Precedential and Key Federal Circuit Opinions - 1. BACKERTOP LICENSING LLC [OPINION] (23-2367, 23-2368, 24-1016, 24-1017 Prost, Hughes, and Stoll) - Hughes, J. The Court affirmed the District Court’s orders (1)...more
XY, LLC v. TRANS OVA GENETICS, LC - Before Wallach, Plager, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Summary: Claims directed to improving a method of operating an apparatus...more
Last week, the Federal Circuit took the opportunity presented in an appeal from judgment on the pleadings in XY, LLC v. Trans Ova Genetics, LC to distinguish claims directed toward a patent-eligible invention from...more
Electronic Communication Technologies (ECT) sued ShoppersChoice in the Southern District of Florida for allegedly infringing claim 11 of U.S. Patent No. 9,373,261. The claim recites...more
Electronic Communications Technologies (ECT) asserted its '261 patent, titled "Secure Notification Messaging with User Option to Communicate with Delivery or Pickup Representative," in the U.S. District Court for the Southern...more
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, LLC v. SHOPPERSCHOICE.COM, LLC - Before Prost, Dyk, and Wallach. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Electronic Communication...more
Plaintiff brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,548,902, which related to online loan origination services. The defendant moved for...more
Addressing an issue of software subject matter eligibility, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s judgment on the pleadings under 35 USC § 101, finding claims related to error checking...more
MYMAIL, LTD. v. OOVOO, LLC - Before Lourie, O’Malley and Reyna. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Summary: If the parties litigating a § 101 challenge at the pleading...more
Addressing the patentability of method-of-treatment claims, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued two decision finding such claims patent eligible. Natural Alternatives Int’l, Inc. v. Creative Compounds, LLC,...more
In Natural Alternatives International, Inc. v. Creative Compounds, LLC., Appeal No. 2018-1295, a divided panel of the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a decision by the District Court for the Southern District of...more
Federal Circuit Decision - Broadsoft, Inc. v. Callwave Communications, LLC, No. 2018-1124, 2018 WL 4999375, at *1 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 16, 2018) (per curiam) (affirming district court’s order finding claims invalid) District...more
Federal Circuit Finds Claims Issued from Reexamination Co-Pending with Appeal Ineligible Where the Changes Did Not Affect Section 101 Eligibility - In SAP AMERICA, Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC, Appeal No. 2017-2081, the...more
PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - Data Engine Technologies, LLC v. Google LLC, Appeal No. 2017-1135 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 9, 2018) - In one of two Section 101 cases this week, the Federal Circuit affirmed-in-part, reversed-in-part, and...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Judges Reyna, Bryson, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: A claim that recites a specific method for navigating through...more
Ericsson Inc. v. Intellectual Ventures I LLC (No. 2017-1521, 8/27/18) (Reyna, Taranto, Chen) Reyna, J. - Vacating and remanding the PTAB’s IPR decision because the PTAB erred in not considering portions of the petitioner’s...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Lourie, O’Malley, and Taranto. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Summary: Where remand of post-reexamination claims that issued during the...more
PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - JTEKT Corporation v. GKN Automotive Ltd., Appeal No. 2017-1828 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 3, 2018) The Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal from an inter partes review, holding that, although JTEKT...more
Federal Circuit Summaries - Before Lourie, O’Malley, and Taranto. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Summary: Claims may be determined patent ineligible on the pleadings...more
“We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!” -Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy It seems that Douglas Adams has a great many fans in the universe of IP law. While he almost...more
District Court Abused Discretion in Not Finding Case Exceptional - In Rothschild Connected Devices v. Guardian Protection Services, Appeal No. 2016-2521, the Federal Circuit held that a district court abused its discretion...more
In the time since Alice changed the landscape of patent eligibility for certain types of inventions, the Federal Circuit has begun pumping out opinions interpreting this landmark Supreme Court case. The expanding body of law...more
Claims Lacking Details Found to be Directed to Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter - In the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah (Central Division), Polar filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings contending that...more
In the post-Alice world, patents that relate in any material way to financial processes or systems have come under increased attacks in the early stages of infringement litigation—as defendants aim to secure a cheap and fast...more
Given the volume of district court decisions regarding Section 101, I typically don't find ones that stand out enough to warrant discussion. But last week's decision by Judge Stark in MAZ Encryption Technologies LLC v....more