Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Patents

  • May 09, 2025

    Email Patent Applicant Failed To Rebut Obviousness, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it affirmed an examiner’s rejection of a man’s application for a patent on an email annotation system, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 8, agreeing that the application’s claims were invalid as obvious.

  • May 09, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Drug Maker Lacked Standing To Challenge PTAB Validity Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of opinions, two Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panels ruled against Incyte Corp. and a related entity in patent disputes that involved Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. and the compound ruxolitinib, the appellate court reversed a New Jersey federal judge’s grant of preliminary injunction in Incyte’s favor and said the company lacked standing to challenge a finding from U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that it failed to show the invalidity of Sun’s patent.

  • May 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Appellants Could Face Sanctions In IP Fight For Faulty Briefing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys for two companies that appealed nearly $4 million in judgments against them in a decade-long intellectual property dispute over hookless shower curtains could face sanctions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a sua sponte order, if they cannot show how they have not repeatedly violated circuit rules by inappropriately separating arguments between the companies’ respective briefs.

  • May 08, 2025

    Ad Patent Holders Expanded Scope In Reissuance Bid, Federal Circuit Rules

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The scope of a web advertising patent claim broadened when the patent holders submitted a reissuance application, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, agreeing with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) sustaining of an examiner’s rejection.

  • May 07, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Alice Analysis Correct In Tax Patent Suit Dismissal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 6 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to dismiss a tax company’s patent infringement suit, agreeing with the judge that the company’s patent describing a method to determine an aircraft’s taxability status is directed at an abstract concept without adding anything.

  • May 07, 2025

    Medical Patent Injunction At Odds With Hatch-Waxman, Federal Circuit Finds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delaware federal judge abused discretion by ordering a defendant pharmaceutical company to perform no further experimentation on its medication for people with narcolepsy that a jury found infringed on a competitor’s product, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found May 6, holding that the finding is at odds with the “plain language and purposes of the Hatch-Waxman Act.”

  • May 06, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Right To Find Geolocation Patent Claims Too Abstract

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a per curiam opinion that it saw no error in a Virginia federal judge’s finding that multiple asserted claims in a mobile device location data patent claimed patent ineligible subject matter for focusing only on abstract ideas.

  • May 05, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Challenge to Federal Circuit Vacating $13.2M Patent Verdict

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in a May 5 order list rejected a software company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, refusing to hear arguments on whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to vacate a jury’s verdict of $13.2 million in damages.

  • May 05, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge To Patent Holder’s Failed Recusal Bid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari on May 5, declining to hear arguments from the company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a federal judge’s denial of a patent owner’s recusal motion in an infringement dispute with Fitbit LLC and multiple other entities; the Federal Circuit previously suggested that the recusal motion could have been “strategic.”

  • May 01, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees With Judge, PTAB That Payment Patents Invalid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 affirmed a Texas federal judge’s decision to toss a company’s patent infringement suits against PayPal Holdings Inc. and a similar decision by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a dispute with Apple Inc., agreeing that the company’s patents are invalid as indefinite.

  • April 29, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear AIA Arguments In Sweetener Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 declined to disturb a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) did not change longstanding precedent regarding the on-sale bar, denying a petition for a writ of certiorari from entities that sought to block the importing of an artificial sweetener that they said infringed on their patents into the United States.

  • April 28, 2025

    Both Supreme Court And District Court Deny Bids To Stay Patent Suit Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a California federal court blocked requests to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder on April 25; the federal magistrate judge presiding over the lower court case said the attorneys failed to show that their pending appeal before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a substantial likelihood of success.

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Epic Games Didn’t Show Error In PTAB Claim Construction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of popular video games like “Fortnite” cannot show that prior art rendered obvious another company’s patents related to user communications, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 24, affirming a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Again Misinterprets Applicant Admitted Prior Art Standard

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel sent a patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. back to the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with the panel finding that the PTAB again misinterpreted a provision in the Patent Act involving applicant admitted prior art (AAPA).

  • April 24, 2025

    Partly Split Federal Circuit Says PTAB Got Game Controller IPR Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) committed multiple errors when it held that the first claim of a video game controller patent was not invalid as obvious, a partially split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said on April 23; the panel said that PTAB ignored the Federal Circuit’s previous finding that the same claim was unpatentable in an earlier appeal.

  • April 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies ‘Urgent Requests’ To Consider Motion To Stay Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 23 per curiam order denied a pair of “urgent requests” for ruling on a motion to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder, saying the court would rule on the attorneys’ primary motion “in due course”; the order was issued a day after the attorneys filed a notice of application to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • April 23, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says Inventor’s Prior Application Anticipates New Application

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 22 affirmed a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that a design patent applicant’s submission was anticipated by her earlier utility application.

  • April 22, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Invalidity Challenge In Foreign Damages Patent Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decided April 21 that it would not hear arguments from the owner of a trading company that argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld an Illinois federal judge’s findings of patent invalidity.

  • April 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Machine Learning Patent Invalid As Obvious Per Alice Inquiry

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 18 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to dismiss a machine learning patent holder’s suit against Fox Corp. and affiliated entities, agreeing with the judge that the patents describe an abstract idea without any additional creation on the patent holder’s part; the panel said the case presented a matter of first impression.

  • April 21, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Federal Circuit Affirmation Of Patent Judgment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 rejected a patent licensing company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear arguments from the company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ignored a genuine dispute of facts in its case with Amazon companies.

  • April 21, 2025

    Xerox Mobile Device Data Patent Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Agrees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Xerox Corp. failed to overcome a finding of obviousness from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a series of appeals involving social media entities, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.

  • April 18, 2025

    Judge Tosses Infringement Claims But Not Inventorship Claim From AT&T Patent Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed patent infringement claims brought against two AT&T entities over their use of “twinning” technology that allows one phone number to apply to multiple devices, finding that the patent applies to an inappropriately abstract concept; however, the judge declined to dismiss the plaintiff company’s claim seeking correction of inventorship.

  • April 18, 2025

    Patent Holder Challenged Claim Construction It Sought, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent holding company forfeited its argument that a Washington federal judge erred in the construction of a claim phrase in a patent dispute over a network traffic manager patent by failing to bring up the construction argument earlier, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 17.

  • April 17, 2025

    Federal Circuit Doesn’t Revive IPR For Wireless Energy Transfer Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it held that that multiple claims in a company’s patent related to wireless power transfer were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said April 16, affirming the board’s findings over the objections of the patent holder.

  • April 16, 2025

    Judge Tosses Bone Device Patent Suit, Says Patents Not Properly Enabled

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware granted a motion for summary judgment by defendant medical device companies in a patent infringement case, agreeing that the plaintiff company’s patents on portions of an orthopedic medical device are invalid for lack of enablement.