A recent Federal Circuit decision, Allgenesis Biotherapeutics Inc. v. Cloudbreak Therapeutics, LLC, provides some interesting insights into patent challenge strategies, and their consequences, when a potentially infringing product is not yet on the market. Allgenesis, which has been developing a pterygium treatment product using nintedanib, filed an inter partes review (IPR) petition to try to … Continue Reading
The Federal Circuit recently issued a decision with important ramifications on how petitions for cancellation due to fraud will be handled by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) going forward. In Great Concepts LLC v. Chutter, Inc., the Court, with a 2-1 majority, found that the Board wrongly cancelled the registration of a trademark … Continue Reading
The Federal Circuit has refused to uphold the dismissal of a complaint alleging that the Director of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) improperly issued instructions to PTAB judges regarding whether to institute requested patent review proceedings. The complaint alleges that the so-called Fintiv factors – initially set forth in two opinions designated by the … 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
On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, the White House announced President Biden’s nomination of Judge Leonard P. Stark (U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. If approved, Judge Stark will succeed Judge Kathleen M. O’Malley, who recently announced that she will retire in March 2022.… Continue Reading
The Federal Circuit’s recent opinion in Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. v Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Inc. et al. reminds us that new trial motions are hard to win, even when the adversary violates a pretrial motion in limine (MIL) order. Rather, the district court judge’s curative instructions and procedures to avoid future violations of a … Continue Reading
The Appellants in HZNP Medicines v. Actavis Laboratories saw their hopes for rehearing dashed on February 25, 2020, when the Federal Circuit issued an order denying their petitions for panel rehearing and en banc rehearing. The decision leaves intact an order finding that claims reciting “consisting essentially of” could be found indefinite based on ambiguities … Continue Reading
In Valeant Pharmaceuticals Int’l, Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 2018-2097 (Fed. Cir. April 8, 2020), the Federal Circuit was asked “whether prior art ranges for solutions of structurally and functionally similar compounds that overlap with a claimed range can establish a prima facie case of obviousness.” Concluding that they can, the Federal Circuit reversed … Continue Reading
The Federal Circuit sent Google an early valentine on February 13, 2020, when it granted the petition for mandamus in In re Google, Case No. 19-126, directing that the Eastern District of Texas either dismiss Super Interconnect Technologies LLC’s (“SIT”) infringement action or transfer it under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a). The court’s precedential opinion held that … Continue Reading
Ordinary meaning can limit features in claims to the features’ purpose and principal use, according to the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Asetek Danmark A/S v. CMI USA Inc., No. 16-1026 (Fed. Cir. 2016). The patents-in-suit are directed to systems and methods for cooling the “central processing unit (CPU) or other processing unit of a … Continue Reading
This past summer, a divided Federal Circuit panel found, in the case of Amgen v. Sandoz, that the so-called “patent dance” under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA) is optional. This past Friday, the Federal Circuit declined to rehear that decision. Its decision provides biosimilar developers with continued choice while opening … Continue Reading
In its fourth decision in the ten-year litigation between Akamai and Limelight, the Federal Circuit again addresses the issue of so-called divided infringement, this time providing guidance on the requirement that only a “single party” can directly infringe. This case had its most momentous turning point last summer, in June 2014, when the Supreme Court … Continue Reading
