News & Analysis as of

Universities Patents Sovereign Immunity

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

LSI Corp. v. Regents of the University of Minnesota (Fed. Cir. 2022)

A little more than three years ago, the Federal Circuit rejected the University of Minnesota's contention that LSI was barred from bringing (and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board barred from hearing) an inter partes review of...more

McDermott Will & Emery

State University Challenges Board on Sovereign Immunity in Inter Partes Review

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reiterated that “[s]overeign immunity does not apply to IPR proceedings when the patent owner is a state.” Board of Regents of the University of Texas System v. Baylor College...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Board of Regents of the University of Texas System v. Baylor College of Medicine (Fed. Cir. 2020)

Any patent litigant unwilling to acquiesce to an adverse judgment from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) can appeal to the Federal Circuit.  28 U.S. Code § 141.  But the right to appeal is not the same as the wisdom of...more

Jones Day

Fed. Cir. Reaffirms No State Sovereign Immunity in IPRs

Jones Day on

In a non-precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit recently reaffirmed that state universities cannot use sovereign immunity to avoid patent challenges at the PTAB stating that, “sovereign immunity does not apply to IPR...more

Sunstein LLP

When a State University is a Reluctant Plaintiff, Can Its Licensee Sue Anyway?

Sunstein LLP on

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

McDermott Will & Emery

Don’t Mess with Texas? State Sovereignty Doesn’t Make Plaintiff Immune to Venue Transfer

McDermott Will & Emery on

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

Knobbe Martens

Federal Circuit Review - September 2019

Knobbe Martens on

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

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC

Latest Federal Court Cases - August 2019 #2

PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - Genetic Veterinary Sciences, Inc. v. LABOKLIN GMBH & Co. KG, Appeal No. 2018-2056 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 9, 2019) - Our case of the week features a foreign University sued for declaratory judgment...more

Knobbe Martens

Jurisdiction over Foreign Entities and Foreign Sovereigns

Knobbe Martens on

GENETIC VETERINARY SCIENCES v. LABOKLIN GMBH & CO. KG - Before Wallach, Hughes, and Stoll. Appeal from the Eastern District of Virginia. Summary: (1) If a foreign entity is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s...more

Jones Day

States Cannot Claim Sovereign Immunity to Shield Their Patents From IPR

Jones Day on

In a precedential decision, issued June 14, 2019, the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s ruling against the University of Minnesota, declining to dismiss petitions for inter partes review (“IPR”). The court rejected the...more

Mintz - Intellectual Property Viewpoints

Federal Circuit Closes Another AIA Loophole

The Federal Circuit recently ruled that state sovereign immunity does not apply in Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings, closing another America Invents Act (AIA) loophole. The case, Regents of the University of Minnesota v....more

McCarter & English, LLP

Sovereign Immunity Does Not Shield State-Owned Patents From Inter Partes Review

States and their agencies, particularly state universities, are often parties to patent infringement litigation in federal courts. An increasingly common defense to infringement allegations is to ask the Patent Office to...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

State Sovereignty 101: State Universities Not Immune to IPR Proceedings

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School may be out for the summer, but public colleges and universities would do well to spend their break shoring up strategies and defenses against potential inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings. Last week the Federal...more

Knobbe Martens

Federal Circuit Review - March 2019

Knobbe Martens on

Federal Circuit Determines Time-Barred Petitioner Joined to an IPR Has Appellate Standing - In Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Research Corporation Tech., Appeal Nos. 2017-2088, -2089, -2091, the Federal Circuit held that a...more

Knobbe Martens

PTAB Finds that Suing in Federal Court Waives Sovereign Immunity

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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

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP

State University's Filing Of Patent Infringement Action Waives Sovereign Immunity To IPR Proceedings

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

Morrison & Foerster LLP

PTAB Deals A Crippling Blow To Sovereign Immunity

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

Jones Day

PTAB Recognizes Limits to Eleventh Amendment Sovereign Immunity

Jones Day on

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

Mintz - Intellectual Property Viewpoints

Assertion of Patents Results in Loss of Sovereign Immunity for Public Universities

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

Goodwin

Issue Ten: PTAB Trial Tracker

Goodwin on

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

Goodwin

PTAB Finds Sovereign Immunity in IPR Waived by Filing Infringement Action in Federal Court

Goodwin on

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

Jones Day

Eleventh Amendment Revisited – Board Again Finds Sovereign Immunity Applies to PTAB

Jones Day on

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

Hogan Lovells

Sovereign immunity shields university from inventorship dispute

Hogan Lovells on

In a case involving medical methods invented by two Nobel laureates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that sovereign immunity prevents a third researcher from pursuing his claim of co-inventorship...more

Knobbe Martens

Ericsson Tests Scope of the PTAB’s Sovereign Immunity Holding

Knobbe Martens on

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

Womble Bond Dickinson

State Universities May Use Sovereign Immunity Defense in IPRs

Womble Bond Dickinson on

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

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