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Mealey's Patents

  • September 12, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Reinstate Invalidity Finding In Cherry Plant Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a short Sept. 11 order, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by cherry-growing entities requesting that a Washington federal judge be directed to reinstate a previous finding of patent invalidity against the Canadian government department covering agriculture in a dispute over U.S. plant patents.

  • September 12, 2025

    High Court Requests Response To Cert Petition In Entresto Patent Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court requested a response from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to generic drugmakers’ petition for a writ of certiorari in response to the petitioners’ argument that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly considered after-arising technology in a dispute over the patent for heart medication Entresto.

  • September 11, 2025

    Clothing Maker Seeks Fees After Federal Circuit Reverses Infringement Verdict

    PHOENIX — After the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an Arizona federal jury’s more than $20 million award against a clothing maker in a design patent and trademark infringement dispute related to oversized sweatshirts, the company now tells the court that it is owed roughly $3.6 million in attorney fees and costs, arguing that the case was “exceptional.”

  • September 11, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 10 denied generic drugmakers’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel’s June opinion affirming a Delaware judge’s grant of summary judgment of no invalidity to a biopharmaceutical company that holds the patent for a medication used to treat hallucinations.

  • September 10, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Applicants’ Vitamin Claims Anticipated By Own Prior Applications

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) rejection of a patent application based on previous applications from the appellants for a vitamin C and betaine product; the panel also dismissed arguments about patent term adjustment and abandonment for lack of jurisdiction.

  • September 10, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Fees Owed To Chipmaker In Tossed Infringement Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have granted attorney fees to Realtek Semiconductor Corp. because it was the “prevailing party” after the judge converted a patent owner’s voluntary dismissal of a pair of infringement suits to a dismissal with prejudice, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 9.

  • September 09, 2025

    Federal Circuit Orders New Trial In Oil Refining Patent Infringement Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have approved Magēmā Technology LLC’s request for a new trial in a patent infringement suit it brought against Phillips 66 and related entities, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Sept. 8; the panel said it could not be certain if an improperly introduced theory from Phillips informed a jury’s verdict in its favor.

  • September 09, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Wrong To Skip Alice Analysis For Patent Application

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to fully consider the indefiniteness and abstractness of an inventor’s proposed patent describing a system for distributing content between online users, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in a nonprecedential judgment, vacating part of PTAB’s findings and reversing other aspects.

  • September 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Disturb Sanctions In Floor Tape Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the fourth consideration of a dispute over a patent describing a floor-marking tape product,a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 5 summarily affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s entry of sanctions against an inventor and his company, holding that the mandate rule applied because the appeals court explicitly affirmed the entry of sanctions in its March 2025 opinion related to the third appeal.

  • September 05, 2025

    Generic Med Amicus Echoes Calls For High Court Look At Entresto Patent Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief in support of MSN Pharmaceuticals and related entities (MSN) that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals created a situation where medicine patent holders “will see a new strategy they can employ to fashion overbroad claims to delay generic competition” while skirting patent law requirements “that protect the public’s interests in ensuring that patents do not let inventors control more than they invented.”

  • September 05, 2025

    Union Sues Over Elimination Of Patents Office Workers’ Collective Bargaining Rights

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An August executive order (EO) that expanded on a March EO and nullified the collective bargaining rights of additional agencies, including the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, was “retaliatory and not based on the statutory criteria” contained in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) argues in a complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.

  • September 03, 2025

    PTAB Wrongly Excluded Google’s Arguments In Database IPR, Federal Circuit Holds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred in claim construction and wrongly rejected Google LLC’s reply evidence in inter partes review proceedings Google brought against a technology company, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, vacating findings that Google failed to show some of the company’s patents’ claims to be invalid.

  • September 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Prosecution Laches For PTO’s Rejection Of Applications

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held on Aug. 29 that a District of Columbia federal judge did not err in finding that a prolific patent applicant’s applications were barred under the doctrine of prosecution laches, rejecting as forfeited the inventor’s argument that a 1992 decision by the Board of Patent Appeals and Inferences showed he had no reason to change his method of prosecuting the applications.

  • August 29, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Wrongly Applied Prosecution Laches In Speaker Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In mixed results for both parties, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 28 held that a California federal judge wrongly invalidated claims in some of a speaker company’s patents in a dispute with Google LLC and improperly applied prosecution laches, while also holding that the judge correctly invalidated claims in another one of the speaker company’s patents.

  • August 28, 2025

    Med Maker To High Court: Federal Circuit Created After-Arising Tech Loophole

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — MSN Pharmaceuticals and multiple related entities (MSN) tell the U.S. Supreme Court that it must step in to clarify the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ approach to the disclosure of “after-arising technology,” arguing that the appeals court split its own law regarding when it can be considered while ruling on a dispute over the validity of patents related to the heart medication drug Entresto.

  • August 28, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB Findings In First Look At Post-AIA Derivation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals considered for the first time a derivation proceeding that was filed pursuant to the 2011 Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), which allows “a first-inventor second-filer to pursue such a claim against a first-filer,” finding that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had substantial evidence to support its judgment in favor of a defendant-appellee in a dispute over the inventorship of an ointment for wound treatments.

  • August 28, 2025

    PNC Bank Tells High Court USAA Can’t Show IPR Finding Was Arbitrary

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Aug. 27 brief in opposition to United Services Automobile Association’s (USAA) petition for a writ of certiorari, PNC Bank NA says that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals did not err when it affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to invalidate USAA’s mobile banking patents, brushing aside USAA’s contention that PTAB arbitrarily rendered opposing decisions on its patents in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings sought by different IPR petitioners.

  • August 26, 2025

    Judge Finds No Violation Of Patent Injunction, Denies Contempt Motion

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on Aug. 25 denied a plaintiff manufacturer’s motion to hold a defendant manufacturer in contempt of a permanent injunction barring the defendant from further infringement of a patent related to bamboo decking, finding that the defendant’s new versions of its products are “colorably different” from the infringing versions.

  • August 26, 2025

    More Discovery Briefing Ordered In Human Serum Albumin Infringement Fight

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal magistrate in Kansas found that three related biopharmaceutical entities in a patent infringement dispute over the production of plant-derived recombinant human serum albumin (rHSA) must make supplemental responses to requests from another biopharmaceutical entity for certain discovery documents, holding that their objection to the motion to compel could not be squared with their claim to have supplied all responsive documents.

  • August 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies Mudflap Patent Owner’s Motion To Recall 2023 Mandate

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Aug. 25 that it would not explain its denial of a pro se patent owner’s motion to recall a mandate issued after a panel affirmed a Michigan federal judge’s finding that the man was not entitled to injunctive relief in a patent dispute over mud flaps for vehicles; the patent owner told the Federal Circuit that the affirmation was based on fraud on the court by the plaintiff company in the form of obfuscating details about the company’s ownership.

  • August 20, 2025

    COMMENTARY: A Survey Of State Laws Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding

    By Mark A. Behrens and Christopher E. Appel

  • August 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Error In ITC’s Infringement Finding In Robotics Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 22 affirmed findings of the International Trade Commission (ITC), holding that it saw no error in the ITC’s construction of claims when considering allegations that a robotics company infringed patents by manufacturing and importing robotic products.

  • August 22, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Contempt Denial For Tennis Association In Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A New York federal judge was correct to refuse to hold the United States Tennis Association Inc. (USTA) in contempt of a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a patent dispute involving let detection systems used at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 21.

  • August 22, 2025

    Judge: No Patent Infringement, Harm From False Claims In Chemical Row

    BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland found after a bench trial that plaintiff chemical makers failed to prove literal infringement on the part of W.R. Grace & Co.-Conn. because they did not show that each of Grace’s accused catalyst particles met the requirements of the asserted patent’s claims.

  • August 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit: 1993 Amphibious Vehicle Sale Invalidates Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Louisiana federal judge’s finding in an infringement dispute that all asserted claims of a patent describing an amphibious vehicle for dredging were unpatentable as anticipated.