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Mealey's Patents

  • November 06, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Arguments In LG Patent Written Description Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a technology company’s request for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, rejecting the company’s argument that a panel improperly shifted the burden of written description onto it when it reversed a New Jersey federal jury’s finding of willful infringement against LG Electronics Inc. and a related entity due to invalidity of the patent claims.

  • November 05, 2025

    Precedential PTO Decision Sets Machine Learning Abstractness Standards

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Appeals Review Panel (ARP) vacated a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) panel’s new ground of rejection for claims of an artificial intelligence inventor’s patent application regarding a machine learning patent as directed at an abstract idea in a Nov. 4 precedential decision; the APR left in place, however, the PTAB panel’s affirmation of a PTO examiner’s rejection of the application’s claims as obvious.

  • November 05, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Findings For Audio Tech Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a nonprecedential Nov. 4 opinion, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) properly construed the disputed claim term “background noise level,” affirming the board’s finding that most claims in a technology company’s patent describing an earpiece device were unpatentable as obvious or anticipated by prior art.

  • November 04, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Order Stay Of Infringement Trial For Video Tagging Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 3 rejected a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking the stay of a forthcoming infringement trial in a Texas federal court concerning a patent for a method of tagging streaming videos, holding that the adult video website petitioners failed to show that they had an indisputable right to a stay due to a related ex parte reexamination (EPR) proceeding before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

  • October 31, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Merck Can’t Use Team Overlap To Escape Patent Obviousness

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it held that a prior publication about a multiple sclerosis (MS) drug created through a collaboration involving a company that eventually merged into Merck Serono SA was prior art created “by another” for the purpose of showing that certain claims of more recent Merck patents were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Oct. 30 in a pair of opinions stemming from separate inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.

  • October 31, 2025

    Inventor Says In Rehearing Bid That Federal Circuit Wrongly Applied Laches

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for rehearing en banc, an inventor tells the full Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a panel’s application of prosecution laches conflicts with precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the panel was wrong to uphold a District of Columbia federal judge’s finding that prosecution laches barred the inventor’s patent applications.

  • October 30, 2025

    Judge: Poker Patent Licensee Failed To Show Owner Knew Patents Were Invalid

    LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a defendant gaming company’s counterclaims in a dispute over royalty agreements of a patent on a variant version of three-card poker, finding that the defendant company failed to plausibly allege that the plaintiff entity should have known that its patent claims were invalid when inking the licensing agreement at issue.

  • October 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rethink Denying Bid To Block Tech Patent Cases’ Transfer

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 29 turned down a technology company’s petitions for rehearing in related proceedings stemming from petitions for writs of mandamus it filed; the appeals court left in place September orders by a panel that rejected the company’s request to block the transfer of its suits against two technology giants from a Texas federal court to one in California.

  • October 29, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies Mandamus To Patent Holder In Background Check Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 28 denied a patent holder’s petition for a writ of mandamus, leaving in place a California federal judge’s refusal to transfer the case to a federal court in Oklahoma; the panel found no abuse of discretion in the judge’s finding that the delayed nature of the patent holder’s motion to transfer called the motivations for the transfer into question.

  • October 29, 2025

    Claims In Roof-Measuring Patent Obvious; Federal Circuit Agrees With PTAB

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a company’s claim that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to fully explain its motivation-to-combine reasoning when it held that all challenged claims of its patent describing a process of measuring roofs with aerial imagery were unpatentable as obvious, affirming the PTAB’s findings.

  • October 28, 2025

    AI Company To High Court: Federal Circuit Opinion Could Harm AI Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A machine learning patent holder is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling on a matter of first impression that affirmed the invalidation of the patents for describing the abstract concept of machine learning without pointing to specific improvements; the company tells the high court that the Federal Circuit’s approach to patent eligibility “flouts this Court’s instruction to consider preemption.”

  • October 28, 2025

    Judge’s Construction Of Claim In Heart Valve Patent Correct, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 27 affirmed a stipulated judgment of noninfringement issued by a Delaware federal judge in a patent dispute over a transcatheter aortic valve, holding that there was no error in the judge’s construction of the disputed claim phrase “outer frame.”

