News & Analysis as of

Patents Claim Construction Patent Prosecution

Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

Broadening Your (Patent) Protection

In the fast-paced world of innovation, inventors sometimes realize that their patents do not fully protect their inventions until after the patent issues. If the patent family has an application still pending at the patent...more

Lathrop GPM

Significant Federal Circuit Decision Redefines Prior Art Requirements

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Last week a remarkably interesting Federal Circuit case was decided concerning whether an asserted reference was properly shown to qualify as prior art in the rejection of a pending patent application. The pending application...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Resolving Claim Ambiguity via Reissue

Takeaways - -Intra-patent claim inconsistencies are errors correctible via reissue. -Subtle legal distinctions in reissue may require PTAB appeals. Patent prosecution errors occur. One such error that occurs is...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Patent Thicket Avoidance: PTO Proposes Changes to Terminal Disclaimer Practice

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On May 10, 2024, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (Notice) concerning major changes to the terminal disclaimer (TD) practice, which may lead to a sea change in patent prosecution...more

Haug Partners LLP

Federal Circuit Emphasizes the Importance of Prosecution History in Resolving Ambiguous Claim Terms in University of Massachusetts...

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On June 13, 2022, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion that vacated the district court’s judgment of indefiniteness, deciding that the ruling was based on an erroneous claim construction. The patents-in-suit...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

A Few Things that USPTO Could Do to Simplify Patent Prosecution

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office handles hundreds of thousands of patent applications per year, as well as various types of administrative patent proceedings.  While the USPTO has made incremental improvements in its...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP - Federal Circuitry

Last Week In The Federal Circuit (April 4 - 8): Claim Differentiation Carries The Day

Last week was argument week at the Federal Circuit, and we’ve already begun seeing decisions from the argued cases trickle in. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and a detailed discussion of our case of the week—our...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2021 Decisions

[co-author: Jamie Dohopolski] Last year, the continued global COVID-19 pandemic forced American courts to largely continue the procedures set in place in 2020. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was no...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

PTAB Strategies and Insights: January 2022 - Does the Limit Exist?: Negative Limitations in Novartis v. Accord

In an appeal, Novartis Pharmaceuticals v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., the issue of whether a patent provides sufficient written description of a negative limitation split the panel at the Federal Circuit. Novartis...more

Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP

The Continued Impact on Patent Prosecutors and Litigators of the Federal Circuit’s Expanded Treatment of Means Plus Function...

In a new precedential Federal Circuit decision, Kyocera Senco Industrial Tools Inc. v. ITC, that impacts both patent prosecutors and litigators, the court again demonstrated the reach of its recent expansion of language that...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP - Federal Circuitry

Last Week in the Federal Circuit (August 9-13): The Dangers of Relying Solely on Extrinsic Evidence for Claim Construction

Although things often slow down in Washington in the August heat and humidity, that wasn’t the case this past week for the Federal Circuit. All told, the Court issued 5 precedential opinions and ruled in 17 cases. Below we...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP - Federal Circuitry

Last Week in the Federal Circuit (June 21–25): How Airtight Does an Air Mattress Have to Be?

The Federal Circuit announced last week that it will resume in-person oral arguments later this summer. The Court’s new protocols generally take effect with the September 2021 sitting, and we noticed that the Court has also...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Knowledge of Patent, Evidence of Infringement Are Necessary, but Not Sufficient, to Establish Willfulness

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Addressing claim construction, enablement, damages and willfulness, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that evidence of a defendant’s knowledge of the asserted patent and proof of infringement were, by...more

Knobbe Martens

Federal Circuit Rejects Claim Construction That Contradicts Dependent Claims

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BAXALTA INC. V. GENENTECH, INC. Before Moore, Plager, and Wallach. Appeal from the District of Delaware Summary: A district court erred by interpreting a specification’s description of an “antibody” as a definition,...more

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC

Latest Federal Court Cases - March 2020 #2

PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - Communication Test Design, Inc. v. Contec, LLC, Appeal No. 2019-1672 (Fed. Cir. March 13, 2020) - This week’s Case of the Week explores two important procedural issues: a court’s discretion to...more

Mintz - Intellectual Property Viewpoints

Ex parte WILHELM HEINE: PTAB Rejects Examiner’s Unreasonable Claim Construction

During patent prosecution, Examiners often liberally apply the broadest reasonable interpretation standard in rejecting claims. When responding to these rejections, it is important to remember that there are limits to an...more

Smart & Biggar

Foreign Prosecution History Evidence Permitted under Section 53.1 of the Patent Act

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The Federal Court has now released the first decision in which the scope of Section 53.1 of the Canadian Patent Act—the so-called “file wrapper estoppel” provision—has been considered. We recently published an IP Update...more

Smart & Biggar

File wrapper estoppel in Canada

Smart & Biggar on

The Canadian Patent Act was amended last year to include a new provision which allows prosecution histories into evidence in patent proceedings to rebut representations made by the patentee regarding claims construction. ...more

Knobbe Martens

Arguments During Prosecution Can Limit the Scope of a Coined Term with No Ordinary and Customary Meaning

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IRIDESCENT NETWORKS, INC. v. AT&T MOBILITY, LLC - Before Prost, Reyna and Taranto. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas - Iridescent sued AT&T and Ericsson for infringement of a patent...more

Mintz - Intellectual Property Viewpoints

Representations Made by a Patentee during Foreign Prosecution May Be Used in Claim Construction for U.S. Patents

Claim construction, the process by which a court interprets the scope and meaning of a patent’s claims, is a crucial part of patent litigation. In fact, claim construction can make or break a patentee’s case for infringement...more

Jones Day

Precedential: PTAB Considers § 314(a) Factors Even When Denying Under § 325(d)

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When exercising its broad discretion on whether to institute review, the PTAB is not limited to consideration of factors associated with the type of denial it ultimately issues. In a recent decision that the PTAB designated...more

Winstead PC

Determining the Patent Eligibility of Inventions Under the New USPTO Guidelines

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Under the U.S. Patent Act, one can patent “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.” Common exceptions to what can be patented include laws of...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

New USPTO §101 Guidelines Adopt Policies Favorable to Patent Applicants

Decisions by the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit over the past decade have wrestled with the question that 35 U.S.C. §101 was intended to answer: What is eligible for patent protection? The text of §101 says a patent...more

Smart & Biggar

Contrasts and Distinctions: Canadian Patent Law Developments in 2018

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2018 served up a smorgasbord of disparate patent law developments in Canada. Most notably, ratification of a new trade agreement negotiated amongst Canada, the United States and Mexico would require introduction of a patent...more

Knobbe Martens

Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. T-Mobile USA, Inc.

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Federal Circuit Summary - Before Prost, Moore, and Reyna. Appeal from the District of Delaware. Summary: Plain language claim construction will not be narrowed based on the prosecution history unless the patentee...more

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