Patents

by Dennis Crouch The United States government is not directly liable for patent infringement under the Patent Act. However, 28 U.S.C. 1498(a) represents a partial waiver of sovereign immunity — allowing patent owners to sue the US Government for its unlicensed use of a U.S. patent. 149a(a) Whenever an invention ... Read More

The sprawling dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, in which the two Califoirnia-based companies are slugging it out in a protracted, multinational dispute, took a new turn yesterday when the iPhone giant filed inter partes reviews (IPRs) against two of the chipmaker’s patents that have been asserted against it in district court. It ... Read More

By Dennis Crouch Today the USPTO issued U.S. Patent No. 10,000,000 covering a new form of LADAR invented by Joseph Marron and assigned to Raytheon. [patent10million]. The patent is the 10 millionth issued since the current numbering system was established in 1836. Although the count has been going for 182 ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch Patent attorney Aaron Feigelson named his occasional blog 12:01 Tuesday.  The inside-reference is directed to the USPTO’s standard practice for the past several decades “like clockwork, every Tuesday after midnight” the USPTO issues a new set of patents.  These are released to the USPTO web servers and rapidly ... Read More

This article examines Supreme Court and Federal Circuit analyses of patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 where the patent claims at issue were directed to Life Sciences-related technologies. I first examine this topic in the context of composition of matter patent claims and then in the context of method ... Read More

Longhorn IP, the Texas-based NPE, has launched its fifth portfolio, a collection of semiconductor patents originally owned by Sharp. The licensing company, run by Khaled Fekih-Romdhane and Chris Dubuc, is calling its new vehicle Katana Silicon Technologies LLC – a name hinting at the Japanese source of the patents, which ... Read More

As we noted in this article on PTAB Trial Insights, Senator Hatch (R-UT) has introduced the Hatch-Waxman Integrity Act, which is intended to restore the brand-generic balance many say has been skewed by Inter Partes Review and Post Grant Review proceedings. While the proposed legislation has been summarized as ... Read More

Patentee Equitably Estopped from Asserting Patent Due to 10-Year Delay in Filing Suit By Donald Zuhn -- Earlier this year, in Akeso Health Sciences, LLC v. Designs for Health, Inc., District Judge S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted a motion for ... Read More

Miquel MontañáIn July 2017, the Patents Court of Barcelona handed down a decision finding that “Swiss-type” claims were affected by the Reservation made by Spain when it ratified the European Patent Convention (“EPC”), whereby European patents, insofar as they confer protection on chemical or pharmaceutical products “as such“, shall be ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch In the pending case of Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., et al., No. 17-1229 (Supreme Court 2018), the petitioner has asked the Supreme Court to offer its statement on whether Congress altered the “on sale bar” to now apply only to non-confidential sales or ... Read More

A couple of recent infringement suits involving long-established car manufacturers have shown once again that patent assertion remains a looming threat in an auto industry that is undergoing some very significant changes.  Late last week Jaguar Land Rover brought a case against Bentley Motors accusing the luxury carmaker of infringing ... Read More

by Dennis Crouch PGS Geophysical AS v. Iancu, Appeal No. 16-2470 (Fed. Cir. June 7, 2018) (PGS I) (precedential)PGS Geophysical AS v. Iancu, Appeal No. 17-1582 (Fed. Cir. June 18, 2018) (PGS II) (non-precedential) Our timeline for theses appeals probably began with WesternGeco’s infringement lawsuit against its Norwegian competitor PGS. ... Read More

On June 7, 2018, the USPTO issued new guidance to its examining corps in the form of a memorandum discussing the Federal Circuit’s April 13, 2018 decision in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, 887 F.3d 1117 (Fed. Circ. 2018). The memo indicates that it is intended to “addresses the ... Read More

It has been five years since FTC v. Actavis. In that landmark ruling, the Supreme Court held that settlements by which brand-name drug companies pay generics to settle patent litigation and delay entering the market could have “significant anticompetitive effects” and violate the antitrust laws. What has happened in these ... Read More

SafeBreach recently announced the issuance of three U.S. patents in the field of breach and attack simulation. This news follows weeks after SafeBreach closed a $15 million series B round of funding involving backing from major payment solutions firm PayPal. The post SafeBreach Announces Issuance of Breach and Attack Simulation ... Read More