  • October 28, 2025

    PTAB Right To Find Semiconductor Claims Obvious, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a semiconductor company’s challenge of a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding that its patent application contained certain claims that were invalid as obvious, finding that the company forfeited its arguments on appeal by failing to properly raise them before the PTAB.

  • October 27, 2025

    Charging Patent Claims Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Panel Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — There was no error in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) construal of the claim term “coupled” in its consideration of a technology company’s patent describing an inductive charging system, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Oct. 24, affirming PTAB’s findings that multiple claims of the patent were obvious due to prior art references.

  • October 23, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Error In PTAB Recusal, But Board Didn’t Examine Copying

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said Oct. 22 that it saw no error in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) analysis of the recusal of an administrative patent judge (APJ) after the institution of inter partes review (IPR) for a cybersecurity patent; the panel also held, though, that PTAB failed to fully consider evidence on copying provided by the appellant patent holder.

  • October 22, 2025

    Panel Affirms Judgment For Coca-Cola On Patent Claims Over ‘Freestyle’ Dispenser

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 21 affirmed a Georgia federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Coca-Cola Co. on claims its Freestyle soft drink dispenser infringed the patent of a technology company; the panel upheld the judge’s claim construction, which the parties agreed was dispositive if affirmed.

  • October 21, 2025

    Panel Affirms Judge’s Finding Of No Infringement, Validity In Fencing Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a federal judge in Texas in a dispute over patents describing rackable fencing devices correctly found no infringement and no invalidity, rejecting arguments from both parties who filed cross-appeals; the panel held that a rejected disclaimer in the prosecution history of a related patent with a shared specification can still be an effective disclaimer for the purpose of claim construction.

  • October 20, 2025

    No High Court Review Of En Banc Federal Circuit’s Vacating Of Patent Damages

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Oct. 20 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a smart thermostat company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, in which the company told the high court that the en banc Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to order a Texas federal judge to hold a new trial on damages wrongly eschewed the jury’s factual findings in its favor in a patent dispute with Google LLC.

  • October 17, 2025

    Summary Judgment For Ford, BMW Affirmed In Cruise Control Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to grant summary judgment to Ford Motor Co. and several entities related to BMW of North America LLC (collectively, BMW) on claims brought by a patent holder, finding no clear error in how the judge construed certain claim terms in asserted patents describing systems within vehicles with adaptive cruise control (ACC).

  • October 16, 2025

    Brita’s ITC Patent Loss Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 15  affirmed a finding by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that certain claims of a water filter patent held by Brita LP were invalid for lack of written description and lack of enablement because the patent does not disclose the full scope of filter material covered by its claims that do not meet a claimed performance metric.

  • October 16, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid From Database Patent Holder In IPR Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a technology company’s petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, rejecting its arguments that a panel used the wrong standard of review to find that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred in claim construction and incorrectly rejected reply evidence from Google LLC in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings it brought.

  • October 16, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Wrong To Find Prior PTAB Ruling Precluded Issues

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Wisconsin federal judge was wrong to apply issue preclusion based on prior findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) when granting summary judgment in a patent infringement dispute over eyeglass lens patents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Oct. 15; the panel said the PTAB findings relied on by the judge came under a different standard of proof than that required for district courts.

  • October 15, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid For Dumbbell Abstractness Finding

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 14 denied a company’s request for either panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place its August finding that a Utah federal judge was wrong to hold that a patent was directed to an abstract idea by conflating a “rather simple mechanical invention” for stacking dumbbells with the kind of computerized automation that is often unpatentable as abstract.

  • October 15, 2025

    Willful Infringement Claim Survives Dismissal In Gene Sequencing Patent Dispute

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware denied a biotechnology company’s motion to partially dismiss a patent infringement complaint brought against it by a research institution, finding that the research entity plausibly alleged willful infringement of two of its cancer-detection patents based on related European patent disputes.

  • October 10, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidation Of Hearing Device Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Across three opinions issued Oct. 9, two panels in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a series of decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated multiple claims in three patents related to hearing devices, with the panels agreeing with PTAB that prior art references rendered the patents’ claims obvious.