- Roche Challenges $171M Patent Judgment At Federal Circuit – Meso Scale Diagnostic’s $171M verdict has been appealed by Roche to the Federal Circuit on Wednesday.
- Raytheon Engine Patent Wrongly Nixed by “Futuristic” Invention – In a precedential opinion issued Thursday, the Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s decision to invalidate Raytheon’s patent based on obviousness.
- Federal Circuit Told Albright Has “Impossible Barrier” To Stay Cases – The Federal Circuit received a petition for a writ of mandamus to order Judge Albright to grant a stay during a review by the PTAB.
Here’s the latest.
Roche Challenges $171M Patent Judgment At Federal Circuit
Reported by Adam Lidgett at Law360
The Federal Circuit will hear an appeal from Roche on its loss in 2019 resulting in a $171 million jury verdict. Adam Lidgett summarizes the brief submitted by Roche where it focused on the interpretation of Meso Scale Diagnostic’s license for laboratory testing system patents from iGen Technologies. Meso had interpreted the license as giving complete control to Meso, but Roche argues that this interpretation is not accurate as iGen continued to license the patents to companies such as Roche.
“Only in this litigation, 22 years after obtaining its license, did Meso first proffer the license interpretation that it, rather than iGen, controlled the entirety of former iGen patent claims,” Wednesday’s brief said.
Roche had purchased the company BioVeris to obtain more expansive rights to iGen’s patents, but Meso won at the trial court and the lower court adjusted the award after reversing a willfulness finding from $137 million to $171 million.
Raytheon Engine Patent Wrongly Nixed by “Futuristic” Invention
Reported by Perry Cooper at Bloomberg Law
On Thursday, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion in Raytheon Technologies Corp. v. General Electric Co. overturning the PTAB’s finding of obviousness regarding Raytheon’s patent. Perry Cooper recapped the decision focusing on Raytheon’s patent concerning an airplane invention. The PTAB had invalidated the patent as obvious based on a 1987 NASA technical memorandum, but GE had only provided evidence that the reference was self-enabling and did not provide any evidence that a POSITA could have made the invention. In the decision, the Federal Circuit focused on the PTAB’s failure to address whether the reference was actually self-enabling.
“This error propagates throughout the board’s enablement analysis, which fails to address whether Knip enables the claimed invention,” the court said.
For more information, see our coverage.
Federal Circuit Told Albright Has “Impossible Barrier” To Stay Cases
Reported by Tiffany Hu at Law360
Vulcan Industrial Holdings is seeking intervention from the Federal Circuit after Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas denied a stay during a review of Kerr Pump’s patent by the PTAB. Tiffany Hu covers the petition where Vulcan argued that Judge Albright’s reasons including holding a trial before the PTAB issues a decision and his belief in the right to a trial by jury created an impossibly high standard to meet.
“[T]hose reasons would prevent the district court from ever granting a motion to stay, and therefore, preclude any exercise of discretion,” Vulcan wrote. “Moreover, an examination of the district court’s reasoning shows that this bias pervades the entirety of its opinion.”
Kerr Pumps had filed its case in the Western District of Texas alleging infringement of its patent covering technology in the oil and gas industry. The PTAB instituted a review on Vulcan’s request in December, but that was not enough for Judge Albright to stay the case. Kerr has until May 22 to respond to the petition for a writ of mandamus.