Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. There was a new petition filed in a patent case concerning questions about inter partes review, and there was a new amicus brief filed in another patent case. Here are the details.
Granted Cases
There is no new activity to report.
Petitions
New Petition
Since our last update, one new petition was filed with the Court in Provisur Technologies, Inc. v. Weber, Inc., a patent case presenting the following questions:
- “Did the Federal Circuit err by holding that a product manual distributed with an on sale product necessarily constitutes a printed publication that can be asserted in an IPR, notwithstanding other considerations such as limited distribution, prohibitively high cost, confidentiality restrictions, and industry practice and expectations?”
- “Was the Federal Circuit’s determination that a product manual constitutes a printed publication because it was distributed with an on-sale product consistent with 35 U.S.C. § 311(b), which expressly excludes ‘on sale’ prior art from grounds that may be asserted in inter partes review?”
Amicus Brief
One new amicus brief was filed in Eolas Technologies Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., a patent case presenting the following questions:
- “Whether claims drawn to solving specific problems restricting the usefulness of an existing computer-network technology recite patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014).”
- “Whether Alice’s two-step eligibility analysis under § 101 can properly subsume considerations of conventionality, functional claiming, and specificity of description—which traditionally fall under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102, 103, and 112.”
- “Whether the claims of the ’507 patent are eligible for patenting under § 101 and Alice.”
The amicus brief was filed by the following entity in support of a grant of certiorari: