Mealey's Patents
-
March 21, 2024
Panel Preserves Win For Teleflex, Joins Board In Rejecting Patent Challenge
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board committed no error in confirming as patentable various claims of a method for “using a coaxial guide catheter in interventional cardiology procedures” owned by Teleflex Life Sciences Ltd., the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 21.
-
March 21, 2024
Decision To Set Aside Jury Award Of Royalties Upheld By Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California correctly determined that a patent owner failed to establish the amount of a reasonable royalty, requiring vacatur of a jury’s damages award, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 20; however, in the same ruling, the panel said the judge must revisit the question of permanent injunctive relief.
-
March 20, 2024
Samsung Seeks Joinder To Meta-Initiated IPR In ‘Understudy’ Role
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With the apparent blessing of Meta Platforms Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is seeking joinder to an inter partes review of a targeted advertising patent initiated by the social media giant, asserting that its petition contains “substantively identical” grounds and prior art and vowing to assume the role of an “understudy” that will step in only if Meta “ceases to participate.”
-
March 19, 2024
Case Accusing Apple Of Infringing 6 Patents Will Stay In Texas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denied a petition for writ of mandamus, which sought an order directing a Texas federal judge to transfer patent infringement claims leveled against Apple Inc. to the Northern District of California.
-
March 19, 2024
SCOTUS Rejects Patent, Antitrust Claims By Pro Se Petitioner
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An inventor has failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his allegations that Qualcomm Inc. violated antitrust law by tying an infringing central processing unit (CPU) to wireless modems, with the high court on March 18 denying his petition for a writ of certiorari.
-
March 18, 2024
Federal Circuit Won’t Stand In The Way Of Intel License Counterclaim
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bid by VLSI Technology LLC for reversal of a California federal judge’s decision to allow Intel Corp. to amend its pleadings in a protracted patent battle between the parties has failed, with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denying VLSI’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
-
March 15, 2024
Inventorship Correction Ordered By Virginia Federal Judge Will Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 15 upheld an order by a federal judge in Virginia that mandated a correction of inventorship for a patented container for transporting gaseous fluids.
-
March 15, 2024
Federal Circuit Upholds Win For IRobot In Patent Row With SharkNinja
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that confirmed as patentable an autonomous floor-cleaning robot vacuum will not be disturbed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 15.
-
March 15, 2024
Presuit, Not Post-Suit, Willful Patent Infringement Claims Tossed In Texas
MARSHALL, Texas — Comcast Corp. failed to win dismissal, outright, of allegations that it willfully infringed three video playback patents, with a federal judge in Texas concluding March 14 that claims of post-suit willfulness against the streaming service and cable provider are adequately pleaded.
-
March 13, 2024
Petitioner To Board: Patent Owner Should Be Sanctioned For Discovery Abuses
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a March 12 motion to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, petitioners for inter partes review (IPR) seek an order barring a patent owner from arguing that the commercial success of its WeatherTech vehicle floor liner products — and related praise that the floor mats have received in the automobile industry — supports a finding of nonobviousness.
-
March 13, 2024
Board Grants Post-Grant Review Of Honeywell Aircraft Tracking Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A petition for post-grant review (PGR) will likely prevail on at least one of its three challenges to a Honeywell International Inc. patent directed to “systems for detecting, tracking, and docking aircraft in a taxiway, apron, or ramp area of an airport,” including that the process claimed by the patentee can be performed by the human mind, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.
-
March 12, 2024
Crocs Must Face Defamation Claims In Colorado Over Patent Press Release
DENVER — Allegations by a Canadian shoe seller and former patent infringement defendant that it was defamed in a press release by Crocs Inc. that touted a settlement of their longstanding litigation as a “judgment of infringement” were deemed plausible on March 11 by a federal judge in Colorado.
-
March 11, 2024
Board Issues New Ground Of Rejection For Proposed ‘Medical Avatar’ Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 11 disagreed with an examiner that all 21 claims of an application to patent a “method of using a simulation of a patient’s anatomy for engaging the patient” are anticipated by an application to patent a “medical avatar” but said that three of those claims are nonetheless rendered obvious by the same reference.
