Mealey's Patents

  • March 27, 2024

    Patented Static Seizure Treatment Is Obvious, Petitioner Tells Board

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A patent owner maintains in a March 26 petition for inter partes review (IPR) that it was the first to disclose, via inherency, a daily dose of ganaxolone for the treatment of status eliepticus (SE), or static seizure, and not a competitor.

  • March 25, 2024

    In Dispute Over DNA Sequencing ‘Tag’ Technology, Appellants Seek Extension

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A molecular diagnostics company and its subsidiaries deemed liable by a jury for willfully infringing a patented method of preparing nucleic acids say they need more time to reply to a recent cross-appellant brief, in which the patent owners say there is “no support in the record” for the appellants’ “entire argument on appeal” that “a sequencing primer can only be a primer used to read out a sequence.”

  • March 25, 2024

    Patent Owner Tells Board Fintiv Factors All Support Denying Petition

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Citing the stage of its Texas federal infringement litigation against a petitioner for inter partes review, the owner of an anti-pestware patent on March 22 urged the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to pass on a newly filed invalidity challenge.

  • March 25, 2024

    Safe Harbor Ruling In Patent Row Affirmed On Appeal To Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 25 upheld findings by a California federal judge that an India-based medical device company is immunized from patent infringement liability for its importation of two transcatheter heart valve systems.

  • March 22, 2024

    On Remand From Federal Circuit, Board Reverses Course, Sides With Netflix

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 21 issued a new final written decision (FWD) that canceled eight claims of a patented method of decoding encrypted content, nearly one year after the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sent the case back to the agency.

  • March 22, 2024

    Panel: ‘Skill-Based’ Game Technology Correctly Deemed Patent-Ineligible

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent claim directed to an electronic game that is intended to lessen the likelihood of winning by chance and increase the likelihood of winning by skill was correctly deemed ineligible for patenting by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 21.

  • March 21, 2024

    Board ‘Stripped,’ ‘Ignored’ Key Limitation In Patent Claims, Owner Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pharmaceutical company is disputing findings by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or board) that its patented form of polymorphic fingolimod hydrochloride is anticipated by prior art, telling the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that along the way, the board “ignored” a key limitation which is “indisputably absent from the prior art.”

  • March 21, 2024

    Panel Preserves Win For Teleflex, Joins Board In Rejecting Patent Challenge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board committed no error in confirming as patentable various claims of a method for “using a coaxial guide catheter in interventional cardiology procedures” owned by Teleflex Life Sciences Ltd., the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 21.

  • March 21, 2024

    Decision To Set Aside Jury Award Of Royalties Upheld By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California correctly determined that a patent owner failed to establish the amount of a reasonable royalty, requiring vacatur of a jury’s damages award, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 20; however, in the same ruling, the panel said the judge must revisit the question of permanent injunctive relief.

  • March 20, 2024

    Samsung Seeks Joinder To Meta-Initiated IPR In ‘Understudy’ Role

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With the apparent blessing of Meta Platforms Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is seeking joinder to an inter partes review of a targeted advertising patent initiated by the social media giant, asserting that its petition contains “substantively identical” grounds and prior art and vowing to assume the role of an “understudy” that will step in only if Meta “ceases to participate.”

  • March 19, 2024

    Case Accusing Apple Of Infringing 6 Patents Will Stay In Texas

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denied a petition for writ of mandamus, which sought an order directing a Texas federal judge to transfer patent infringement claims leveled against Apple Inc. to the Northern District of California.

  • March 19, 2024

    SCOTUS Rejects Patent, Antitrust Claims By Pro Se Petitioner

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An inventor has failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his allegations that Qualcomm Inc. violated antitrust law by tying an infringing central processing unit (CPU) to wireless modems, with the high court on March 18 denying his petition for a writ of certiorari.

  • March 18, 2024

    Federal Circuit Won’t Stand In The Way Of Intel License Counterclaim

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bid by VLSI Technology LLC for reversal of a California federal judge’s decision to allow Intel Corp. to amend its pleadings in a protracted patent battle between the parties has failed, with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denying VLSI’s petition for a writ of mandamus.

  • March 15, 2024

    Inventorship Correction Ordered By Virginia Federal Judge Will Stand

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 15 upheld an order by a federal judge in Virginia that mandated a correction of inventorship for a patented container for transporting gaseous fluids.

  • March 15, 2024

    Federal Circuit Upholds Win For IRobot In Patent Row With SharkNinja

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that confirmed as patentable an autonomous floor-cleaning robot vacuum will not be disturbed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 15.

  • March 15, 2024

    Presuit, Not Post-Suit, Willful Patent Infringement Claims Tossed In Texas

    MARSHALL, Texas — Comcast Corp. failed to win dismissal, outright, of allegations that it willfully infringed three video playback patents, with a federal judge in Texas concluding March 14 that claims of post-suit willfulness against the streaming service and cable provider are adequately pleaded.

  • March 13, 2024

    Petitioner To Board: Patent Owner Should Be Sanctioned For Discovery Abuses

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a March 12 motion to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, petitioners for inter partes review (IPR) seek an order barring a patent owner from arguing that the commercial success of its WeatherTech vehicle floor liner products — and related praise that the floor mats have received in the automobile industry — supports a finding of nonobviousness.

  • March 13, 2024

    Board Grants Post-Grant Review Of Honeywell Aircraft Tracking Patent

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A petition for post-grant review (PGR) will likely prevail on at least one of its three challenges to a Honeywell International Inc. patent directed to “systems for detecting, tracking, and docking aircraft in a taxiway, apron, or ramp area of an airport,” including that the process claimed by the patentee can be performed by the human mind, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

  • March 12, 2024

    Crocs Must Face Defamation Claims In Colorado Over Patent Press Release

    DENVER — Allegations by a Canadian shoe seller and former patent infringement defendant that it was defamed in a press release by Crocs Inc. that touted a settlement of their longstanding litigation as a “judgment of infringement” were deemed plausible on March 11 by a federal judge in Colorado.

  • March 11, 2024

    Board Issues New Ground Of Rejection For Proposed ‘Medical Avatar’ Patent

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 11 disagreed with an examiner that all 21 claims of an application to patent a “method of using a simulation of a patient’s anatomy for engaging the patient” are anticipated by an application to patent a “medical avatar” but said that three of those claims are nonetheless rendered obvious by the same reference.

  • March 11, 2024

    Patent Owner Wins Interest, But No Enhancement Of $42M Jury Award

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota on March 8 denied a bid by the owner of a lighted artificial tree patent for enhanced damages after its win at trial in January.

  • March 08, 2024

    Trade Secret Disclosed In Patent Is Public Knowledge, Interlocutory Appellant Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In corrected opening and response briefs in an interlocutory appeal of a Massachusetts federal judge’s preliminary injunction, two makers of competing insulin patch pumps square off on several issues including whether purported trade secrets were made public in filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

  • March 08, 2024

    Panel Rejects Finding That Patent Limitations Are Contradictory, Indefinite

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The owner of a patented rechargeable lithium-ion battery has won reinstatement of infringement litigation against a competitor by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled that a federal judge in Texas wrongly declared claim language indefinite.

  • March 07, 2024

    Petitioner Seeks Burden Shift For Rule 105 Requests During Patent Prosecution

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Crossing the “PH1VNA” and “PH1D84” corn varieties to arrive at a newly claimed “1PFHC43” corn variety was “well within the level of skill for a person of ordinary skill” in 2021, the effective date of a patent issued in 2023 to Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a competitor tells the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in a March 6 petition for covered business method (CBM) review.

  • March 07, 2024

    Apple, Corephotonics Jointly Move To Terminate Multiple Inter Partes Reviews

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On remand from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Apple Inc. and Corephotonics Inc. have reached a confidential settlement and jointly moved March 6 to terminate five inter partes reviews (IPRs) pending before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.