On Thursday, August 4, 2022, the First Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as moot an appeal that was brought by two former University of Massachusetts students claiming that the schools’ vaccine policies were unconstitutional...more
Companies seeking to license patents from state universities face a special risk--sovereign immunity. The 11th Amendment to the US Constitution deprives federal courts of jurisdiction to hear complaints brought by a citizen...more
Major operational changes and disruptions occasioned by COVID-19 have created a swell of contract disputes and new litigation in various industries. The area of higher education is no different. ...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the arguments of a state university in support of sovereign immunity and affirmed the district court’s decision to transfer the case to the District of Delaware. Board...more
State Sovereignty Principles Do Not Allow a State to Bring a Patent Infringement Suit in an Improper Venue - In Board of Regents v. Boston Scientific Corp., Appeal No. 2018-1700, the Federal Circuit ruled that the patent...more
On December 19, 2017, a seven-judge expanded PTAB panel ruled that the University of Minnesota (UM) waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity defense when it filed a patent infringement action in federal district court. ...more
The PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board) of the USPTO recently issued a decision that a filing of a patent infringement action by a public university waives sovereign immunity to inter partes review (IPR) proceedings in the...more
Patent Trial and Appeal Board Chief Judge David Ruschke recently dealt sovereign immunity a crippling blow. Although Judge Ruschke confirmed that Eleventh Amendment immunity does apply to sovereign actors, he held that when a...more
In a pair of near identical decisions issued on December 19, 2017, an expanded PTAB panel found that the Regents of the University of Minnesota had waived its defense of sovereign immunity by filing actions against the...more
On December 19, 2017, an expanded panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled that the state of Minnesota waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity to challenges to patent validity by inter partes review (IPR) by...more
Board Curtails Use of Sovereign Immunity Defense to Avoid IPR - In Ericsson, Inc. v. Regents of the University of Minnesota, an expanded panel denied Patent Owner Regents of the University of Minnesota’s motions to dismiss...more
Yesterday, in Ericsson Inc. v. Regents of the University of Minnesota, an expanded 7-judge PTAB panel ruled that a patent owner waives a claim to sovereign immunity in an IPR “by filing an action in federal court alleging...more
Less than four months after its decision in Covidien LP v. University of Florida Research Foundation Incorporated, finding that Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity applies to PTAB proceedings, the Board has again dismissed...more
On January 25, 2017, a panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) held that “Eleventh Amendment Immunity bars the institution of an inter partes review against an unconsenting state that has not waived sovereign...more
The University of Florida picked up some big wins in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, moving into the tourney’s Sweet Sixteen. But the Gators also earned a big patent dispute victory recently in Covidien LP v. University...more
State Universities Gain Immunity from IPRs - Today, many universities own extensive patent portfolios that are managed by sophisticated tech transfer offices. Universities obtain these patents for many reasons, not the...more
In Covidien LP v. University of Florida Research Foundation Inc., the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) upheld a defense of sovereign immunity asserted by the University of Florida Research Foundation (the...more
In what appears to be a case of first impression, the PTAB is poised to rule on the question of whether state sovereign immunity prevents an IPR challenge from being maintained against a University of Florida (“UF”) patent...more
A professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the standard for imposing liability on state universities (and their related entities, such as hospitals and...more
Over the last several months, universities and technology transfer programs have increasingly become the target of petitions for Inter Partes Review (IPR) filings. Effective September 16, 2012, IPR proceedings allow parties...more