Talking PTAB with Bob Steinberg
Indefiniteness Before the PTAB
Note: Includes reinstated, cross-, and consolidated appeals. After two years of declines, new appeals from the USPTO increased modestly in FY22. Appeals from district courts increased year over year as well, bucking a...more
Note: Includes reinstated, cross-, and consolidated appeals. Appeals from the USPTO dipped for the second straight year in FY21. Due to a spike in appeals from the Court of Federal Claims, District Courts are now the third...more
In Microsurgical Tech., Inc. v. Regents of the Univ. of Colorado, No. PGR2021-00026, Paper 12 (P.T.A.B. June 16, 2021), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) held that disclaimed claims should be considered for...more
In one of the more daring (and somewhat risky) strategies by an appellant challenging an adverse decision in a covered-business method (CBM) review proceeding, New Vision Gaming asserted a purported conflict of interest by...more
NEW VISION GAMING & DEVELOPMENT, INC. V. SG GAMING, INC. Before Newman, Moore, and Taranto. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded two CBM decisions under...more
Earlier this month, in the precedential decision New Vision Gaming & Development, Inc. v. SG Gaming, Inc., FKA Bally Gaming, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“the CAFC”) vacated and remanded a decision by...more
Trimble Inc. v. PerDiemCo LLC, Appeal No. 2019-2164 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2021) - In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit revisited its decision in Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc., 148 F.3d 1355...more
The Federal Circuit had a busy week, issuing 18 opinions—8 of them precedential. One of those cases put a new spin on two PTAB-related issues we’ve covered extensively on this blog: Arthrex (which held PTAB judges were...more
A PTAB panel found FedEx sufficiently akin to Priority Mail Express to meet the petition service rule, and to the extent necessary further waived the regulatory requirements related to the timing of Petitioner’s (TIZ Inc....more
In cxLoyalty Inc. v. Maritz Holdings Inc., 986 F.3d 1367, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2021), Patent No. 7,134,087 explained that loyalty programs often issue points to customers as a reward for certain activities and allow the customers...more
Evidence Supports Prior Art’s Public Accessibility but Not the Board’s Adoption of an Unpresented Theory of Anticipation - In M & K Holdings, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co.,Ltd., Appeal No. 20-1160, the Federal Circuit...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Office) has issued final rules in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR) and the transitional program for covered business method patents (CBM) proceedings...more
Patent litigation is increasing. Specifically, the 13 percent rise in patent cases from 2019 indicates that the pandemic did not slow down litigants. This reverses the trend since 2015 of gradually decreasing numbers of new...more
Last month, in January 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) published a memorandum (the “January 2021 Memorandum”) clarifying how it will analyze claims for indefiniteness in AIA post-grant...more
These charts and graphs appear in the firm's Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2020 Decisions report... Appeals from the USPTO dipped in FY20, reaching their lowest level since FY15. After four...more
In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit held that the threshold determination that appellant SIPCO LLC’s patent qualifies for covered business method (CBM) review is non-appealable. Accordingly, the Federal Circuit...more
It’s a few days before Thanksgiving and the sunsets are shorter and earlier, so we thought we’d discuss a CBM before the sun completely sets on that procedure. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of the...more
Total PTAB petitions remained flat in FY2020, with 1513 petitions total being filed: IPR (1429), PGR (64), and CBM (20), compared to 1464 in FY2019 and 1613 FY2018, down from 1901 in FY2017. September IPR petition filings...more
Covered business method (CBM) review is scheduled to end on September 15 this year. Part of the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act, CBM review was envisioned as a transitional tool for accused infringers to challenge weak...more
Appellants in New Vision Gaming & Development v. SC Gaming, Inc. f/k/a Bally Gaming, Inc. and Mobility Workx, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC challenge the constitutionality of the administrative patent judge (APJ) incentive...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020) stands at 56% (478 instituted, 376 denied) compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. This lower institution rate...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proposed changes to the rules of practice for instituting review on all challenged claims or none in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR) and the...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020) stands at 55% (370 instituted, 300 denied) compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. This lower institution rate...more
Less than two years ago, in Return Mail, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service, 139 S. Ct. 1853 (2018), the Supreme Court held that a government entity -- in that case, the U.S. Postal Service -- is not a "person" under the America...more
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Notices of Waiver of certain USPTO deadlines, including deadlines in inter partes review (IPR), post grant review (PGR), and covered...more