While the European Commission’s extensive modernization of the state aid rules proceeds, Sweden will have to wait for a national legislation regarding the application of the European Union’s state aid rules since the legislative process has been delayed. As case law from the Swedish courts show, Swedish administrative courts have to assess state aid cases by applying the Swedish Act on Local Governance ...
INVT SPE LLC v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, Appeal No. 2020-1903 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 31, 2022) In its only precedential patent case last week, the Federal Circuit issued a lengthy opinion that revolved around claims that are drawn to “capability,” particularly for computer-implemented claims ...
Polaris Innovations Ltd. v. Brent, Appeal No. 2019-1483 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 15, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit provided what appears to be its first precedential opinion construing Section 317 of the Patent Act—a provision concerning the effect of settlement during an America Invents Act (AIA) proceeding. The Court’s opinion construes the statute in ways that may be unexpected for parties who seek to settle inter partes review (IPR) petitions ...
Arendi S.A.R.L. v. LG Electronics Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1967 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 7, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the District of Delaware’s application of the duplicative litigation doctrine. Arendi sued LG for patent infringement, claiming that hundreds of LG products, including LG’s Rebel 4 camera, infringed Arendi’s patent ...
PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK Thaler v. Vidal, Appeal No. 2021-2347 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 5, 2022) In its only precedential patent decision this week, the Federal Circuit answered a question that had long occupied the musings of law professors, students, and legal theorists everywhere: whether artificial intelligence software can be listed as an inventor on a patent application. It cannot ...
Best Medical International, Inc. v. Elekta Inc., Appeal Nos. 2021-2099, -2100 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit addressed issues of jurisdiction where a challenged claim was canceled through ex parte reexamination during pending inter partes review proceedings, and otherwise affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s determination that challenged claims were obvious over the prior art ...
This week, we provide extensive write-ups about two consequential decisions issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concerning two procedural issues under the America Invents Act (“AIA”), both following Supreme Court decisions. In In re: Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Appeal No. 2022-145 (Fed. Cir. Aug ...
Hologic, Inc. v. Minerva Surgical, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2019-2054, -2081 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 11, 2022) Our Case of the Week follows the Hologic saga as it returns to the Federal Circuit on remand from the Supreme Court’s decision vacating the prior Federal Circuit opinion in 2021. We covered that decision here. The case concerns the doctrine of assignor estoppel. In this decision on remand, the Federal Circuit concluded that assignor estoppel applied ...
Pavo Solutions LLC v. Kingston Technology Company, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1834 (Fed. Cir. June 3, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a $7M compensatory damages award and, in doing so, dealt with questions of when a district court can correct errors in patent claims, whether a defendant can willfully infringe a patent that has been judicially corrected, when to exclude expert testimony, and when an issue has been preserved for appeal ...
Novartis Pharms. Corp. v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1070 (Fed. Cir. June 21, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit granted panel rehearing of and vacated its prior decision in Novartis Pharms. Corp. v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., 21 F.4th 1362 (Fed. Cir. 2022). Our write-up of that opinion can be found here ...
University of Massachusetts v. L’Oréal S.A., Appeal No. 2021-1969 (Fed. Cir. June 13, 2022) In an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the Federal Circuit addressed (1) whether the district court relied on the proper claim construction to arrive at its indefiniteness conclusion; and (2) whether UMass was entitled to jurisdictional discovery before the district court granted a motion to dismiss based on lack of personal jurisdiction ...
Mitek Systems, Inc. v. United Services Automobile Association, Appeal No. 2021-1989 (Fed. Cir. May 20, 2022) Our Case of the Week this week is a declaratory judgment action brought against USAA. In a 27-page opinion, the Federal Circuit addressed three issues: subject matter jurisdiction for declaratory judgment actions under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the discretionary authority of courts to decline declaratory judgment jurisdiction, and venue for hearing such a case ...
Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. v. U.S. Venture, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2020-1640, -1641 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 29, 2022) Our case of the week has a little bit for everyone, including lost profits, reasonable royalties, enhanced damages, claim construction, and more. However, the primary issue was application of the experimental use exception to the on-sale bar. The experimental use exception, which traces to City of Elizabeth v. Am. Nicholson Pavement Co., 97 U.S ...
Atlanta Gas Light Company v. Bennett Regulator Guards Inc., Appeal Nos. 2021-1759 (Fed. Cir. May 13, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit Court addressed the third appeal from an underlying inter partes review proceeding in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision holding time-bar determinations as unreviewable. The Court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction ...
Niazi Licensing Corporation v. St. Jude Medical SC, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1864 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 11, 2022) The Federal Circuit’s only precedential patent decision this week comes on appeal from a district court decision finding invalidity, granting summary judgment of no induced infringement, and imposing sanctions pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37 ...
Littelfuse, Inc. v. Mersen USA EP Corp., Appeal No. 2021-2013 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 4, 2022) Our Case of the Week focuses on the issue of claim construction, and, more specifically, the doctrine of claim differentiation. The patent at issue was directed to a “fuse end cap for providing an electrical connection between a fuse and an electrical conductor ...
The Federal Circuit issued numerous precedential opinions last week, two of which answered long simmering questions about inter partes reviews (IPRs). Below we discuss a case addressing whether admissions of prior art in the patent itself can be considered as prior art in an IPR. Our Case of the Week reversed Federal Circuit precedent concerning the scope of IPR Estoppel ...
Biogen International GMBH v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Appeal No. 2020-1933 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 30, 2021) For the second time in two weeks, our Case of the Week focuses on the written description requirement, in particular where the patent claims a range. In fact, all three precedential decisions issued this week concern issues relating to patents that claim numerical ranges. Below, we discuss two of those cases in our “Also This Week” section ...
Treehouse Avatar LLC v. Valve Corp., Appeal No. 2022-1171 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 30, 2022) In the only precedential patent opinion issued by the Federal Circuit this week, the Court affirmed a district court’s summary judgment ruling that appellee Valve Corporation’s popular “Dota 2” and “Team Fortress 2” online videogames did not infringe Treehouse Avatar’s U.S. Patent No ...
AstraZeneca AB v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1729 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 8, 2021) Our Case of the Week again focuses on numerical values in claims. Last week we addressed a case involving whether there was written description support for a number in a claim, and we addressed a similar issue the week before. This week, our case focuses on the meaning and scope of a number in a claim ...
University of Strathclyde v. Clear-Vu Lighting LLC, Appeal No. 2021-2243 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 4, 2021) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit reversed an inter partes review decision finding claims directed to light-based disinfecting methods to be obvious over the prior art. This case provides a helpful example of how negative claim limitations can affect an obviousness determination ...
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Motorola Mobility LLC, Appeal Nos 2021-1555, -1795 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 4, 2022) Our Case of the Week is ostensibly a case about whether a patent owner has standing to sue when that patent holder has granted an exclusive license. But the case turns on the application of collateral estoppel, when Uniloc, the patent owner, dismissed an appeal against Apple in an unrelated suit concerning the same facts. The case sounds like a cautionary tale about dismissing cases on appeal ...
American National Manufacturing Inc. v. Sleep Number Corporation, Appeal Nos. 2021-1321, -1323, -1379, -1382 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 14, 2022) In an appeal from inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the Federal Circuit, among other issues, addressed whether PTAB erred in allowing patent owner Sleep Number to amend challenged claims by adding changes that did not directly respond to challenges by petitioner American National ...
Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Inc., Appeal Nos. 2020-1683, -1763, -1764, 1827 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 10, 2021) Our Case of the Week reinforces a developing body of law concerning standing to appeal from an adverse PTAB decision in an IPR. This is the second such decision arising from a global settlement between Apple and Qualcomm this year. We wrote about the first case, in April this year, here ...
In re: Apple Inc., Appeal No. 2022-162 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 8, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit granted Apple’s petition for mandamus, directing the District Court for the Western District of Texas to vacate a scheduling order that would require Apple and counter-party Aire Technology Ltd ...