-
March 11, 2024
Patent Owner Wins Interest, But No Enhancement Of $42M Jury Award
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota on March 8 denied a bid by the owner of a lighted artificial tree patent for enhanced damages after its win at trial in January.
-
March 08, 2024
Trade Secret Disclosed In Patent Is Public Knowledge, Interlocutory Appellant Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In corrected opening and response briefs in an interlocutory appeal of a Massachusetts federal judge’s preliminary injunction, two makers of competing insulin patch pumps square off on several issues including whether purported trade secrets were made public in filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).
-
March 08, 2024
Panel Rejects Finding That Patent Limitations Are Contradictory, Indefinite
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The owner of a patented rechargeable lithium-ion battery has won reinstatement of infringement litigation against a competitor by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled that a federal judge in Texas wrongly declared claim language indefinite.
-
March 07, 2024
Petitioner Seeks Burden Shift For Rule 105 Requests During Patent Prosecution
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Crossing the “PH1VNA” and “PH1D84” corn varieties to arrive at a newly claimed “1PFHC43” corn variety was “well within the level of skill for a person of ordinary skill” in 2021, the effective date of a patent issued in 2023 to Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a competitor tells the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in a March 6 petition for covered business method (CBM) review.
-
March 07, 2024
Apple, Corephotonics Jointly Move To Terminate Multiple Inter Partes Reviews
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On remand from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Apple Inc. and Corephotonics Inc. have reached a confidential settlement and jointly moved March 6 to terminate five inter partes reviews (IPRs) pending before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
-
March 07, 2024
Summary Judgment That Graco Baby Swing Doesn’t Infringe Patent Will Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bid by an inventor to overturn a California federal judge’s finding that Graco Inc. and its parent company do not infringe a patented infant soothing device failed March 6, with a summary affirmance by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
-
March 06, 2024
IBM Largely Loses Appeal In Clash With Chewy Over Online Advertising Patents
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An appeal by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) of a New York federal judge’s summary judgment of patent noninfringement and ineligibility was partly successful March 5 when the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Chewy Inc. must face allegations that it infringed a single claim of a patent directed to online advertising.
-
March 06, 2024
YouTube Video Of Waffle Sandwich Dooms Design Patent Plans, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Efforts by two inventors to patent an ornamental design for a waffle featuring one smooth side were properly rejected as anticipated by a widely disseminated video on YouTube, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 6; in a separate opinion issued the same day, the same panel upheld a rejection of a similar utility patent application, this time on obviousness grounds.
-
March 06, 2024
Board Must Reconsider Amendments To 2 Patent Claims Proposed By Pfizer
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a review of five inter partes reviews (IPRs) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of patented pneumococcal vaccine technology, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 5 that although the board correctly deemed 45 claims obvious to a person of skill in the art (POSITA) and properly denied a bid by Pfizer Inc. to add five substitute claims, it must revisit its denial of two other newly proposed claims.
-
March 06, 2024
Parties Spar Over When Obviousness Type Double Patenting Doctrine Applies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a recent reply brief filed with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a group of patentees urges rejection of a suggestion by various appellees that the obviousness double patenting (ODP) inquiry can be reduced to a comparison of patent expiration dates.
-
March 05, 2024
Appellants Drop Dispute With Board Over Application Of ‘Fintiv Factors’ To PGRs
WASHINGTON, D.C — An unopposed motion to dismiss an appeal of a Virginia federal judge’s determination that jurisdiction is lacking over a challenge to the “Fintiv instructions” — a set of nonexclusive factors considered by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board when deciding whether to institute post-grant review (PGR) of certain patents — was granted March 4 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
-
March 05, 2024
Google Beats Bid By Patent Owner To Lift Stay Of Texas Litigation
AUSTIN, Texas — On the heels of winning cancellation or disclaimer of 38 of 40 claims it challenged in an inter partes review (IPR) of two patents, Google LLC’s stated intention to appeal the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s findings for at least one of the two claims that survived IPR means a stay of Texas infringement litigation will stay in place, a federal judge there ruled March 4.