Mealey's Patents
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March 21, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Company Failed To Show Invalidity Of Lighting Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was correct to find that a petitioner lighting company failed to establish obviousness as to a claim in a patent for a recessed lighting system, holding that the company’s arguments are based in part on an attempt to raise new unpatentability grounds on appeal.
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March 20, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Review Of ITC’s Sanction Denial In Dropped Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a brief precedential opinion that it could not review a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) refusing to enter a show cause order sua sponte on sanctions in a lawsuit over the importing of allegedly infringing semiconductor parts that was eventually dropped by the plaintiff company.
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March 19, 2025
Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”
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March 19, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 19, 2025
PTAB’s Rejection Of Alternate Claims In Fracking Patent Row Affirmed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed findings of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that proposed alternate claims in two patents related to fracking were unpatentable as indefinite.
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March 18, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 14, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Judge’s Acceptance Of Patent Reissuance For Medication
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 13 held that a biopharmaceutical patent holder was entitled to a patent term extension (PTE) for a reissued patent, disagreeing with arguments from generic drug manufacturers about how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) calculated the date for patent reissuance.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid In E-Cig Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected requests for rehearing from electronic cigarette entity R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR), leaving in place a partially split panel’s affirmation of a jury’s award of more than $95 million against the company for infringing on another company’s pod-based tobacco vapor technology.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Didn’t Consider All Evidence In Metal Flake Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to consider the full evidence on the record during postgrant review proceedings in a dispute related to a type of metal flakes used in manufacturing; the panel vacated the board’s finding that the appellant failed to show that any of the challenged patent claims were unpatentable.
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March 12, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Wearable Tech Patents, Moots ITC Proceedings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a wearable technology patent holder’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) violated its discovery obligations before holding that all challenged claims in the company’s patents were invalid during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Apple Inc., affirming the invalidity finding.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit OKs Rejection Of ImmunoGen’s Cancer Patent Application
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s finding that a pharmaceutical company’s patent application for a treatment for ovarian and other cancers contains “‘fatally indefinite and obvious’” claims, nearly three years after the Federal Circuit vacated the judge’s grant of summary judgment against the company.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit: Patent Applicant’s Constitutional Argument Comes Too Late
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s grant of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) motion to dismiss a tech company’s complaint seeking review of the rejection of its patent application, holding that the company forfeited its arguments based on the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
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March 07, 2025
Photo Uploading Patent Holder Tells High Court Recusal Necessary
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel was wrong to uphold a federal judge’s denial of a patent owner’s recusal motion in an infringement dispute with Fitbit LLC and multiple other entities, the patent owner tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari; the patent owner argues that the judge and her spouse’s alleged economic connections to Google LLC, a party to the suit, make recusal necessary.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit Rules Again On IPR Proceedings Between USAA, PNC
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Once again, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that all claims of a patent owned by the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) related to remote depositing of checks were unpatentable as obvious.
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March 06, 2025
Federal Circuit Vacates Part Of ITC Ruling On False Lash Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 5 agreed with a beauty company that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) incorrectly applied a test from the Tariff Act when considering whether artificial eyelash products imported into the country infringed on the company’s patents; the panel vacated the ITC’s denial of the company’s requested relief.
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March 06, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Another Injunction In Biosimilar Patent Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the third time this year, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 5 affirmed a West Virginia federal judge’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against a biosimilar manufacturer that barred it from marketing products that were biosimilars to an eye medication patented by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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March 06, 2025
Dismissal Granted In Patent Infringement Case Absent Web-Based Jurisdiction
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 5 granted a defendant’s dismissal motion in a patent infringement case regarding a patent for a retractable water bottle, finding that the patent holder failed to establish personal jurisdiction over the defendant because the defendant’s maintaining an online marketplace that Illinois consumers can access does not suffice to establish jurisdiction.
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March 05, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Mixed IPR Findings On Gesture-Related Tech Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In two opinions, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 4 affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which held that most challenged claims in a company’s patent related to gesture-related inputs from users are invalid as obvious.
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March 05, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Rehearing After Inhaler Patent Delisting Affirmation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a rehearing petition from Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D Inc. and related entities, leaving in place a panel’s December opinion affirming a New Jersey federal judge’s order granting delisting counterclaims in a patent dispute stemming from a new drug application (NDA) for ProAir HFA (albuterol sulfate) Inhalation Aerosol.
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March 05, 2025
Stem Cell Company Failed To Show Patent Invalid, Federal Circuit Agrees
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 4 affirmed a decision from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), agreeing that an appellant stem cell research company failed to show that a respondent competitor’s patent was invalid as obvious or anticipated by prior art references; the panel held that the PTAB did not err in its construction of multiple claim phrases.
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March 04, 2025
High Court Won’t Hear Arguments From Google Accuser On Patent Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from a tech company that a partly split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in affirming a federal judge’s summary judgments against the company and in favor of Google LLC, which it accused of infringing on seven of its patents.
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March 03, 2025
Federal Circuit: Judge Must Recalculate Prejudgment Interest In Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 28 said a Nevada federal judge did not err in denying a plaintiff company its request for enhanced damages or a new trial on damages in a long-running patent infringement case now before the Federal Circuit for the fifth time.
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February 28, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms IPR Finding In Netflix’s Favor On Streaming Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 27 rejected an appellant’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to rule in favor of Netflix Inc; according to the panel, there was no error in the board’s analysis of the claims in the appellant’s patent that led it to find that all challenged claims in the patent are invalid as obvious.
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February 27, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Reverse Discovery Order In Memory Chip Patent Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal judge did not err when ordering a defendant-appellant technology company to turn over 73 pages of source code to plaintiff-respondent entities in a patent infringement dispute over flash memory chips, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Feb. 26, denying a petition for a writ of mandamus.
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February 27, 2025
Patent Holder Tells High Court Federal Circuit Wrongly Held Appeals Were Mooted
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The assignee of patents related to wireless earphones tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its petition for a writ of certiorari 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.