On August 11, 2021, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) erred in construing a key term—“fixed”—in the patent claims too narrowly. After construing the term to have special meaning, and relying on extrinsic evidence to support that…
Publications
Irwin IP Publications is the go-to resource for the latest updates and insights in the world of intellectual property. Over 250 articles are published on cases addressing unique issues, all of which can be found using the search tool below. Additionally, there is a collection of articles/papers and presentations that cover a wide range of topics. Whether you’re a legal professional, business owner, or simply someone passionate about IP, our publications page will provide you with all the knowledge needed to navigate this dynamic field.
The Federal Circuit’s (“CAFC”) recent decision in CommScope Techs. provides an important reminder regarding proving literal infringement, as well as some tips on preserving an issue for appeal. At trial, both CommScope and Dali alleged infringement of multiple patents. Following trial, both parties appealed several decisions. The CAFC, however,…
On August 2, 2021, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held that an employment agreement stating that an employee’s future patents “shall be the property of the University [of Michigan]” did not create a present automatic assignment of the asserted patents to the University. Thus, the…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has again ordered a judge from the Western District of Texas to transfer a patent case into the Northern District of California. Specifically, the CAFC held that courts should disregard plaintiff’s pre-litigation attempts to manipulate venue when determining whether an…
In the latest trademark case spurred by Covid-19, the District Court of Arizona (“the court”) denied Arizona Board of Regents’ (“ASU”) motion for default judgment for a permanent injunction against an Instagram user because the vulgar Covid-related messages from the user (“John Doe”) did not rise to the level…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held that the Patent and Trademark Appeal Board (“PTAB”) erred by placing the burden of establishing that a purportedly anticipatory prior art reference was enabling on the challenger rather than requiring the patentee to establish that it was non-enabling. Notwithstanding…
On May 11, 2021, The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “CAFC”) held two Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (“PacBio”) patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 9,546,400 and 9,772,323 (the ’400 and ’323 Patents), invalid for lack of enablement under 35 U.S.C. § 112. PacBio had asserted these patents…
In two recent opinions, the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) invalidation of 42 claims across two patents because of the PTAB’s “violat[ion] of a patent owner’s procedural rights” under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). In both opinions, the CAFC stated that “the APA…
In this case, the defendants filed a Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings aimed at four patents on the ground that all are directed to abstract ideas. As discussed below, the Western District of Washington, (“The Court”) granted the motion as to two of the patents and…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held a patent directed to delivering targeted advertising via bypassing mobile devices’ security systems was directed to an abstract idea, and thus invalid under 35 U.S.C. §101. This decision reinforces that neither unclaimed functionalities, nor vague, results-centric descriptions give rise…
In the fiercely contested case of Google v. Oracle, theSupreme Court held that Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of code from Sun Microsystems’ Java Application Programming Interface (“API”) to allow software developers to leverage their accrued Java coding skills on Android constituted fair use as a matter of law….
Invalidating claims of a patent directed to system architecture combining imaging sensors with timing and control circuits, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) clarified the landscape of state-of-the-art developments at pixel scale. In a seventy-seven page final written decision, the PTAB determined five claims of U.S. Patent No….
On appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the PTAB”) and the Federal Circuit (“the CAFC”), the Supreme Court (“the Court”) held that unreviewable Administrative Patent Judge (“APJ”) rulings are inconsistent with the Appointments Clause of the Constitution and, thus, rendered unenforceable any statutory restrictions preventing the Director…
On June 11, 2021, The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “CAFC”) upheld the Northern District of California’s grant of Apple’s and Samsung’s (collectively, the “Defendants”) Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Yanbin Yu and Zhongxuan Zhang’s (collectively, the “Patent Owners”) patent infringement action. The patent in…
No luck this week for food-related marks. The United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina (“District Court”) and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) each refused registration of marks “COOKINPELLETS.COM” and “PRETZEL CRISPS,” respectively. Each proceeding considered the “primary significance” of the mark to…
Before the court, in this case concerning design patent infringement, was a motion in limine to preclude Defendants’ witnesses from testifying about expense deductions from net profits that are not tied specifically to the sales of the products at issue. In its decision, the court denied the motion, stating…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101 a Stanford University patent application (Application No. 13/445,925) (“the ’925 Application”) covering improvements to a method for analyzing genetic data because its innovation was to a mathematical algorithm rather than of a technological…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) recently clarified that communications sent into a forum from without—threatening suit, or proposing settlement or licenses—can be sufficient to establish personal jurisdiction. In Trimble Inc. v. PerDiemCo LLC, the CAFC reversed the Northern District of California’s (N.D. Cal.) dismissal of…
On remand from the Federal Circuit (the “CAFC”), the Eastern District of Texas (“the district court”) granted-in-part Network-1 Technologies, Inc.’s (“Network”) Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law (“JMOL”) or New Trial because Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (jointly “HP”) could not corroborate the testimony of the…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”)’s finding that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (“Bio-Rad”) infringed three patents owned by 10X Genomics (“10X”) covering microfluid systems and components used for gene sequencing and violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930,…