Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- an article detailing how Judge Stark “has presided over slightly more wins for patent owners than accused infringers compared to federal judges nationwide”;
- another article expanding on how Judge “Stark’s Delaware court is one of the most active patent courts in the country, and also hears a wide range of other disputes involving major companies”;
- another article discussing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s reversal of a decision where “no reasonable fact finder could find an expectation of success based on the teachings of that same prior art”; and
- a blog post emphasizing a recent trend of how “in recent opinions the Federal Circuit seems to have adopted the ‘(cleaned up)’ citation when citing ‘busy’ sources.”
Angela Morris filed an article with IAM explaining how President Biden’s potential nominee and current District of Delaware Judge Leonard Stark “has presided over slightly more wins for patent owners than accused infringers compared to federal judges nationwide.” Morris noted that “[his] extensive background will please patent practitioners hoping for a nominee with experience similar to that of Judge Kathleen O’Malley.”
Blake Brittain reported for Reuters on how Judge “Stark’s Delaware court is one of the most active patent courts in the country, and also hears a wide range of other disputes involving major companies.” Brittain explained that Judge “Stark’s decisions in Delaware, the second most active federal court for patent cases, have often involved major pharmaceutical companies.”
Matthew Schutte authored an article for IPWatchdog discussing how the Federal Circuit, in University of Strathclyde v. Clear-VU Lighting LLC, “reversed a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s PTAB that University of Strathclyde’s patent claims for a method for photoinactivating antibiotic-resistant bacteria without using a photosensitizing agent were unpatentable.” Schutte noted that the court clarified that, “where the prior art evidences only failures to achieve that at which the inventors succeeded, no reasonable fact finder could find an expectation of success based on the teachings of that same prior art.”
Bill Vobach wrote a blog post for 717 Madison Place highlighting how “in recent opinions the Federal Circuit seems to have adopted the ‘(cleaned up)’ citation when citing ‘busy’ sources.” Vobach emphasized that “[t]he ‘(cleaned up)’ citation allows a writer to make an argument more forcefully by eliminating some of the distracting citation details that have traditionally been involved in legal writing.”