Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Patents

  • May 16, 2024

    Fees, Sanctions Wrongly Awarded, Patent Owner Tells Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California, assigned to a patent case after it had already been closed, erred in granting a Google LLC request for attorney fees to the tune of $191,302.18 and in subsequently sanctioning counsel for the patent owner $63,525.30, the patent owner tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • May 15, 2024

    PUMA Design Patent Claim Survives Early Challenge In Washington

    SEATTLE — A motion for judgment on the pleadings by Brooks Sports Inc. was partly granted May 14 when a federal judge in Washington ordered a purported trademark licensor to be joined to an infringement action initiated by a rival athletic footwear company.

  • May 15, 2024

    Planned Hearing In Review Of Dissolvable Magnesium Patent Canceled

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board will consider the patentability of dissolvable magnesium alloy technology used in the fracking industry without the benefit of oral argument, cancelling a hearing that had been planned for May 31 in a contentious inter partes review (IPR) that has yielded threats of sanctions in connection with an expunged motion and invocation by a patent owner of an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump.

  • May 14, 2024

    PREP Act Immunity In Swab Patent Row Not Ripe For Appeal, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Denial by a federal judge in Maine of a swab maker’s motion to dismiss patent infringement allegations on grounds that it is immune from suit as part of the federal coronavirus response will not be reviewed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 14.

  • May 13, 2024

    Patent Board Upholds Rejection By Examiner Of Regeneron Application

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — An effort by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. to undo a final rejection of an application to patent a method of characterizing proteins failed May 13 when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said it found no error in a determination by an examiner that substituting prior art neonatal fragment crystallizable receptor (FcRn) resins with Regeneron’s claimed protein A resins would have been obvious.

  • May 13, 2024

    Eligibility Of ‘Charge-Back’ Patents Debated At Federal Circuit Oral Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Counsel for an appellant told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 10 that five patents were wrongly declared ineligible for patenting by a Georgia federal judge, calling the “point of the invention” an “unconventional data flow” that provides merchants cost savings and other benefits.

  • May 13, 2024

    Federal Circuit Exercises Jurisdiction Over Appeal Of Anti-Filing Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An order by a federal judge in Delaware barring a frequent pro se litigant from filing future lawsuits against individuals she says conspired to tank her earlier patent infringement lawsuits satisfies the relevant test for retaining “arising under” appellate jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 10.

  • May 10, 2024

    Appellant: Patent Owner, Licensee Level ‘Meritless’ Allegations In Brief

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bamboo building products company held liable at a jury trial for patent infringement is denying allegations by the patent owner and patent licensee that its appeal to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals improperly proposes a new construction of a disputed claim term.

  • May 09, 2024

    Magistrate Denies Motion For Indicative Relief In FCA Suit Alleging Overcharging

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a relator’s motion for an indicative ruling that pursuant to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision in United States ex rel. Silbersher v. Valeant Pharms. Int’l, Inc., a similar False Claims Act (FCA) suit brought by the same relator, the magistrate judge should grant the relator “relief” from the judgment on appeal to the Ninth Circuit after dismissing his claims that pharmaceutical companies overcharged the federal government and states under Medicare and Medicaid.

  • May 08, 2024

    Panel Agrees: Domestic Industry Requirement Not Satisfied By Patent Owner

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Findings by the International Trade Commission (ITC) that a patent owner failed to establish a domestic industry for its electronic stud finder technology were affirmed May 8 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • May 08, 2024

    Discretionary Denial Of Apple Petitions Warranted, Patent Owner Asserts

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Infringement litigation in Texas federal court over several fraud detection patents is too far along to institute inter partes review (IPR), the patent owner told the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on May 7, urging a discretionary denial of the challenges to its technology by Apple Inc.

  • May 07, 2024

    In Win For AI Company, Panel Upholds Cancellation Of Patent Claims By Board

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Voice command technology allegedly infringed by an artificial intelligence (AI) company’s free and open-source software virtual assistant was confirmed unpatentable on May 6 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • May 07, 2024

    PTO Persuades Panel To Remand IFIT Appeal To Trademark Board

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over the objection of appellant iFIT Inc., the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has remanded the fitness company’s appeal of its failed bid to block an application to register the “I-FIT FLEX” trademark in view of a concession by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s ruling was light on factual support, which the agency said could hamper appellate review.

