Mealey's Patents
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February 26, 2021
Surgical Supplies Firm To High Court: PTAB Judges Are Principal Officers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With March 1 oral arguments fast approaching, a surgical supplies manufacturer tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its Feb. 19 reply brief that the administrative patent judges (APJs) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) qualify as principal officers under the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution and, as such, the rulings in three underlying patent infringement cases should be vacated and remanded to be heard by properly appointed judges.
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February 26, 2021
Surgical Firm Seeks End Of Assignor Estoppel Doctrine In Patent Litigation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A surgical device company asks the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate the doctrine of assignor estoppel in its Feb. 22 petitioner merits brief, calling it an “uncommonly lawless doctrine” that has no support in the Patent Act or controlling case law.
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February 26, 2021
Targeted Advertising Patent Challenged By Twitter, Google
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a Feb. 24 petition for inter partes review (IPR), Twitter Inc. and Google LLC maintain that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should cancel 19 claims of a patented method for targeting Internet users with advertisements targeted to computer usage.
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February 24, 2021
Maker Of IFit Program Denied Relief In Patent Dispute With Peloton
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on Feb. 23 rejected a request by ICON Health & Fitness Inc. for a preliminary injunction barring Peloton from selling its new “Bike+” stationary bicycle.
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February 24, 2021
Biogen: Reversal Of Collateral Estoppel Ruling Controls New Appeal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of the multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Tecfidera in a Feb. 22 appellant brief argues that before deciding whether a federal judge in Delaware erred when ruling that a West Virginia federal judge’s finding of patent invalidity collaterally estops the patent owner from asserting its patent elsewhere, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should first determine whether the collateral estoppel ruling was proper.
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February 23, 2021
Appellant: Board Erred In Confirming Sleep Number Patent Valid
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 18 appellant brief, a manufacturer of sleep surfaces tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should reverse and remand to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board its determination that a patented assembly used to control the pressure in an inflatable mattress and method to inflate the mattress are not obvious.
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February 23, 2021
HTC: Anti-Piracy, BIOS Memory Storage Patent Would Be Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 19 petition for inter partes review (IPR), HTC Corp. asserts a claimed method for restricting the unauthorized operation of software by storing a license in the basic input/output system (BIOS) memory of a computer would be obvious to a person of skill in the art.
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February 23, 2021
Citing Fintiv, Board Denies Petition For Inter Partes Review
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a Feb. 19 holding, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board turned away a request for inter partes review (IPR) in a dispute over a gaming patent, in view of pending litigation over the same patent in Texas federal court.
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February 22, 2021
Patent Claims Covering Fracturing Process Rightly Rejected, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 19 opinion, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found no error in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s affirmance of an examiner’s finding that four claims of a patented process for fracturing the rod that connects the crankshaft to the piston in an internal combustion engine would have been obvious to a person of skill in the art.
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February 19, 2021
Patented Myopia Treatment Is Obvious, Petitioner Tells Board
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a Feb. 17 petition for inter partes review (IPR), a pharmaceutical company maintains that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should cancel 19 claims of a patented myopia treatment featuring increased pH stability via substitution of deuterium oxide (D2O) for regular water (H2O).
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February 19, 2021
Mandamus Denied By Panel; Patent Case To Proceed In California
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 19 order, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals turned away a patent owner’s assertion that under the first-to-file rule, it was entitled to dismissal of California federal declaratory judgment actions filed by Apple Inc., AT&T Corp. and Verizon Wireless.
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February 19, 2021
Crocs Footwear Patent Properly Confirmed Valid By Board, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One week after granting an appellant’s motion to substitute itself in a challenge to a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that confirmed a Crocs Inc. footwear patent as not anticipated, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 18 affirmed the board’s patentability determination on the merits.
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February 19, 2021
Panel Directs Board To Reconsider Skin Cancer Patent Holding
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 18 ruling, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board erred in confirming as patentable two independent claims of a patented skin cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment device.
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February 17, 2021
Federal Circuit: Patent Board Erred In Refusing To Substitute Challenger
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a dispute over a patent covering the ornamental design of footwear, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 found that transfer of all assets in a bankruptcy proceeding includes the rights in a pending inter partes reexamination (IPR) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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February 17, 2021
Patent Infringement Defendant Covered By Release, Panel Finds
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In what it described as a case pertaining to the “narrow question of contract interpretation,” a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 agreed with a Texas federal judge that a release granted to an entity and its “affiliates” applies to an appellee, thereby barring the grantor of the release from levying claims of patent infringement.
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February 16, 2021
Federal Circuit Upholds Rejection Of Obviousness Claim In Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in New Jersey did not err in finding that a person of skill in the art would not have enjoyed a reasonable expectation of success in combining various prior art references to arrive at a diabetes inhibitor, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Feb. 16.
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February 16, 2021
Panel Agrees: 2 LDL Receptor Patents Are Not Sufficiently Enabled
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a blow to Amgen Inc. and two subsidiaries, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 upheld findings by a federal judge in Delaware that three claims of two patents that describe antibodies that purportedly lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol are invalid for their lack of enablement.
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February 16, 2021
Judge Certifies Pay-For-Delay Insurer Class For Alzheimer’s Drug Namenda, Generics
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Feb. 11 granted a motion by a union health benefit fund to certify a class of purchasers of the Alzheimer’s drug Namenda who were injured by a “pay-for-delay” scheme but denied certification of a class allegedly injured by being forced to switch from an original version of the drug to a newer one.
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February 11, 2021
Federal Circuit Grants Panel Rehearing In Label Carve-Out Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a two-page order issued Feb. 10, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals announced that it will revisit its October 2020 finding that Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. induced infringement of a reissue patent directed to the treatment of chronic heart failure.
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February 11, 2021
Golf Club Patent Claim Is Indefinite, Federal Circuit Affirms
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 10 holding, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it found no error in an Illinois federal judge’s determination that a single claim of a patented golf club shape is invalid as indefinite, in a win for Nike Inc.