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April 08, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed a Texas federal judge’s entry of monetary damages and attorney fees in a long-running intellectual property dispute involving patents and trade secret claims related to smartphone light censor products; the panel remanded for further analysis on the matter of prejudgment interest, holding that the judge erred in that regard.
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April 07, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed a patent applicant’s appeal of a decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to reject his application for a patent on a touch screen product; the panel said that the man’s “atypical case” essentially amounted to a request for the PTO to grant an application for a patent that had already expired.
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April 02, 2025
By Tim Powell, Hiroshi Sheraton and Alexander Ritter
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April 03, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware too narrowly construed a claim phrase regarding a “runtime engine” described in patents owned by web developer Express Mobile Inc. in a patent infringement dispute with GoDaddy.com LLC, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 2; the panel said the error made the reversal of a grant of summary judgment in GoDaddy’s favor necessary.
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April 02, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) should have gone further with a finding of invalidity for claims within patents related to interactive display screens, considering arguments connected to inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and an affiliated entity for the second time in recent weeks.
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April 01, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a Florida federal judge’s denial of a new trial on damages and remanded for a new trial on damages in a dispute between instrument makers over patents related to electronic drumheads and cymbals, but the panel left in place a jury’s findings of liability and infringement, along with the judge’s decision to exclude expert testimony.
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April 01, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a New Jersey federal judge was right to conclude after a bench trial that a biopharmaceutical company’s antipsychotic medication product would induce health care providers to infringe on another company’s patented injectable medication used to treat schizophrenia.
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March 28, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims did not err when it held that a generic drugmaker could deduct costs it incurred while defending itself from patent claims under the Hatch-Waxman Act as ordinary business expenses, rejecting arguments made on appeal by the federal government.
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March 28, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the decision of a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissing patent infringement claims against the federal government; the panel agreed that a pro se plaintiff-appellant failed to show infringement of patents involving the detection of chemical and other hazards.
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March 27, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rightly held that all challenged claims in a patent held by Xerox Corp. related to messaging are unpatentable as obvious, affirming the results of an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding brought by Meta Platforms Inc.
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March 27, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it saw no error in a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that held all challenged claims in a series of patents related to medical imaging unpatentable, holding that the appellant patent holder failed to show that the board erred in construing relevant patent claims during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the board.
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March 27, 2025
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 26 that it cannot determine whether a Connecticut federal judge was right to rule that a toy company’s redesigned figurines still ran afoul of a preliminary injunction previously ordered in an intellectual property dispute with Lego A/S and affiliated Lego entities (collectively, Lego).
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March 26, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s finding that a patent describing a floor-marking tape product was anticipated by a prior art reference and the judge’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of defendant entities on false advertising claims.
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March 25, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on March 24 a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a finding from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the initiation of an evaluation under the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) system — which triggers the potential removal of an allegedly infringing product listing from Amazon.com if a seller fails to respond — constitutes a purposeful direction of activities at the seller’s forum state sufficient to confer specific personal jurisdiction.
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March 25, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t consider whether a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals practice of affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in one-word affirmations violates a section of the Patent Act requiring the issuance of an opinion; the court on March 24 rejected a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari.
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March 24, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning down the request to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong for applying a local rule that allows it to affirm holdings from federal judges and agencies in single-word rulings; as such, the high court left untouched a federal judge’s finding that defendant banking organizations did not infringe on the company’s patents.
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March 24, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from the assignee of wireless earphone patents; the company had argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals inappropriately adopted “a novel and expansive rule of collateral estoppel” when it held that two appeals it brought were moot because it failed to appeal a federal trial court order holding that the patent claims at issue were invalid in a separate case.
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March 21, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to hold that Home Depot USA Inc. failed to show the invalidity of one of three challenged claims in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings over another company’s LED lighting device patent; the panel said substantial evidence did not support the board’s finding.
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March 21, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was correct to find that a petitioner lighting company failed to establish obviousness as to a claim in a patent for a recessed lighting system, holding that the company’s arguments are based in part on an attempt to raise new unpatentability grounds on appeal.
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March 20, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a brief precedential opinion that it could not review a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) refusing to enter a show cause order sua sponte on sanctions in a lawsuit over the importing of allegedly infringing semiconductor parts that was eventually dropped by the plaintiff company.
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March 19, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”
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March 19, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 19, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed findings of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that proposed alternate claims in two patents related to fracking were unpatentable as indefinite.
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March 18, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 13 held that a biopharmaceutical patent holder was entitled to a patent term extension (PTE) for a reissued patent, disagreeing with arguments from generic drug manufacturers about how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) calculated the date for patent reissuance.