More than 50 years ago, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) in In re Yale, 434 F.2d 666 (C.C.P.A. 1970), held that where a prior art reference includes an obvious error of a typographical or similar nature that...more
It being the holiday season in America, it is perhaps appropriate that patent traditionalists get something more than coal in their stocking from Representatives Massie (R-KY), Gohmert (R-TX), Gosar (R-AZ), and McClintock...more
On Tuesday, 1 June 2021, the Federal Circuit issued a rare decision holding that the Patent and Trademark Office (the PTO) may assert prosecution laches as an affirmative defense in a civil action brought by a patentee to...more
HYATT v. HIRSHFELD - Before Reyna, Wallach, and Hughes. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Summary: The PTO met its burden to prove prosecution laches for bulk-filed patent...more
This article discusses aspects of ex parte appeals of patent applications before the European Patent Office (EPO). A patent applicant may appeal an examiner’s decision on refusing to grant a patent application to the EPO...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) gets most of its attention (judicial and otherwise) regarding its decisions in inter partes review and covered business method proceedings. But the Board also has responsibility for...more
Addressing the doctrine of inherent disclosure, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a protein can satisfy the written description requirement when the priority application discloses only a partial amino...more
On September 20, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion affirming the summary judgement that Abbott’s U.S. Patent No. 5,344,915 (“the ’915 Patent”) was sufficiently supported by the written...more
In Yeda Research and Development Co., Ltd. v. Abbott GMBH & Co. KG, Slip Op. 2015-1662 (Fed. Cir. 2016), the Federal Circuit held that a claim to an isolated protein described by its partial amino acid sequence satisfies 35...more