Patents

by Dennis Crouch The traditional rule of assignor estoppel prevents prior owners of a patent from later challenging the validity of the patent.  The doctrine stems from old property law cases and is based upon the idea is that the assignor “should not be permitted to sell something and later ... Read More

George BasharisThe assignor of a patented network security logging device that “broadcast” network security threats was not estopped from initiating an inter partes review of the patent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has determined. However, the court also ruled that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, ... Read More

The resurrection of the ‘814 patent claims was of great importance to Fitness Anywhere because it covered a modification to the company’s fitness equipment that helped it achieve great success in the marketplace. The invention essentially consisted of taking a handle accessory that was attachable to the fitness equipment via ... Read More

Kluwer Patent bloggerThe European Patent Office and representatives of 14 German law firms who had expressed concerns about EPO patent quality earlier this year in a letter, have started a “constructive dialogue”. The representatives had a meeting with the new President of the European Patent Office, António Campinos, and other ... Read More

Roland SchierenThis decision by the FCJ confirms that when both parties declare the lawsuit resolved, only the allocation of costs has to be decided upon by the court. This must be done according to the court’s equitable discretion, giving consideration to the parties’ previous arguments. On the facts, the FCJ ... Read More

In Yeda Research & Development Co., v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Federal Circuit affirmed the decisions of the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding three Copaxone patents invalid as obvious in parallel Inter Partes review (IPR) proceedings. The companion decision pertaining to related district court litigation caught my attention for its use of ... Read More

By Donald Zuhn –- In a Notification published in the Federal Register earlier this month (83 Fed. Reg. 55102), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the implementation of an interim procedure for patentees to request recalculation of Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) determinations for alleged errors due to the Office's ... Read More

At the beginning of this decade the United States Supreme Court embarked on a path that would ultimately result in a significant re-writing of the law of patent eligibility in America. While this Supreme Court first became intrigued with patent eligibility in Bilski v. Kappos in 2010, it wasn’t until Mayo ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch LG Electronics v. Iancu (Fed. Cir. 2018) [ORDER] In a R.36 Affirmance, the Federal Circuit upheld the PTAB obviousness judgment. The USPTO promptly filed a request for a bill of costs for $387.60.  The Federal Circuit has now rejected that request since the PTO was an intervenor, not ... Read More

Royalties owed by iPhone giant said to top $7 billion mark and Northern District of California court deals blow in ongoing litigation with FTC. "It's been an extraordinary year," says CEO Mollenkopf ... Read More

University of California’s situation after court setback in fight with Broad Institute highlights the dangers of pursuing interference proceedings, says leading commentator ... Read More

Miquel MontañáOver the last decade, one of the topics typically discussed in patent proceedings in Spain has been to what extent the validity of the patent may be analysed in preliminary injunction proceedings. In the mid-2000s, the Judges in charge of the Commercial Courts at the time, with jurisdiction to ... Read More

Faraday Future says its biggest backer, a Chinese property developer, is deliberately driving it into bankruptcy in order to acquire collateralised intellectual property in a ‘fire sale’. ... Read More

AIA Post-grant Reviews Not Precluded by Assignor Estoppel By Kevin E. Noonan -- On Friday, the Federal Circuit handed down its decision in Arista Networks, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., deciding that the Board had erred in certain of its determinations regarding Arista's inter partes review challenge to certain claims ... Read More

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will be offering the next webinar in its Patent Quality Chat webinar series from 12:00 to 1:00 pm (ET) on November 13, 2018. In the latest webinar, entitled "eMod Update: Accessing EFS-Web and PAIR with USPTO.gov Accounts," Lisa Tran, Communications Manager for eCommerce, and ... Read More

Strafford will be offering a webinar entitled "Navigating the Chinese Patent System: What U.S. Patent Counsel Need to Know -- Protecting IP Rights in China, Leveraging Recent Amendments, Understanding Current Litigation Trends and More" on November 13, 2018 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm (EST). Rui Luo of Han Kun Law ... Read More

The Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) AIA Trials Committee and John Marshall Law School will be offering an "AIA Trials Seminar" on November 14, 2018 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm (CT) at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, IL. The seminar will consist of the following ... Read More

The Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA) Patent Litigation Committee will be offering a webcast entitled "Litigating § 101 Issues After Berkheimer" on November 14, 2018 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm (EST). Irene Yang of Sidley Austin LLP will moderate a panel consisting of Peter Menell, Koret Professor of Law, ... Read More

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), together with IAM, will host a patent law and policy conference from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm (EST) on November 13, 2018 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. The conference will address the impact ... Read More

“Indian patent statistics, Interesting inventions, IIT Madras to host Shaastra Summit, Qualcomm forced to license its patents to rivals, USPTO’s new Sponsorship Tool to give other members access to the Patent Electronic System, USPTO grants a patent to a composition containing Cannabis and other Weekly Patent News updates,” presented by ... Read More

REAL argued in its petition that step two of the Alice test used to determine invalidity under Section 101 requires questions of fact that were never asked by the lower court. To invalidate without asking those questions contradicts the Federal Circuit’s recent holdings in Berkheimer v. HP and Aatrix Software ... Read More

The appeal of the PCT process is that it enables patent applicants to file a single patent application and have that single, uniform patent application be treated as an initial application for patent in any Member Country.  This single, uniform patent application is what is referred to as the international ... Read More

Your essential Sunday reading: a summary of all the stories covered by the IAM team this week - as well as links to each one. ... Read More

We’re pleased to bring to you a guest post highlighting the discrepancies in this year’s Patent Agent Examination that was held last month on October 28. The post also raises a few fundamental and larger issues afflicting this exam. The author of this post wishes to remain anonymous. Our earlier ... Read More

In late September, the ITC's meanwhile-retired Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Thomas B. Pender recommended that the U.S. trade agency refrain from banning Intel-powered iPhones he deemed to infringe a Qualcomm patent, given Qualcomm's overtly anticompetitive litigation tactics of targeting only Intel-powered iPhones. In late October, a heavily-redacted version of his ... Read More

First Publication Date: 10th February 2010 In a decision delivered on February 8th, 2010, the Delhi High Court held that an applicant aggrieved by the rejection of his application by the Controller based on a pre-grant representation may file an appeal to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). The court ... Read More

This is a follow-up (as I promised) to Judge Lucy Koh's summary judgment order according to which Qualcomm must meet its self-imposed obligation to license its cellular standard-essential patents (SEPs) to rival chipset makers. On Tuesday I mostly wanted to publish the news quickly, and I focused on the commercial ... Read More

Havilland v. FX Networks LLC, Supreme Ct. Docket No. 18-453 Olivia de Havilland is a 102-year-old, two-time Academy Award winning best actress, who played Melanie Hamilton in the movie classic, “Gone with the Wind.” Of particular relevance here, she is also a woman who lives her life devoted to high moral ... Read More

For the innovators capitalizing on the legal growth, distribution, and commercial sale of cannabis, the procurement of intellectual property rights can go a long way in the monetization of their ideas, products, and services. As with any new venture, solidifying an IP protection strategy early on can maximize the benefits ... Read More

First Publication Date: 9th February 2010 Every now and then I come across this question, and most often it’s asked by individual inventors and start-ups. In most cases, when you invent something, the next logical step would be to raise funds and build a business around it. To raise funds ... Read More