Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- an article discussing how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “introduced new production goals for judges on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, asking them to publish decisions on appeals of denied patent applications within 12 months and issue more rulings each month”;
- a report noting the Federal Circuit “dismissed a legal claim against the NFL’s New Orleans Saints from a man who says he is the ‘direct descendant of the Kings of France’ over the trademark of the flour-de-lis symbol”;
- a piece reporting that Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, posted on X “delete all IP law”;
- a blog post criticizing a recent Federal Circuit decision’s use of “the increasingly fictional construct at the center of patent law: the Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art (PHOSITA)”; and
- an article covering how the Patent and Trademark Office recently “announced a new working group dedicated to broadening the Office’s efforts to mitigate common threats to the U.S. patent system.”
Aruni Soni filed an article with Bloomberg Law discussing how the Patent and Trademark Office “introduced new production goals for judges on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, asking them to publish decisions on appeals of denied patent applications within 12 months and issue more rulings each month.” Soni stated the new goals will require the judges to “reach a maximum 12-month pendency for ex parte appeals absent ‘exceptional circumstances’ within the coming 6 months. Soni explained the judges must “boost their appeals output to roughly 500 decisions a month, up from roughly 350.”
Ben Morse wrote an report for CNN noting the Federal Circuit “dismissed a legal claim against the NFL’s New Orleans Saints from a man who says he is the ‘direct descendant of the Kings of France’ over the trademark of the flour-de-lis symbol.” Morse highlighted how the court found the claim to be unsupported by evidence, “suggesting that neither [the claimant] nor his family currently use the fleur-de-lis in any commercial capacity to merit consideration.” For more information, check out the relevant opinion in Messier v. New Orleans Louisiana Saints, LLC.
Anthony Ha authored a piece for Yahoo! Finance reporting that Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, posted on X “delete all IP law.” Ha discussed how “Elon Musk, quickly replied, ‘I agree.'” Ha explained how these comments “come at a time when AI companies, including OpenAI (which Musk co-founded, competes with, and is challenging in court), are facing numerous lawsuits alleging that they’ve violated copyright to train their models.”
Dennis Crouch penned a blog post for PatentlyO criticizing a recent Federal Circuit decision’s use of “the increasingly fictional construct at the center of patent law: the Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art (PHOSITA).” Crouch suggested the decision “continues a troubling evolution in which courts attribute unrealistic knowledge and capabilities to the hypothetical PHOSITA, creating an ever-widening gap between this legal fiction and the actual capabilities of real-world mechanics and artisans.” For more information, check out the relevant opinion in Sage Products, LLC v. Stewart.
Eileen McDermott authored an article for IP Watchdog covering how the Patent and Trademark Office recently “announced a new working group dedicated to broadening the Office’s efforts to mitigate common threats to the U.S. patent system.” McDermott noted that the “group has been dubbed the Patent Fraud Detection and Mitigation Working Group and it ‘represents the agency’s continued commitment to limit improper activity in patent applications and reexamination proceedings at USPTO and reduce patent application pendency.'”