Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:
- an article discussing how the Federal Circuit “appeared skeptical of U.S. President Donald Trump’s argument that a 1977 law historically used for sanctioning enemies or freezing their assets gave him the power to impose tariffs”;
- a piece highlighting how Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart “addressed rumors that the Trump administration is considering a new fee on the values of patents”;
- an article describing how Acting Director Stewart said the USPTO would no longer waive a statutory requirement that petitions for inter partes review “must specify where each element of the claim is found in the prior art patents or printed publications relied on”;
- a piece covering how the USPTO “is ramping up its internal generative AI tools and is preparing to roll out an AI training portal ‘very soon’ to help the workforce become more comfortable using GenAI”; and
- a blog post suggesting the Federal Circuit “recently expanded its doctrine associated with specification changes in family member patent applications—using minor changes in the specification [to] justify differing claim construction across a patent family.”
Jan Wolfe and Dietrich Knauth authored an article for Reuters discussing how the Federal Circuit “appeared skeptical of U.S. President Donald Trump’s argument that a 1977 law historically used for sanctioning enemies or freezing their assets gave him the power to impose tariffs.” The authors indicated their belief that, “[r]egardless of how the court rules, the litigation is almost certainly headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Thresea Schliep penned a piece on Law360 highlighting how Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart “addressed rumors that the Trump administration is considering a new fee on the values of patents.” According to Schliep, Stewart stated that “Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is ‘very concerned’ about the ‘disconnect’ between the low costs of obtaining patents and their huge worth.”
Melissa Ritti wrote an article on MLex describing how Acting Director Stewart said the USPTO would no longer waive a statutory requirement that petitions for inter partes review “must specify where each element of the claim is found in the prior art patents or printed publications relied on.” Ritti explained that Stewart’s decision “supersedes 2020 and 2022 memoranda by former Directors Andrei Iancu and Kathi Vidal . . . with Morgan deeming the prior guidelines inconsistent with Federal Circuit precedent.”
Weslan Hansen penned a piece posted to MeriTalk covering how the USPTO “is ramping up its internal generative AI tools and is preparing to roll out an AI training portal ‘very soon’ to help the workforce become more comfortable using GenAI.” According to Hansen, “the agency is planning to roll out its internal generative AI tool known as ‘Scout’ to the entire USPTO enterprise in October.”
Dennis Crouch published a blog post on PatentlyO suggesting the Federal Circuit “recently expanded its doctrine associated with specification changes in family member patent applications—using minor changes in the specification [to] justify differing claim construction across a patent family.” Crouch noted how “[t]his is helpful for careful patent attorneys, but also requires care when drafting non-provisional applications claiming priority back to a provisional.”