FedCircuitBlog

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• a piece suggesting recent decisions by Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart “provide helpful guidance” on how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will interpret and apply new discretionary denial procedures;
• a post criticizing Stewart for having “inundated patent litigators in May and June with dozens of rulings altering the landscape of discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board”;
• an article discussing how “Congress is considering a bill that would effectively overturn” Supreme Court decisions dealing with patent protections, thus “[empowering] US innovators to compete with their rivals in China and Europe on a level playing field”; and
• a blog post indicating “[a]n important recent development in pharmaceutical patent law is the Federal Circuit’s embrace of . . . infringement by drug label.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article discussing how administrative judges at the Merit Systems Protection Board have “seen a flood of new cases land on their dockets, causing their caseloads to increase by the week;”
• a blog post focusing on United States Patent and Trademark Office Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart’s “newly implemented ‘settled expectations’ doctrine that treats patent age as a primary factor for denying institution;”
• a piece claiming “acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart’s discretionary denial in the iRhythm Technologies Inc. v. Welch Allyn Inc. cases on June 6 has sent shockwaves through the patent litigation community;” and
• an article maintaining “[p]roposed legislation to change the process adjudicating patent infringement in cases involving ‘skinny labels’ is a solution in search of a problem.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article examining how “[t]ech companies are embracing an unorthodox appellate procedure to challenge policy shifts expanding the US Patent and Trademark Office director’s power”;
• another article covering how advocacy groups “have thrown their support behind” a challenge to the USPTO’s retroactive application of “a decision withdrawing earlier guidance on when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should not review patent challenges”;
• a post discussing how “certain comments” by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director nominee John Squires “during his Senate Judiciary Confirmation hearing . . . could reflect alignment not only with Acting Director Stewart, but with Congress’s objective when it passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act”;
• a blog post criticizing a recent Federal Circuit decision for offering “a concerning example of the Federal Circuit departing from well-established patent claim construction doctrine”; and
• a piece covering how “James Woodruff II, Trump’s nominee” for the Merit Systems Protection Board, saw his nomination advance out of a Senate committee “on an 8-4 vote.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• a piece suggesting “[r]ecent Trump Administration actions point to enhanced support for patent rights”;
• a report analyzing a “dramatic increase in denials of Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions” following guidance issued on March 24;
• a post discussing how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board “on Thursday designated as informative a Director Review decision,” in which “Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart said the Board abused its discretion by instituting two petitions for inter partes review (IPR) challenging the same claims”; and
• an article discussing how “[t]he U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will establish its new Southeast Regional Outreach office at its Alexandria headquarters,” which reverses “a previous decision to locate the facility in Atlanta.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• a piece suggesting the United States government’s decision to file “a Statement of Interest in . . . a patent infringement in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division,” is “quite telling, and will be taken as extremely good news by patent owners”;
• an article discussing how a “group of five small businesses on Wednesday signed up prominent appellate lawyer Neal Katyal and former federal appeals court judge Michael McConnell to defend their court victory over President Donald Trump’s tariffs”;
• a blog post examining how “[t]he [United States Patent and Trademark Office] has begun implementing a comprehensive enforcement system for false assertions of small entity and micro entity fee status”; and
• a report covering how “Motorola Solutions Inc. challenged the US Patent and Trademark Office’s retroactive application of a policy shift that killed its efforts to invalidate eight patents in administrative proceedings.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article suggesting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s “plan for using AI at the agency to speed up the process of granting patents” expects artificial intelligence vendors “to be paid in exposure rather than cold hard cash”;
• a piece discussing how the Acting Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “has . . . held that patent owners eventually have the right to assume their patents won’t be challenged in inter partes reviews”;
• a report highlighting how “[a] coalition of tech, auto, and manufacturing companies” urged the Federal Circuit “to support a software company’s challenge to a Trump administration policy change at the US Patent and Trademark Office”; and
• a post examining how “predictive analytics firm Recentive” argues “the Federal Circuit’s decision to eliminate all patent protection for novel machine learning applications using established models . . . chills U.S. innovation [in] an incredibly important area of emerging technology.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article describing how “the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is going all-in on generative artificial intelligence solutions to help improve its business operations”;
• a piece examining a recent precedential Federal Circuit holding that “inter partes review estoppel does not extend to arguments that the claimed invention is invalid because it was known or used by others, on sale, or in public use”; and
• an article discussing how “[t]housands of disabled veterans could be eligible for additional retroactive combat-related special compensation after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that federal officials had unfairly capped those payments.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article by a former Federal Circuit judge suggesting “[a] bipartisan consensus is quietly emerging in Washington” to “modernize America’s intellectual property system”;
• a report covering how “John A. Squires, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the US Patent and Trademark Office, was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 20-2 vote”;
• a blog post describing how “the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) posted job openings for patent examiners and trademark examining attorneys on USAJobs.gov,” ending the USPTO’s hiring freeze that was put in place when President Trump took office in January; and
• a blog post examining how the Federal Circuit “stands today with a dramatically different judicial composition than at any point in its 43-year history.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• a report covering how the Federal Circuit “agreed on Tuesday to allow President Trump to maintain many of his tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, extending a pause granted shortly after another panel of judges ruled in late May that the import taxes were illegal”;
• an article describing how “President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed a favorable decision by [the Federal Circuit] over his sweeping tariff policy as a ‘great’ win for the United States”;
• a piece addressing how “[t]he typically apolitical and staid US Patent and Trademark Office has been swept up in the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal workforce”;
• a blog post discussing how “[t]he Trump Administration’s nominee for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director, John Squires, has submitted written responses for the record following his May 21 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee”; and
• an article highlighting how “[t]he acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director’s decision on Friday to reject patent challenges due to the petitioner’s longstanding knowledge of a patent has many attorneys bracing for either a massive rise or dip in Patent Trial and Appeal Board filings.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article covering how the Federal Circuit “ruled Friday that the United States must face potentially billions of dollars in legal claims over a temporary ban on residential evictions during the COVID pandemic that affected millions of landlords”;
• a blog post addressing how “Micron Technology has petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to reverse a discovery order requiring the company to produce 73 pages of its most sensitive source code in paper form to Chinese state-owned semiconductor manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Company”;
• a report describing how the “US Patent and Trademark Office paused TikTok Inc.’s challenges to seven Bluetooth technology patents over concerns about the social media giant’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party”; and
• a piece observing how, “[a]ccording to the request for information posted on SAM.gov Wednesday, USPTO is seeking contractors with new AI tools or IT capabilities that could boost the agency’s efficiency in granting patents, registering trademarks and advancing intellectual property policies.”