“Interesting Patents, Eye patents, Medical patents, Backpack for visually impaired user, Samsung fined for infringing KAST’s patent, US ITC tightens the noose on iPhones, Is Patent search really necessary?, Patent Tip of the week and other Weekly Patent News,” presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s ... Read More

Last Friday, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas ordered Samsung Electronics to pay $400 million to the IP licensing arm of South Korea’s top technology university. KAIST IP US LLC, an affiliate of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, saw its patent survive multiple IPRs and ... Read More

By Bryan Helwig -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases, and a few interesting cases will be selected for periodic monitoring. Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC v. Eurohealth International Sarl 1-18-cv-00835; filed June 1, 2018 in the District Court of Delaware ... Read More

June 19, 2018 - "Protecting Software as a Medical Device: Patents, Design Patents and Trade Secrets" (Strafford) - 1:00 to 2:30 pm (EDT) June 19, 2018 - "The Influence of PTAB Proceedings on Bio/Pharma Patents" (Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization) - Lake Forest, IL June 21, 2018 - "Double Patenting: Defeating ... Read More

Senator Orrin Hatch has been a central figure in essentially all patent legislation over the past 40 years (he joined the Senate in 1977).  As he nears retirement (Jan 2019), Hatch has proposed one additional change — an amendment to provide pharma with some protection from Inter Partes Review challenges ... Read More

In its litigation with Samsung, Huawei has been a bit hapless so far. At least it's fair to say that the chronology of events hasn't really featured the Chinese tech giant:By filing its case against Samsung in the Northern District of California technically on the calendar day (though it may ... Read More

What was the federal government thinking when Hatch-Waxman originally passed. Why would Congress incentivize generic manufacturers to challenge the patents of pharmaceutical companies? It is the same insidious thought process underlying Hatch-Waxman seen underlying the justification for post grant challenges of all patents at the USPTO. How absurd is it ... Read More

On Thursday, June 7th, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced that it was instituting a Section 337 patent infringement investigation of automobile infotainment systems being imported into the U.S. based on infringement claims asserted by major semiconductor maker Broadcom. Broadcom is alleging that a group of Japanese automakers and ... Read More

The Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (iBIO) will be hosting a CLE breakfast on "The Influence of PTAB Proceedings on Bio/Pharma Patents" on June 19, 2018 at Horizon Pharma Inc. in Lake Forest, IL. Paula S. Fritsch and Alison J. Baldwin of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP will discuss the ... Read More

Strafford will be offering a webinar entitled "Post-Sale Restrictions: Protecting Patented Products After Lexmark" on July 5, 2018 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm (EDT). Andrew Dolak of O'Melveny & Myers, and Audra C. Eidem Heinze and Timothy C. Meece of Banner & Witcoff will review the Supreme Court's Lexmark decision ... Read More

The Knowledge Group will offer a webcast entitled "Patent Portfolio Management: Best Practices in 2018" on June 28, 2018 from 12:00 to 1:30 pm (ET). Van Thompson of TechInsights, Peter A. Nieves of Sheehan Phinney, and Christopher Daley-Watson Partner of Perkins Coie LLP will address the following topics: • Patent ... Read More

Recent Headlines in the IP World: Jonah Comstock: Apple Files Patent Application for Blood Pressure Monitoring Device (Source: Healthcare IT News) Source: Healthcare IT News Richard Lloyd: IP Index Showing Decline in the US Patent System Lacks Credibility, Claims Unified COO (Source: iam) Rachel Siegel: Uber Wants a Patent to Tell if ... Read More

New research has revealed that IBM owns the largest portfolio of cybersecurity patents, with a little over 2,500 families. Big Blue is closely followed by Microsoft and Samsung; while Canon, Intel and Google also feature prominently among the largest players in the space, the full list of which contains many of the ... Read More

By Dennis Crouch Xitronix Corp. v. KLA-Tencor Corp. (Fed. Cir. 2018) When Xitronix sued KLA-Tencor, it raised only one cause of action – “a Walker Process monopolization claim under § 2 of the Sherman Act and §§ 4 and 6 of the Clayton Act based on the alleged fraudulent prosecution ... Read More

Research into the increase in patent suits in the District of Delaware following TC Heartland has found that the venue shift is likely to result in less litigation from patent assertion entities (PAEs), while also revealing that firms incorporated in Delaware have been impacted by the changes resulting from the ... Read More