Patents

by Dennis Crouch My prior post on DuPont v. Synvina focused on the obviousness of a claimed range in the context of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.  The decision also raises a question of standing — whether the patent challenger DuPont had standing to appeal the IPR decision favoring the patentee Synvina. E.I. ... Read More

This is my second post on the Qualcomm v. Apple patent infringement trial held by the Mannheim Regional Court yesterday. In the previous post I reported on the alleged (non-)infringement and (in)validity of the patent-in-suit, EP2460270 on a "switch with improved biasing". While the case is too close to call, ... Read More

With the next Supreme Court term beginning in a few weeks we all need to come to terms with the fact that the U.S. has a compulsory licensing system, which is truly ironic. Trade missions, trade representatives, and governmental organizations travel the world preaching about the importance of a strong ... Read More

Yesterday's Qualcomm v. Apple trial took twice as long as the average Mannheim patent trial. In fact, the ventilation system was switched off in the late afternoon, so for the last hour, two doors had to be kept open. The courtrooms at the Mannheim Regional Court, Europe's leading venue for ... Read More

By John E. Conour -- Even with billions of dollars of funding and the cumulative knowledge and experience of over a hundred years of experimental pharmacology, de novo discovery of effective and safe therapeutics remains a costly and risky endeavor. The number of unsuccessful attempts to obtain Food and Drug ... Read More

Joseph ArshawskyA catalog published at a trade conference by one of the inventors of U.S. Patent 8,714,977 (the “’977 patent) was publicly accessible to the dental industry in March 2003, and therefore was prior art, with properly corroborated evidence, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled ... Read More

Thorsten BauschA recent study by two eminent scholars from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (MPI) on „The Impact of Brexit on Unitary Patent Protection and its Court“, which is available here, casts significant doubts whether it will be possible for the United Kingdom to stay in the ... Read More

Four years later, the patent landscape demonstrates that Alice has become a train wreck for innovation... Unfortunately, the Federal Circuit failed to rein in this rout of Machiavellian creativity, which it could have done by relying on well-settled procedural process and patent doctrines... This year, the Federal Circuit appears finally ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch The White House is following through with its promise of adding a 10% tariff to $200 billion in goods imported into the US from China — set to begin on September 24, 2018.  On January 1, 2018, the tariffs are set to be raised to 25% on ... Read More

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1041751173034848260 Americans deserve to know the lowest drug price at their pharmacy, but “gag clauses” prevent your pharmacist from telling you! I support legislation that will remove gag clauses and urge the Senate to act. #AmericanPatientsFirst — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2018 ... Read More

As Jaime Siegel, OIN’s Global Director of Licensing, notes, OIN is able to grant free membership to companies joining the consortium thanks to the efforts of eight full-funding member companies which have each funded $20 million to support OIN’s operations through an endowment. These companies include the first six companies ... Read More

Morality is regularly cited as a ground of objection by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) while examining applications involving sexual inventions relating to aids, devices and stimulants. To understand if any of the patent applications managed to overcome the said objections and proceed to grant, we reviewed patent applications in ... Read More

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published its annual World Intellectual Property Indicators. For the second consecutive year, the number of design applications filed worldwide continued to grow, with an estimated 963,100 applications filed in total globally. The 2016 growth rate was 10.4%, following 2015’s more modest growth rate ... Read More

Jochen BuehlingThis case concerns the question of whether, and under what conditions, a supplier of infringing products who is located abroad can be held liable for infringement of the German patent for acts committed abroad. The FCJ held that the supplier may be liable if he was aware or should ... Read More

In E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. v. Synvina C.V., the Federal Circuit reversed the decision of the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that had upheld Synvina’s chemical process patent against an obviousness challenge brought in an Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceeding. In so doing, the court ... Read More

By Kevin E. Noonan -- The orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, is an important denizen of many reef systems (and, thanks to Disney, Pixar, and Ellen Degeneris, one of the most famous fishes since the Billy Bass). One of thirty species of anemonefishes in the family of damselfishes, the orange clownfish ... Read More

It's a busy September on the FRAND front...As I reported on the first of the month, the Federal Trade Commission brought a motion for partial summary judgment that may open up the wireless chipset market--by reminding Qualcomm of its self-imposed obligation to license rival chipset makers--even prior to the big ... Read More

This morning, opening statements were delivered at the start of the evidentiary hearing in the investigation of Qualcomm's second ITC complaint (request for U.S. import ban). The complaint was filed last December. An earlier complaint by Qualcomm against Apple is at a more advanced procedural stage: a final initial determination ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch The new DuPont v. Synvina decision is important for its specific application obviousness of claim ranges.  It also creates some amount of tension with prior cases — particularly Dynamic Drinkware and Magnum Oil – regarding burden shifting within Inter Partes Review proceedings. E.I. DuPont de Nemours v. Synvina ... Read More

It is irresponsible for adults to give children who fail to complete their work credit based on the excuse that the children could have, should have, would have completed their assignments. It is much more inequitable for the U.S Patent Office to deprive inventors of the credit they deserve (in ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch S. 3416 An Act to amend the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act to extend the period during which the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office may set or adjust certain fees. Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, ... Read More

Recent Headlines in the IP World: Andrew Joseph: Richard Sackler Granted Patent for Addiction Treatment (Source: Business Insider) Ciara Linnane: Bausch Health Stock Soars 8.6% Premarket on News of Patent Settlement (Source: Market Watch) Matt Day and Benjamin Romano: Amazon Has Patented a System That Would Put Workers in a Cage, on ... Read More

Roberta Romano-Götsch: "Imagine for example that in future you can have a truck where the driver does the difficult task of getting the truck outside the city, to the highway where the artificial intelligence takes over, and then you will have an autonomously driven truck that goes across the countryside to ... Read More

Huawei's lawyers have beaten my expectations with their reply brief in the Ninth Circuit antisuit (anti-enforcement) injunction appeal pending before the Federal Circuit. Reply briefs are often largely repetitive reinforcements of points previously stressed, and in this case it's practically already the second appeal as Huawei had (unsuccessfully) asked Judge ... Read More

With a view to a Qualcomm v. Apple patent infringement trial in Munich on Thursday I contacted the Munich I Regional Court to check on the time. As for the biggest issue in that case, may I refer you to my recent post on how thin air can "practice" claim limitations ... Read More

“Patent Prosecution strategy, Interesting Designs, Patent Agent Examination – 2018 Registration extension, Certificate Course on “Patent Law Practices in the United States, India and China” by GNLU, Ericsson demands arbitration in HTC dispute, Amazon’s ‘cage for workers’ patent faces severe criticism, ARIPO to launch Free Regional Intellectual Property Database and ... Read More

By Kevin E. Noonan -- The varying appellate fortunes of patentees regarding the question of obviousness is illustrated nicely in the Federal Circuit decision in Orexo AB v. Actavis Elizabeth LLC handed down earlier this month. The statute, 35 U.S.C. § 103, was intended to tether the question of obviousness ... Read More

By Joseph Herndon -- Zheng Cai DBA Tai Chi Green Tea Inc. appealed an opinion of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) cancelling registration of his mark "WU DANG TAI CHI GREEN TEA" due to a likelihood of confusion with Diamond Hong, Inc.'s registered ... Read More

September 18, 2018 - "The Continued Influence of PTAB Proceedings on Bio/Pharma Patents" (McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP) - 10:00 am to 11:15 am (CT) September 18, 2018 - "3D Printing: Implications for Patents, Trademarks, Trade Secrets and Copyrights -- Challenges With Additive Manufacturing, Policing and Enforcement Strategies to ... Read More

Prof. Ned Snow (SC) has published several articles on the interplay between free speech and intellectual property rights. His most recent article is titled Denying Trademark for Scandalous Speech. I asked him to provide some comments on the Brunetti FUCT case. – DC by Prof. Ned Snow The arguments against ... Read More