Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- an article about a mandamus petition claiming “U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal ‘unlawfully’ interfered with a patent validity challenge”; and
- a blog post about the Federal Circuit denying “General Motor’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to compel Judge Alan Albright to transfer a patent infringement case.”
Kelcee Griffis wrote an article for Bloomberg Law about a mandamus petition filed by Patent Quality Assurance LLC claiming “U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal ‘unlawfully’ interfered with a patent validity challenge tied to the historic $2 billion infringement verdict against Intel Corp.” Griffis reported how, in December 2022, “PTO Director Kathi Vidal found that PQA . . . abused the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s inter partes review process, attempting to leverage their patent challenges to extract money from other participants amid proposed settlement negotiations.” Griffis explained how “PQA urged the Federal Circuit to differentiate it from [other parties], saying it ‘did everything an IPR petitioner should do and normally does’ and simply responded to settlement talks that OpenSky initiated.”
Eileen McDermott wrote a blog post for IPWatchdog about the Federal Circuit denying “General Motor’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to compel Judge Alan Albright to transfer a patent infringement case to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.” McDermott noted how “IV sued GM in Albright’s Western District of Texas court for infringing 12 patents covering services and products installed in GM cars, including certain features of GM’s OnStar service.” McDermott reported that “GM moved to transfer the case to Michigan, arguing that ‘the employees most knowledgeable about . . . the accused products’” are in Michigan.