On June 24, in Dex Media, Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP, No. 18-916 (U.S.), the Supreme Court agreed to review the question whether 35 U.S.C. § 314(d) permits appeal of the PTAB’s decision to institute an inter...more
6/26/2019
/ § 315(b) ,
Appeals ,
Certiorari ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Review ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Remand ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Vacated ,
Voluntary Dismissals ,
Wi-Fi One
On April 15, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari filed by Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, leaving intact the Federal Circuit’s ruling that tribal sovereign immunity does not apply in inter partes reviews. See Saint...more
The Supreme Court unanimously finds that the AIA's "on sale" statutory language did not alter the pre-AIA "on-sale" bar.
On January 22, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the America Invents Act ("AIA") did not change...more
1/28/2019
/ America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Assignment of Inventions ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Helsinn Healthcare SA v Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc ,
Inventions ,
On-Sale Bar ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Public Use ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 102 ,
Third-Party Relationships
Last Friday, the Federal Circuit issued its en banc opinion in NantKwest, Inc. v. Iancu, No. 16-1794 (Fed. Cir. July 27, 2018). The Court held, by a 7-4 vote (Judge Chen, the former PTO Solicitor, was recused), that if the...more
7/31/2018
/ 35 U.S.C. § 145 ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
American Rule ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Fee-Shifting ,
Intellectual Property Owner’s Association (IPO) ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
USPTO
By statute, an IPR cannot be instituted if the petitioner, real party in interest, or its “privy” was sued for infringing the patent more than one year before the petition for the IPR. 35 U.S.C. § 315(b). As we previously...more
In yesterday’s en banc decision in Wi-Fi One v. Broadcom Corp., Nos. 15-1944, -1945 & -1946 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 8, 2018), the en banc Federal Circuit addressed issues regarding judicial review of the PTAB’s time-bar...more
1/10/2018
/ § 315(b) ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
En Banc Review ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Review ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
USPTO
In yesterday’s decision in Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, No. 15-1177 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 4, 2017) (en banc), the Federal Circuit issued five opinions, spanning 148 pages, addressing the question of who bears the burden of proving...more
10/6/2017
/ Appeals ,
Burden of Persuasion ,
Claim Amendments ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Motion to Amend ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent Validity ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
USPTO
On May 11, 2017, with six of its twelve active judges authoring or joining separate opinions, the Federal Circuit denied a petition for an initial hearing en banc which asked the full Court to address the question “whether a...more
5/17/2017
/ America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Article III ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
En Banc Review ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patents ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Private Property ,
Public Rights Doctrine ,
Separation of Powers
For more than 60 years, Section 102(b) of the Patent Act precluded patentability when the invention was "in public use or on sale in this country [for] more than one year" before the filing of a patent application. That...more
In SCA Hygiene Products v. First Quality Baby Products, decided on March 21, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly reduced the role of the laches defense in patent actions: "Laches cannot be interposed as a defense...more
3/25/2017
/ Appeals ,
Damages ,
Defense Strategies ,
Equitable Estoppel ,
Laches ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Petrella v. MGM ,
SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v First Quality Baby Products ,
SCOTUS ,
Separation of Powers ,
Statute of Limitations
Section 271(f)(1) of the Patent Act provides that a party infringes a patent claim when it "supplies or causes to be supplied in or from the United States all or a substantial portion of the components of a patented invention...more
2/27/2017
/ Appeals ,
Component Parts Doctrine ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Exports ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Life Technologies Corp v Promega Corp ,
Manufacturer Liability ,
Motion to Set Aside the Verdict ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS