Mealey's Patents
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November 06, 2023
Nichia Can’t Persuade Appellate Court To Undo Patentability Holding
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected claims by Nichia Corp. that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly confirmed as patentable technology relating to improvements in surface mounts for opto-electronics.
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November 06, 2023
Divided Panel Upholds $5M Attorney Fee Award In Longstanding Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 3 weighed in for a third time in a dispute over patents allegedly infringed by Amazon.com Inc.’s “S3” and “CloudFront” products, this time affirming in a divided ruling a California federal judge’s $5,187,203.99 attorney fee award on behalf of the e-tailer and Twitch Interactive Inc.
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November 06, 2023
Patent Owner To PTO Director: Board ‘Ignored Its Own Construction’
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The owner of a patent directed to biometrics that had claims recently canceled filed a motion on Nov. 3 for Katherine Vidal, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to rehear an inter partes review (IPR) initiated by Apple Inc.
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November 03, 2023
In Microcalorimeter Patent Row, Panel Vacates Stipulated Judgment
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware erred in construing a key disputed claim term in two patents directed to a machine that measures energy absorbed or released during a chemical reaction, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded.
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October 31, 2023
Meta Can’t Persuade Appeals Court To Transfer Patent Case To California
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An order by a federal judge in Texas directing intradistrict transfer of allegations that Meta Platforms Inc. infringed six virtual reality patents while denying the social media giant’s bid for transfer to California federal court will stand, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 30.
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October 30, 2023
Patented Roofing Tech Was ‘Exceedingly Well Known,’ Petitioner Says
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Pointing to a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that “squarely rejected” claims of “identical scope” and “nearly-identical language” in a child application later abandoned, a petitioner for inter partes review (IPR) on Oct. 28 urged the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to follow suit and cancel various claims of the parent patent.
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October 30, 2023
Request For Declaration Of No Patent Infringement Will Proceed In Texas, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Oct. 27 denial of a petition for writ of mandamus, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said a “threshold challenge” to venue in the Eastern District of Texas was not made by a declaratory judgment plaintiff in opposing transfer from the Northern District of Illinois.
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October 27, 2023
Board Determination Of Unpatentability Affirmed, Constructions Upheld
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Substantial evidence supports findings by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that a purported improvement to the design and manufacture of static random access memory (SRAM) would have been obvious to a person of skill in the art, a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Oct. 26.
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October 26, 2023
Divided Panel Says Netflix Procedural Challenge To Patent Board Is Forfeited
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Finding no error in how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board “understood” two petitions for inter partes review (IPR) by Netflix Inc., a panel majority of the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 25 rejected what it deemed a “purely procedural” challenge by the video streaming service.
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October 26, 2023
Patent Owner Tells Board To Discretionarily Deny Samsung Petition
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Because a recent petition for inter partes review (IPR) by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. relies on the same or substantially the same prior art cited during patent prosecution, a patent owner is urging the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to issue a discretionary denial.
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October 25, 2023
Treadmill Company Says Competitor’s Patent Is Not Novel
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patented technology touted by the maker of the “Curve” and “Trueform” treadmills as “revolutionary” and the “first of its kind” should be canceled as obvious, according to an Oct. 24 petition by a rival filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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October 24, 2023
Patent Owner Can’t Persuade Panel To Undo Board’s Obviousness Holding
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patented alarm suspension system responsive to physiological parameters was correctly canceled by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 24.
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October 24, 2023
Panel: Board Erroneously Construed Term In Particle Processing Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Portions of a final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board confirming as patentable various claims of a microfluidic device used to process particles in a sample fluid have been vacated outright by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, while others were remanded to the board for a second look.
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October 23, 2023
Patent Owner: Google ‘Tries To Confuse’ Panel With Appellant Brief
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An August appellant brief by Google LLC wrongly attempts to “blur the lines” between a “database management system” (DBMS) and a “lexical database,” the owner of two disputed patents tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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October 23, 2023
Owner Of Automated Fracking Patent Says Tech Is Novel, Valid
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a new appeal to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. Well Services Inc. (USWS) says its patented method for automating hydraulic fracturing “addresses many of the problems stemming from” human “powering and coordinating” of hydraulic fracturing operations and was wrongly declared anticipated and obvious by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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October 19, 2023
Petitioner: Board Should Have Instituted Review Of Apple Design Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A recent decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that denied institution of inter partes review (IPR) of sensor technology used in the Apple Watch conflicts with Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent that a design patentee’s own product can establish functionality, the petitioner maintains in an Oct. 18 request for rehearing by the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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October 17, 2023
Patent Owner’s $4.6M Lost Profits Award Tossed By Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A decision by a federal judge in California to grant, mid-trial, judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that patented inductor technology is nonobvious was reversed Oct. 16 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which said the issue should have gone to the jury.
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October 17, 2023
Board Properly Considered Apple’s Analogous Art Clarification, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Although finding “no procedural error” in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s “handling” of whether two references would be considered as analogous prior art, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 16 said the board must take a new look at whether one of the references “is (or is not) analogous art and how” such a finding would affect “its overall conclusion” that four dual-aperture camera system patents are obvious.
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October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
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October 16, 2023
Federal Circuit Vacates, Remands Patent Board Ruling In Win For Sony
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patented image display system and method that rely on a remote visual server were wrongly confirmed as nonobvious by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded Oct. 13.
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October 16, 2023
Board’s Anticipation, Obviousness Holdings Upheld On Appeal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A subsidiary of a patent portfolio company on Oct. 13 failed to persuade the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to undo a determination of obviousness and anticipation with regard to a programmable digital device that uses a programmable digital circuit block.
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October 16, 2023
Panel Sends Patent Invalidity Determination Back To California Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because a federal judge in California based her findings of patent invalidity on a since-vacated invalidity determination involving the same patents, a unanimous panel of the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 13 that the question of validity must be revisited.
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October 13, 2023
Judge: ChatGPT’s Definition Of Foam Not A Home Run In Softball Bat Patent Case
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Because artificial intelligence ChatGPT did not exist in 2019 when a man registered a patent “the court would be taking its eye off the ball if it applied the ChatGPT definition” of foam as used in a patent case involving softball bat designs, a federal judge in South Carolina said while denying a motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining infringement.
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October 13, 2023
Florida Federal Judge: Lexmark Patents Valid, But Not Infringed
TAMPA, Fla. — In assessing competing motions for summary judgment, a federal judge in Florida on Oct. 12 found that Lexmark International Inc. is entitled to a finding that certain of its microchip patents are valid while a defendant is entitled to a finding that certain accused products do not infringe, literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.
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October 12, 2023
In Iron-On Transfer Sheet Patent Case, Panel Summarily Affirms
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s construction of various disputed claim terms in three patents directed to iron-on transfer sheets — and their related finding of patent anticipation — will stand, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 11.