Newsletters

08.17.21

Non-Enabled Futuristic Engine Could Not Invalidate Claimed Turbine Engine

  In Raytheon Technologies Corporation v. General Electric Company, the Federal Circuit held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board incorrectly invalidated a Raytheon turbine engine patent as obvious based on a three-decade-old paper that attempted to prophetically describe an earlier ...


08.03.21

Final Rules of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Patent Attorneys at U.S. Patent Office

The Patent Office has amended the rules regarding representation under 37 CFR part 11, effective June 25, 2021.


07.20.21

Functional Claims Have a Higher Bar for Enablement; Broad Genus of Antibodies Fails Requirement

In Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, the Federal Circuit held that the use of broad functional claim language raises the bar for enablement.


07.06.21

User Identification Module Held Means-Plus-Function Element, Lacked Structure/Algorithm and Invalid

In Rain Computing, Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., the Federal Circuit held that the claimed language “user identification module” was a means-plus-function element with no corresponding structure disclosed in the specification and was therefore invalid for being indefinite.


06.22.21

Google’s Copying of APIs Held Transformative and Fair Use

In Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., the Supreme Court, in a 6–2 decision written by Justice Breyer, held that Google’s copying of Oracle’s Java application programming interface naming convention was a fair use as a matter of law.


06.08.21

Improving User Experience for Computer Simulation Held Not Patent Eligible

The Federal Circuit held that an invention that improved a user’s experience did not improve computer functionality and therefore was not patent eligible.


05.25.21

Interpretation of Simple Claim Language “Command Function” Doomed Obviousness Challenge

In Comcast Cable Communications, LLC v. Promptu Systems Corp., the Federal Circuit held that the plain meaning of the claim phrase “command function” was limited to functions that command an action to be taken.


04.20.21

Claim Term ‘Target’ Held Indefinite Because Inanimate Object Cannot Set a Goal

In Horizon Pharma, Inc. v. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc., the Federal Circuit held that the claim language “the AM and PM unit dose forms further target a mean % time” as indefinite because the phrase was incomprehensible.


04.06.21

Words Matter: Main Power Source Held to Encompass Both AC and DC Power Sources

In Network-1 Technologies, Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Co., the Federal Circuit held the claim term “main power source” was interpreted to include both AC and DC power sources, especially where specification never described that a DC power source was an essential feature of the main power ...


03.23.21

Final Rule to Assign Burden of Persuasion on Motions to Amend in Trial Proceedings

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued final rules in inter partes review, post-grant review and the transitional program for covered business method patents proceedings (collectively, post-grant trial proceedings) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to allocate the burdens of ...