The Federal Circuit recently affirmed summary judgment that patent claims directed to identifying advertisements based on search results are patent ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The court found that...more
In an October 10, 2023, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania dismissed a gas driller’s declaratory judgment lawsuit involving an oil and gas lease in the SWN Production Company, LLC v. Blue...more
One question we commonly hear from inventors is whether they have ownership rights to a patentable idea they conceived while working for a company. The answer can be quite tricky. “The general rule is that an individual owns...more
In Alabama, a lien claimant must file a lawsuit to enforce its mechanic’s lien within six months of the maturation of the entire indebtedness in the Alabama state circuit court in the county where the subject property is...more
Accordingly, we hold that the voluntary disclosure of a privileged attorney-client communication constitutes a waiver of the privilege as to all other communications concerning the same subject matter when the trial court...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for medical technology innovation, especially the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). IoMT generally refers to the use of network and cloud technologies to connect medical equipment...more
A recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit serves as an important reminder of the distinction between a disclaimer introduced in the specification of a patent and a disclaimer introduced during...more
Imagine being a kid; any age over four. Unless you are well north of age 100, you have never seen anything like this. Adults fighting about everything and demonstrating some levels of rudeness not seen since the school...more
MOLON MOTOR AND COIL CORP. v. NIDEC MOTOR CORPORATION - Before Lourie, Reyna, and Hughes. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Summary: In interpreting an integration clause that...more
Ohio courts have long been in agreement that “[i]t is clearly the law in Ohio that an equitable action in quasi-contract for unjust enrichment will not lie when the subject matter of that claim is covered by an express...more
On July 26, 2018, Chief Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts disqualified plaintiff’s counsel in the patent infringement case Altova GmbH v. Syncro Soft Srl, 17-cv-11642, finding...more
The 10th edition of The E-Discovery Digest focuses on recent decisions addressing the scope and application of the attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine, spoliation, and discovery responses....more
The Situation: A recent decision by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office confirmed that a 2011 ruling dealing with disclosed disclaimers does not overrule its 2004 decision applying to undisclosed...more
In December, we reported that the European Commission ("Commission") had issued an Interpretive Notice (2016/C 411/03) stating products produced by essentially biological processes should not be patentable. The notice came as...more
Beginning in 2009, the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office ("EPO") issued a series of decisions that essentially created a new priority law in Europe that allowed members of the same patent family to negate each...more
For the past few years there has been fear that the law on priority claims in the European Patent Office (EPO) could result in a divisional application becoming prior art against its parent if the divisional application...more
One might think that a corporation or government entity would always trigger a subject matter privilege waiver by disclosing an internal investigation report. But subject matter waiver risks have been receding. In Hawa...more
Conflicts of Interest — Subject Matter Conflicts — Can IP Attorneys Simultaneously Represent Two Clients That Are Prosecuting Patents for Similar Inventions? - Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner,...more