Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- a piece written by former Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel assessing how, in his view, “patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are not sufficiently dependable”;
- a blog post discussing how a recent Federal Circuit decision “offers a glimpse into the evolving relationship between utility and enablement in patent law”;
- a report providing an overview of the “Federal Circuit’s reversals and vacaturs in 2024 [Patent Trial and Appeal Board] appeals; and
- a blog post examining how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently “overturned an examiner’s rejections of an application directed to a quantum computing invention.”
Former Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel penned a piece for IP Watchdog assessing how, in his view, “patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are not sufficiently dependable.” Noting how “[i]mproving patent quality along with reliability would actually help both owners and infringement defendants,” he proposed that “big improvements are possible if the examiner actions are re-sequenced to focus first on section 112’s requirements that claim scope must not exceed the enabling and describing scope of the specification.”
Dennis Crouch authored a blog post for PatentlyO discussing how he thinks a recent Federal Circuit decision “offers a glimpse into the evolving relationship between utility and enablement in patent law.” In Crouch’s assessment, the “Full Scope Enablement Doctrine has effectively assumed the gatekeeping role traditionally assigned to Section 101’s Utility Doctrine.”
Erik Puknys and Michelle Rice co-authored a report for Law 360 providing an overview of the “Federal Circuit’s reversals and vacaturs in 2024 [Patent Trial and Appeal Board] appeals.” The co-authors note that, since 2015, the Federal Circuit’s “affirmance rate of the PTAB’s decisions has hovered around 70% to 80%,” but 84% of PTAB decisions were “affirmed in full” by the Federal Circuit in 2024.
Andrew Velzen wrote a blog post for Patent Docs examining how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently “overturned an examiner’s rejections of an application directed to a quantum computing invention.” Velzen explained how, “[e]ven though this decision is based solely on the view of three administrative patent judges at the PTAB, it is notable since there have not yet been a substantial amount of PTAB or Federal Circuit decisions in the technical area of quantum computers.”