Takeaways:
- Claim construction for determining whether reissue claims are improperly broadened is based on fundamental claim construction cannons and not applicant intentions.
- Patent Owners should check patented claims...more
5/29/2025
/ Appeals ,
CAFC ,
Claim Construction ,
Inventors ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Reissue Applications ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent Validity ,
Patents ,
Reissue Patents
The Federal Circuit held in Merck Sharp & Dohme B.V. v. Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc., 23-2254 that a reissued patent receives patent term extension (PTE) based on the issue date of the original patent, not the reissue patent,...more
4/4/2025
/ Appeals ,
FDA Approval ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Term Extensions ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Statutory Interpretation
Takeaways -
-Intra-patent claim inconsistencies are errors correctible via reissue.
-Subtle legal distinctions in reissue may require PTAB appeals.
Patent prosecution errors occur. One such error that occurs is...more
2/14/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) ,
Claim Amendments ,
Claim Construction ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Prosecution ,
Patent Reissue Applications ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Reissue Patents ,
USPTO
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual property landscape. In 2024, several developments affecting PTAB practice emerged, from new rulemaking at the USPTO to key...more
2/4/2025
/ §315(e) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Director of the USPTO ,
Final Rules ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Obviousness ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Prior Art ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Section 102 ,
Statistical Analysis ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Technology ,
USPTO
On Friday May 27, 2022, the Federal Circuit added another opinion to the Arthrex line of cases. As a short refresher, Arthrex was back at the Federal Circuit after being remanded to the Board for Director Review after Patent...more
6/6/2022
/ Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Arthrex Inc v Smith & Nephew Inc ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Federal Vacancies Reform Act ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Petition For Rehearing ,
Remand ,
Separation of Powers ,
USPTO
In a recent opinion by the Federal Circuit, Auris Health, Inc. v Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., Case 2021-1732, the panel split on the weight of general industry skepticism in an obviousness analysis and split on...more
6/2/2022
/ Appeals ,
Evidence ,
Expert Testimony ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Inventions ,
Inventors ,
Motivation to Combine ,
Obviousness ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Prior Art ,
Remand ,
Substantial Evidence Standard ,
USPTO ,
Vacated
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
6/1/2022
/ Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Arthrex Inc v Smith & Nephew Inc ,
Claim Construction ,
Clear and Convincing Evidence ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Damages ,
Director of the USPTO ,
Evidence ,
Experimental Use Exception ,
Expert Testimony ,
Federal Vacancies Reform Act ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Inventions ,
Inventors ,
Motivation to Combine ,
Obviousness ,
On-Sale Bar ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Petition For Rehearing ,
Post-Grant Review ,
Prior Art ,
Remand ,
Section 102 ,
Separation of Powers ,
Substantial Evidence Standard ,
USPTO ,
Vacated
The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act granted the Patent Office authority to issue “regulations . . . establishing and governing inter partes review.” 35 U.S.C § 316(a)(4). For the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) to...more
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
12/1/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
LEAP ,
Notice and Comment ,
Oral Argument ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
USPTO ,
Writ of Mandamus
We previously published an article discussing patent owner’s due process challenges based on alleged pecuniary interests of the Office and Administrative Patent Judges instituting cases to meet production goals and increase...more
11/2/2021
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Due Process ,
Evidence ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
11/1/2021
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Due Process ,
Evidence ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Presidential Nominations ,
USPTO
In ABS Global, Inc. v Cytonome/ST, LLC, the Federal Circuit dismissed a Petitioner’s appeal from a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) final written decision when it determined that a Patent Owner’s voluntary...more
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
1/25/2021
/ Appeals ,
Denial of Institution ,
Dismissals ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Mootness ,
Parallel Proceedings ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
Precedential Opinion ,
USPTO
In its decision to remand, the Federal Circuit (1) held the Board’s non-analogous art test was wrong and articulated a new test for the Board to follow on remand, and (2) left it up to the Board to make the ultimate decision...more
In Network-1 Technologies, Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Company, the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the district court’s holding that joinder petitioner Hewlett Packard (“HP”) (1) could have tried to raise new grounds in its...more
10/26/2020
/ §315(e) ,
Appeals ,
Estoppel ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Joinder ,
Judgment As A Matter Of Law ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Remand ,
Vacated
In view of the Supreme Court’s Thryv decision, the Federal Circuit recently reissued its original March 2020 decision in Facebook v. Windy City (Windy City I) after granting Facebook’s petition for rehearing and denying...more
9/22/2020
/ § 314(d) ,
35 U.S.C. § 315(c) ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Review ,
Cuozzo Speed Technologies v Lee ,
Facebook ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Joinder ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Thryv Inc v Click-To-Call Technologies LP
Last month’s newsletter discussed Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp, where patent owner Alacritech appealed a final written decision (FWD) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) for inter partes review (IPR)...more
9/19/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Persuasion ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Obviousness ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Reaffirmation ,
Substantial Evidence Standard
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
9/18/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Review ,
Estoppel ,
Facebook ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Joinder ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
USPTO
In Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp, Judge Stoll held that under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) “[the Federal Circuit’s] review of a patentability determination is confined to ‘the grounds upon which the Board actually...more
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
As reported in our December 2019 newsletter, in Lectrosonics v. Zaxcom the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) granted Zaxcom’s motion to amend and, under a nexus-analysis framework, found each of the substitute...more
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
7/31/2020
/ Administrative Procedure ,
Appeals ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Motion to Amend ,
Nonobvious ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Precedential Opinion ,
PTAB Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) ,
Substitute Claims ,
USPTO
In Acoustic Technology v. Itron Networked Solutions, the Federal Circuit was faced with a situation in which the Petitioner’s real party-in-interest/privy changed after institution, although the change was in the works before...more
3/24/2020
/ § 315(b) ,
Appeals ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Jurisdiction ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Real Party in Interest ,
Record Preservation ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Waiver Rule
In Personal Audio, the Federal Circuit upheld a district court judgment dismissal of a jury verdict for patent owner throwing out a $1.3 million judgement because the patent was later invalidated at the PTAB. Patent owner...more
2/11/2020
/ Appeals ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Reversal ,
Subsequent Litigation
The PTAB Strategies and Insights newsletter provides timely updates and insights into how best to handle proceedings at the USPTO. It is designed to increase return on investment for all stakeholders looking at the entire...more
2/1/2020
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Appointments ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Subsequent Litigation