On August 12, 2024, the Federal Circuit published its decision in Celanese International Corp. et al. v. International Trade Commission. The Federal Circuit concluded that, under the America Invents Act (AIA), patent claims...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) Appeals Review Panel (“the Panel”) recently clarified that means-plus-function claims do not require that the specification disclose equivalents. See Ex parte...more
Despite the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's en banc Phillips v. AWH Corp. decision in 2005 that purported to establish the definitive standard for claim construction, two disparate lines of claim construction...more
OVERVIEW - The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed three Inter Partes Review (IPR) final written decisions of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) where the Board...more
August 23, 1891 - WASHINGTON, DC - In a unanimous panel ruling, the Federal Circuit has found that the calculating machine of U.S. Patent No. 388,116 fails to meet the eligibility requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 101. Inventor...more
In 2014's Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l case, Justice Thomas famously wrote, "we need not labor to delimit the precise contours of the 'abstract ideas' category in this case." Instead, he found the claims of patentee Alice...more
The 2010s saw many developments in Canadian patent law. Establishment of a trade agreement with the European Union, ratification of an international IP treaty, implementation of a national IP strategy, and other domestic...more
U.S. Patent X000001 was granted on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins. The original document went missing for many years, only resurfacing in 1956. The inventor named is Samuel Hopkins, but which Samuel Hopkins was much in...more
Any observer of the interaction between the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court over the past decade has recognized that the Court has become increasingly critical of the Federal Circuit's patent jurisprudence and of...more
Since the very beginning of America’s revolutionary patent system, inventors in the life sciences have been granted patents for discovering and purifying natural products. It was taken as a given that a purified natural...more
The University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law has created an infographic that provides some highlights in the history of patent law, starting at around 500 B.C. and including the first ever recorded document...more
Public perception of the patent system has swung widely over the years from highs, such as those in the late nineteenth century when Mark Twain could write “a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a...more
Over the past few weeks, the United States federal courts and the patent office have issued several significant decisions addressing the patent subject matter eligibility of software-related inventions in the United States....more