When a patent application is allowed, the claims may not precisely cover everything that the applicant wants to protect. Rather than add new claims after a notice of allowance and prolong prosecution, applicants will commonly file one or more continuation applications to pursue different claims. The continuation has substantially the same specification and drawings as … Continue Reading
The Federal Circuit recently handed down an informative decision in American National v. Sleep Number Corporation affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s final decisions in two inter partes reviews finding some claims patentable and some claims not patentable. The claims at issue related to the systems and methods for adjusting pressure in an air … Continue Reading
Squire Patton’s own Steve Auvil has been elected president of the newly-created Kathleen M. O’Malley Inn of Court. The Inn was chartered in Northeast Ohio to promote civility, ethics, professionalism and mentorship within the local IP bar. It is named after the Honorable Kathleen M. O’Malley, who started her judicial career as a judge on … Continue Reading
As discussed in a prior blog post here, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) designated a recent decision on secondary considerations as precedential.[1] At the same time, the PTAB designated two older decisions as informative. While the precedential decision of Lectrosonics focused largely on the nexus requirement … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court recognized long ago that a patentee can overcome a prima facie showing of obviousness by presenting objective evidence of non-obviousness, referred to as secondary considerations.[1] To do so, however, the patentee must establish a nexus between the challenged claims and the objective evidence. In a newly designated precedential decision, Lectrosonics, Inc. v. … Continue Reading
On Friday, March 13, in response to the coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) outbreak, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced that “Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) oral hearings, and other similar in-person meetings with parties and stakeholders scheduled to take place at USPTO offices on or … Continue Reading
