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 […]

Inter Partes Review Proceedings (IPRs) Do Not Violate Article III of the Constitution per U.S. Supreme Court

By Jonathan L. Kennedy

The U.S. Supreme held in a 7-2 decision (Justice Gorsuch and Chief Justice Roberts dissenting), Oil States Energy Servs. V. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, that the Inter Partes Review proceedings, commonly referred to as IPRs, do not violate Article III or the Seventh Amendment. The Court was deciding two primary constitutional challenges: (1) whether IPRs violate […]

PTAB Opinion Provides Reminder that Indefiniteness Rejections Must Establish a Prima Facie Case

By Jonathan L. Kennedy

In a recent USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) opinion, the PTAB reversed an Examiner’s indefiniteness rejection as the it failed to establish a prima facie case of indefiniteness. InEx Parte Kimura, Appeal No. 17-1293 (PTAB Jan. 25, 2018), the claims were rejected for reciting, “normal pumping operation.” The rejection stated the term was […]

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 […]

When Life Hands you Lemons, Make CoQ10

In the Federal Circuit Decision of Soft Gel Technologies, Inc. v. Jarrow Formulas, Inc., the Court found three related Soft-Gel patents invalid for obviousness. The three patents describe a way to dissolve CoQ10 in monoterpenes for enhanced delivery to the body. The patents disclosed two suitable examples, limonene and carvone and derivatives thereof. However, prior […]

Post-Grant Reviews under the America Invents Act

The America Invents Act implemented the Post-grant Review (PGR) process as a new means of challenging existing patents. PGR differs from Inter Partes Review (IPR) in that PGR allows for a wider array of invalidity challenges. One example of a new challenge allowed under PGR is the ability to challenge the claims as being indefinite. […]

USPTO Data Visualization Center

Have you ever wondered how long the typical time before a first Office Action in a pending patent or trademark application is?  Or am I the only one waiting for some months after filing an RCE to have my patent application reexamined?  Or what is the average length of time a patent application or trademark […]

Supreme Court Upholds Broadest Reasonable Interpretation and No Review for Institution in PTAB Proceedings

The Supreme Court has issued its opinion in the case of In re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC. In re Cuozzo initially began as an inter partes review (IPR) with the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) where Garmin challenged the validity of Cuozzo’s patent relating to an interface that uses GPS technology to display a […]

Federal Circuit Reverses PTAB Obviousness Decision for the Board’s Failure to Adequately Articulate an Obviousness Rationale

In Black & Decker, Inc. v. Positec USA, Inc., a non-precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent and Trial Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding of obviousness of two claims.  The appeal arose from an Inter Partes Review (IPR) of U.S. Patent No. 5,544,417 owned by Black & Decker directed to a string trimmer.  The PTAB […]

USPTO Issues Rule Amendments for Trials Before PTAB

The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued finalized amendments to the rules for trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The updated rules were issued in a Federal Register Notice on April 1, 2016, which may be found here. The rules put into final form most of the amendments proposed on August 20, […]