bill on Patent Eligibility Receives Judicial Support By Kirk M. Hartung Proposed legislation to fix the patent eligibility mess has been endorsed by two retired judges from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, former chief judge Paul Michel and former judge Kathleen O’Malley. The bipartisan legislation, introduced in August and entitled The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, is co-sponsored by Senator Thom Tillis (R – N.C.) and […] Continue Reading →
US Supreme Court Agrees to Review Patent Enablement Case By Julie L. Spieker Last Friday, the Supreme Court accepted Amgen’s request to review Section 112 of the Patent Act and consider how much a patent specification must disclose to meet enablement requirements. Specifically, the Court will review whether a patent must disclose enough information for the skilled artisan to “reach the full scope” of the claims, or whether […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit clarifies rules regarding patent term adjustment By Joseph M. Hallman Last month, in Sawstop Holding LLC v. Vidal, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed two decisions by the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia regarding patent term adjustment (“PTA”) for two patents owned by Sawstop Holding LLC (“Sawstop”). In both decisions the District Court granted summary judgement in […] Continue Reading →
Genetically Modified Purple Tomatoes By Brian D. Keppler, Ph.D. Purple tomatoes developed by Norfolk Plant Sciences in the UK may be coming to grocery stores in the not too distant future. Last month, USDA APHIS announced that, from a plant pest risk perspective, the purple tomato may be safely grown and used in breeding in the US. The purple color of the tomato is […] Continue Reading →
Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for Patent Infringement Related to COVID-19 Vaccines By Julie L. Spieker On Friday Moderna issued a news release stating that the company is filing complaints in both the United States and Germany alleging that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) infringes three of Moderna’s patents. The patents at issue are US Patent Nos 10,898574, 10,702,600, and 10,933,127. The patents cover Moderna’s mRNA technology that Moderna say […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit reiterates holding regarding errors in prior art references By Joseph M. Hallman On July 11, 2022, in LG Electronics Inc. v. ImmerVision, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) final written decisions in two inter partes reviews (“IPR”) wherein it was held that LG Electronics Inc. (“LG”) failed to show that the challenged […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Vacates $2.75 Billion Ruling Against Cisco Because Judge’s Spouse Owned $5,000 of Cisco Stock By Julie L. Spieker Today, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a decision holding that Cisco willfully infringed several patents owned by Centripetal Networks, Inc. The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had awarded enhanced damages and royalties exceeding $2.75 billion to Centripetal. The Federal Circuit held that the district court judge was disqualified […] Continue Reading →
New Path to Accelerated USPTO Examination with the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program By Jill N. Link, Pharm.D. A few weeks back my colleague posted here about how to receive faster examination before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Now there is another avenue available for inventions related to climate change. On June 3, 2022 the USPTO announced a Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program to speed up examination for certain types […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit dismisses another appeal by Apple Inc. By Joseph M. Hallman On November 10, 2021, in Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Incorporated (Apple v. Qualcomm), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) dismissed Apple Inc.’s (“Apple”) consolidated appeal from four decisions made by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). The PTAB held that claims of patents owned by Qualcomm Incorporated (“Qualcomm”) […] Continue Reading →