  • May 06, 2024

    Amazon Patent Evaluation Submission Is Purposeful Direction, Panel Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The initiation of an evaluation under the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) system — which triggers the potential removal of an allegedly infringing product listing from Amazon.com if a seller fails to respond — constitutes a purposeful direction of activities at the seller’s forum state sufficient to confer specific personal jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. 

  • May 06, 2024

    Printed Matter Doctrine Wrongly Applied By Board, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 3 upheld a determination by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that the vast majority of challenged claims in three patents directed to a tunneling client access point are unpatentable but said six claims in two of those same patents were wrongly deemed anticipated, following the board’s erroneous application of the printed matter doctrine.

  • May 06, 2024

    Federal Circuit Finds No Error By Board In Patent Claim Construction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Final written decisions (FWDs) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that declared four packet monitor patents obvious will stand, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, rejecting claims by the patent owner that the board construed a disputed claim term too broadly.

  • May 03, 2024

    Maker Of Muscular Dystrophy Drug Found Liable For Patent Infringement

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Rejection by a federal judge in Delaware of allegations that the phrase “in which uracil bases are thymine bases” is indefinite has yielded a summary judgment by a different federal judge in Delaware in favor of a patent owner on the question of infringement.

  • May 03, 2024

    With Patents Confirmed Obvious, Panel Vacates Texas Damage Award

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 2 said its affirmance the same day of findings by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that three patents are invalid has an issue preclusive effect on a separate appeal of an amended final judgment by a Texas federal judge who, on remand, recalculated damages for infringement of the same patents.

  • May 01, 2024

    PTO Grants Reexam Of 4th AI Patent; Delaware Infringement Case Stayed

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In an office action, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) said it will reexamine a patent directed to a method of dental arch image analysis that relies on artificial intelligence on the heels of other reexaminations and an inter partes review (IPR) it has recently initiated of three patents from the same family, which led to a stay of related infringement litigation in Delaware federal court.

  • May 01, 2024

    Panel: Texas Federal Judge Wrongly Found Standing Lacking In Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Allegations that a radio frequency identification (RFID)-related patent was infringed were revived May 1 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found that contrary to the conclusion reached by a federal judge in Texas, a creditor’s “unexercised” right to license a patent does not deprive a patentee of its right to exclude.

  • April 29, 2024

    Infringement Judgment Will Stand, But Redo On Validity Ordered By Panel

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Although a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 29 said it found no genuine dispute that an appellant literally infringed a patented panoramic viewing system, it said evidence of obviousness presented to a California federal judge should have precluded summary judgment in favor of the patent owner on the question of validity.

  • April 29, 2024

    Abiomed: ‘Revolutionary’ Heart Pump Rightly Cleared In Infringement Action

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Massachusetts did not err in rejecting on summary judgment allegations that five patents are infringed by “Impella” heart pump product line, Abiomed Inc. tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 26 appellee brief.

  • April 26, 2024

    Board Breathes New Life Into Halliburton Effort To Patent Charge Liner

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Although rejecting a position advanced by Halliburton Energy Services Inc. that an examiner erred in conducting an appeal conference with an unqualified conferee, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on April 26 found examiner error in a rejection of all 25 claims of Halliburton’s application to patent a liner used in shaped charges.

  • April 26, 2024

    Patent Owner’s Post-Trial Motion Denied In Full By Delaware Federal Judge

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A bid by the owner of a pipe coupling patent declared not infringed by a Delaware federal jury to undo the verdict and a pretrial ruling that eliminated two other patents from the case failed April 25.

  • April 25, 2024

    Contract, Patent Case In Massachusetts Stayed In Favor Of Inter Partes Review

    BOSTON — A recent decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute inter partes review (IPR) of a patented method for allocating employee gratuities led a federal judge in Massachusetts on April 24 to stay litigation there, in a case that also involves allegations that the IPR petitioner breached two nondisclosure agreements.