Last month, the Federal Circuit’s holding in Google LLC v. Hammond Dev. Int’l, Inc.[1] illustrated the importance of raising a collateral estoppel argument when the opportunity arises. In Google LLC v. Hammond Dev. Int’l, Inc., the Court decided the patentability of claims directed to subject matter that was previously held unpatentable following
In American National v. Sleep Number Corporation, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“Board”) decision to allow a patent owner to present proposed amended claims during inter partes review (“IPR”)proceedings that both respond to a ground of unpatentability and make other wording changes unrelated
In the Federal Circuit’s recent decision of CUPP Computing AS v. Trend Micro Inc., the Court made the precedential holding that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) is not bound by a party’s disclaimer in the very IPR proceeding in which it is made, just as a disclaimer in a district court
On October 18, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) posted two notices on Regulations.gov seeking public input on the requirements to practice before the USPTO and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The goal is to expand admission criteria so “more Americans, including those from traditionally under-represented and under-resourced communities, can participate
Last month, in OpenSky Industries v. VLSI Technology LLC, IPR2021-01064 (Oct. 4, 2022), the Director of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a precedential decision regarding abuse of process.
The decision from the Director held that Petitioner OpenSky had abused the IPR process by (1) filing an IPR in an attempt to extract
Since its inception, the PTAB has gained a negative reputation among patent owners, even being referred to as “patent death squads.”[1] However, in the past year the Federal Circuit has provided a glimmer of hope for patent owners through the expansion of inter partes review (IPR) estoppel. Because of Cal. Inst. of Tech. v.
In Polaris Innovations Ltd. v. Brent, No. 2019-1483, 2022 WL 4241665 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 15, 2022), the Federal Circuit faced an appeal that had bounced back and forth between the Court and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) several times while it was caught in the administrative ambiguity resulting from the Arthrex decision.
Background
In 2018, Hunting Titan, Inc. filed a petition for inter partes review (“IPR”) of U.S. Patent No. 9,581,422 (“the ’422 patent”), which is owned by DynaEnergetics Europe GmbH, a manufacturer of industrial explosives. In pertinent part, Hunting Titan asserted in its petition that claims 1-15 of the ’422 patent were unpatentable because they were
On the first of February, in Qualcomm Inc. v. Apple Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“the CAFC”) vacated and remanded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) on two inter partes review (“IPR”) decisions that held claims 1, 2, 5-9, 12, 13, and 16-22 of Qualcomm’s U.S. Patent No.
In late December, in Intel Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., 2020-1828 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 28, 2021), the Federal Circuit found the PTAB erred by accepting Intel’s stipulation concerning the indefiniteness of a means-plus-function claim term. In this opinion, the Federal Circuit explains that in Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings, patentability determinations cannot be circumvented due to