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Mealey's Patents

  • April 29, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear AIA Arguments In Sweetener Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 declined to disturb a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) did not change longstanding precedent regarding the on-sale bar, denying a petition for a writ of certiorari from entities that sought to block the importing of an artificial sweetener that they said infringed on their patents into the United States.

  • April 28, 2025

    Both Supreme Court And District Court Deny Bids To Stay Patent Suit Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a California federal court blocked requests to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder on April 25; the federal magistrate judge presiding over the lower court case said the attorneys failed to show that their pending appeal before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a substantial likelihood of success.

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Epic Games Didn’t Show Error In PTAB Claim Construction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of popular video games like “Fortnite” cannot show that prior art rendered obvious another company’s patents related to user communications, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 24, affirming a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Again Misinterprets Applicant Admitted Prior Art Standard

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel sent a patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. back to the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with the panel finding that the PTAB again misinterpreted a provision in the Patent Act involving applicant admitted prior art (AAPA).

  • April 24, 2025

    Partly Split Federal Circuit Says PTAB Got Game Controller IPR Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) committed multiple errors when it held that the first claim of a video game controller patent was not invalid as obvious, a partially split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said on April 23; the panel said that PTAB ignored the Federal Circuit’s previous finding that the same claim was unpatentable in an earlier appeal.

  • April 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies ‘Urgent Requests’ To Consider Motion To Stay Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 23 per curiam order denied a pair of “urgent requests” for ruling on a motion to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder, saying the court would rule on the attorneys’ primary motion “in due course”; the order was issued a day after the attorneys filed a notice of application to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • April 23, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says Inventor’s Prior Application Anticipates New Application

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 22 affirmed a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that a design patent applicant’s submission was anticipated by her earlier utility application.

  • April 22, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Invalidity Challenge In Foreign Damages Patent Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decided April 21 that it would not hear arguments from the owner of a trading company that argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld an Illinois federal judge’s findings of patent invalidity.

  • April 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Machine Learning Patent Invalid As Obvious Per Alice Inquiry

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 18 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to dismiss a machine learning patent holder’s suit against Fox Corp. and affiliated entities, agreeing with the judge that the patents describe an abstract idea without any additional creation on the patent holder’s part; the panel said the case presented a matter of first impression.

  • April 21, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Federal Circuit Affirmation Of Patent Judgment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 rejected a patent licensing company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear arguments from the company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ignored a genuine dispute of facts in its case with Amazon companies.

  • April 21, 2025

    Xerox Mobile Device Data Patent Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Agrees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Xerox Corp. failed to overcome a finding of obviousness from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a series of appeals involving social media entities, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.

  • April 18, 2025

    Judge Tosses Infringement Claims But Not Inventorship Claim From AT&T Patent Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed patent infringement claims brought against two AT&T entities over their use of “twinning” technology that allows one phone number to apply to multiple devices, finding that the patent applies to an inappropriately abstract concept; however, the judge declined to dismiss the plaintiff company’s claim seeking correction of inventorship.

  • April 18, 2025

    Patent Holder Challenged Claim Construction It Sought, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent holding company forfeited its argument that a Washington federal judge erred in the construction of a claim phrase in a patent dispute over a network traffic manager patent by failing to bring up the construction argument earlier, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 17.

  • April 17, 2025

    Federal Circuit Doesn’t Revive IPR For Wireless Energy Transfer Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it held that that multiple claims in a company’s patent related to wireless power transfer were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said April 16, affirming the board’s findings over the objections of the patent holder.

  • April 16, 2025

    Judge Tosses Bone Device Patent Suit, Says Patents Not Properly Enabled

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware granted a motion for summary judgment by defendant medical device companies in a patent infringement case, agreeing that the plaintiff company’s patents on portions of an orthopedic medical device are invalid for lack of enablement.

  • April 16, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid In LED Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 15 rejected a patent holder’s petition for panel or en banc rehearing after a panel of judges in January held there was no error in the findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that claims of the company’s patent were invalid as obvious; the appeals court will not hear arguments from the company that the panel wrongly considered an “abandoned patent application” in affirming PTAB’s findings.

  • April 16, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Skin Sterilizer Patent Anticipated By Prior Art; No PTAB Error

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patents covering a company’s skin disinfecting product were rightly held by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to be unpatentable as anticipated by prior art, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 15; the panel said that substantial evidence supported PTAB’s findings.

  • April 16, 2025

    Applicants’ Similar Foreign Patent Makes Application Obvious, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected arguments from patent applicants who appealed the denial of their patent application related to fluid catalytic cracking; the panel said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rightly held the application to be invalid as obvious.

  • April 15, 2025

    Groupon In Rehearing Bid: Federal Circuit Opinion Negates Purpose Of IPR Process

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for rehearing, Groupon Inc. says a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel erred when it held that a patent holder was not estopped from asserting infringement claims against Groupon in a Delaware federal court based on previous decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB); Groupon says the panel ignored precedent in the circuit.

  • April 11, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees SAP Can’t Transfer Patent Case To Other Federal Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 10 denied a software company’s petition for a writ of mandamus compelling the transfer of a patent suit from one division of a Texas federal district court to another division in the same district, holding that the company failed to show that a federal judge’s decision to deny the transfer motion was not “patently erroneous.”

  • April 11, 2025

    Patent Holder To High Court: Federal Circuit Wrong To Scrap Its Jury Win

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A software company patent holder tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to vacate a jury’s verdict of $13.2 million in damages; the company says in its petition for certiorari that a Texas federal judge was right in the first place to deny judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of no direct infringement on the respondent company’s part.

  • April 10, 2025

    Drug Patent Holder Disclaimed Infringement Argument, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s findings after a bench trial that a generic drug maker’s abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) did not infringe on a biopharmaceutical company’s patent related to a drinkable antibiotic treatment for a bacterial infection.

  • April 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Millions In Awards In Long-Running Trade Secret Dispute

    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.

  • April 07, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Provisional Rights In Expired Patent Application Appeal

    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.

  • April 02, 2025

    COMMENTARY: CJEU Expands Cross-Border Patent Infringement Jurisdiction In BSH Hausgeräte v. Electrolux

    By Tim Powell, Hiroshi Sheraton and Alexander Ritter