LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC

  1. December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  2. December 16, 2024

    The Biggest Patent Decisions Of 2024

    This year's notable patent decisions from the Federal Circuit provided clearer guidelines on double patenting and opened the door for new ways to invalidate design patents. Here's a look at the cases from 2024 that will shape patent litigation going forward.

  3. July 08, 2024

    The Biggest Patent Rulings Of 2024: A Midyear Report

    The Federal Circuit issued its first en banc patent decision since 2018, a circuit judge's suspension was solidified and courts shed further light on foreign damages and skinny labels. Here's a look back at these rulings and other top patent decisions from the first half of 2024.

  4. June 03, 2024

    Design Patents May Be Harder To Get Under New Test

    The Federal Circuit's decision discarding long-standing tests for proving that a design patent is invalid as obvious means the world has changed for patent examiners and applicants, attorneys said, and the new standard could lead to more design patent applications being turned down.

  5. May 21, 2024

    Questions Abound As Fed. Circ. Scraps Design Patent Tests

    By discarding established tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious Tuesday, the full Federal Circuit has opened the door for new invalidity arguments and created uncertainty by not providing much guidance on how courts should evaluate them, attorneys said.

  6. May 21, 2024

    Full Fed. Circ. Throws Out 'Rigid' Tests For Design Patents

    The full Federal Circuit on Tuesday overruled long-standing tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious, finding that the rules are "improperly rigid" and holding that the obviousness test for utility patents should be used instead.

  7. February 05, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Questions Call To Throw Out Design Patent Tests

    An en banc Federal Circuit panel appeared wary Monday of discarding long-standing tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious, although some indicated they may be open to altering a standard that critics have described as overly rigid.

  8. January 01, 2024

    Patent Cases To Watch In 2024

    A rare patent case taken up by the full Federal Circuit that has the potential to weaken design patents, and U.S. Supreme Court challenges to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's authority are among the patent cases attorneys will be tracking this year.

  9. November 30, 2023

    Auto Parts Designers Actually Do 'Solve Problems,' Court Told

    A Chicago auto parts company shot back at arguments from major players in the automotive industry over how design patents should be litigated in the courts, teeing up its argument early next year in front of the full Federal Circuit that "designers do solve problems."

  10. October 27, 2023

    Auto Industry Tells Fed. Circ. Not To Mess With Design Patents

    The automotive industry is urging the full Federal Circuit to keep the test for obviousness in design patents as is, saying in a series of amicus briefs that the law is predictable and stable.