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Mealey's Patents

April 16, 2025
Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid In LED Patent Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 15 rejected a patent holder’s petition for panel or en banc rehearing after a panel of judges in January held there was no error in the findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that claims of the company’s patent were invalid as obvious; the appeals court will not hear arguments from the company that the panel wrongly considered an “abandoned patent application” in affirming PTAB’s findings.
April 16, 2025
Federal Circuit: Skin Sterilizer Patent Anticipated By Prior Art; No PTAB Error

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patents covering a company’s skin disinfecting product were rightly held by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to be unpatentable as anticipated by prior art, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 15; the panel said that substantial evidence supported PTAB’s findings.
April 16, 2025
Applicants’ Similar Foreign Patent Makes Application Obvious, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected arguments from patent applicants who appealed the denial of their patent application related to fluid catalytic cracking; the panel said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rightly held the application to be invalid as obvious.
April 15, 2025
Groupon In Rehearing Bid: Federal Circuit Opinion Negates Purpose Of IPR Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for rehearing, Groupon Inc. says a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel erred when it held that a patent holder was not estopped from asserting infringement claims against Groupon in a Delaware federal court based on previous decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB); Groupon says the panel ignored precedent in the circuit.
April 11, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees SAP Can’t Transfer Patent Case To Other Federal Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 10 denied a software company’s petition for a writ of mandamus compelling the transfer of a patent suit from one division of a Texas federal district court to another division in the same district, holding that the company failed to show that a federal judge’s decision to deny the transfer motion was not “patently erroneous.”
April 11, 2025
Patent Holder To High Court: Federal Circuit Wrong To Scrap Its Jury Win

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A software company patent holder tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to vacate a jury’s verdict of $13.2 million in damages; the company says in its petition for certiorari that a Texas federal judge was right in the first place to deny judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of no direct infringement on the respondent company’s part.
April 10, 2025
Drug Patent Holder Disclaimed Infringement Argument, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s findings after a bench trial that a generic drug maker’s abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) did not infringe on a biopharmaceutical company’s patent related to a drinkable antibiotic treatment for a bacterial infection.
April 08, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Millions In Awards In Long-Running Trade Secret Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed a Texas federal judge’s entry of monetary damages and attorney fees in a long-running intellectual property dispute involving patents and trade secret claims related to smartphone light censor products; the panel remanded for further analysis on the matter of prejudgment interest, holding that the judge erred in that regard.
April 07, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Provisional Rights In Expired Patent Application Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed a patent applicant’s appeal of a decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to reject his application for a patent on a touch screen product; the panel said that the man’s “atypical case” essentially amounted to a request for the PTO to grant an application for a patent that had already expired.
April 02, 2025
COMMENTARY: CJEU Expands Cross-Border Patent Infringement Jurisdiction In BSH Hausgeräte v. Electrolux

By Tim Powell, Hiroshi Sheraton and Alexander Ritter
April 03, 2025
Web Patent Claim Error Leads To Summary Judgment Reversal, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware too narrowly construed a claim phrase regarding a “runtime engine” described in patents owned by web developer Express Mobile Inc. in a patent infringement dispute with GoDaddy.com LLC, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 2; the panel said the error made the reversal of a grant of summary judgment in GoDaddy’s favor necessary.
April 02, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB’s Construction Error Meant It Wrongly Found Validity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) should have gone further with a finding of invalidity for claims within patents related to interactive display screens, considering arguments connected to inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and an affiliated entity for the second time in recent weeks.
April 01, 2025
Federal Circuit Orders New Trial On Damages In Drum Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a Florida federal judge’s denial of a new trial on damages and remanded for a new trial on damages in a dispute between instrument makers over patents related to electronic drumheads and cymbals, but the panel left in place a jury’s findings of liability and infringement, along with the judge’s decision to exclude expert testimony.
April 01, 2025
Judge Right To Find Induced Infringement For Generic Drug, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a New Jersey federal judge was right to conclude after a bench trial that a biopharmaceutical company’s antipsychotic medication product would induce health care providers to infringe on another company’s patented injectable medication used to treat schizophrenia.
March 28, 2025
Federal Circuit: Costs Incurred In Hatch-Waxman Litigation Are Deductible

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims did not err when it held that a generic drugmaker could deduct costs it incurred while defending itself from patent claims under the Hatch-Waxman Act as ordinary business expenses, rejecting arguments made on appeal by the federal government.
March 28, 2025
Federal Circuit: Patent Holder’s Claims Against U.S. Precluded By Earlier Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the decision of a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissing patent infringement claims against the federal government; the panel agreed that a pro se plaintiff-appellant failed to show infringement of patents involving the detection of chemical and other hazards.
March 27, 2025
Federal Circuit: Meta Showed Obviousness Of Xerox Messaging Patent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rightly held that all challenged claims in a patent held by Xerox Corp. related to messaging are unpatentable as obvious, affirming the results of an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding brought by Meta Platforms Inc.
March 27, 2025
Invalidity Of Imaging Device Patents Affirmed By Federal Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it saw no error in a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that held all challenged claims in a series of patents related to medical imaging unpatentable, holding that the appellant patent holder failed to show that the board erred in construing relevant patent claims during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the board.
March 27, 2025
2nd Circuit: Judge Missed Confusion Analysis In Lego Figure Injunction Order

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 26 that it cannot determine whether a Connecticut federal judge was right to rule that a toy company’s redesigned figurines still ran afoul of a preliminary injunction previously ordered in an intellectual property dispute with Lego A/S and affiliated Lego entities (collectively, Lego).
March 26, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Patent, False Ad Claims In Tape Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s finding that a patent describing a floor-marking tape product was anticipated by a prior art reference and the judge’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of defendant entities on false advertising claims.
March 25, 2025
Supreme Court: No Certiorari In Dispute Over Amazon’s Patent Evaluation Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on March 24 a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a finding from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the initiation of an evaluation under the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) system — which triggers the potential removal of an allegedly infringing product listing from Amazon.com if a seller fails to respond — constitutes a purposeful direction of activities at the seller’s forum state sufficient to confer specific personal jurisdiction.
March 25, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Another Challenge To Federal Circuit’s Rule 36

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t consider whether a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals practice of affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in one-word affirmations violates a section of the Patent Act requiring the issuance of an opinion; the court on March 24 rejected a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari.
March 24, 2025
High Court Won’t Hear Patent Holder’s Challenge To Federal Circuit Rule 36

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning down the request to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong for applying a local rule that allows it to affirm holdings from federal judges and agencies in single-word rulings; as such, the high court left untouched a federal judge’s finding that defendant banking organizations did not infringe on the company’s patents.
March 24, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Estoppel Arguments In Earphone Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from the assignee of wireless earphone patents; the company had argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals inappropriately adopted “a novel and expansive rule of collateral estoppel” when it held that two appeals it brought were moot because it failed to appeal a federal trial court order holding that the patent claims at issue were invalid in a separate case.
March 21, 2025
Home Depot Showed LED Device Patent Claim Invalid, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to hold that Home Depot USA Inc. failed to show the invalidity of one of three challenged claims in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings over another company’s LED lighting device patent; the panel said substantial evidence did not support the board’s finding.