FedCircuitBlog

Federal Circuit PTAB Appeal Statistics through April 30, 2021 – In an article posted to the National Law Review, Daniel Klodowski and Elliot Cook reported on statistics related to the Federal Circuit’s resolution of appeals from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Partial Victory for L’Oreal In Hair Coloring Fight – Jillian Ambrose and Christine Hawes posted to CrowellTradeSecretsTrends.com about a recent opinion by the Federal Circuit in a trade secrets battle between Olaplex, Inc. and L’Oreal.

Vaccine Injury Victim Gets Pay, Despite Medical Records Silence – Mary Anne Pazanowski explained how a Vaccine Act claimant was awarded compensation after the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision.

Here is the latest.

• Can a Patent Violate the Laws of Chemistry and Physics? – In this blog post, Audrey Millemann of TheIPBlog.com explains that the quick answer is no, patents may not violate the laws of chemistry and physics.
• Federal Circuit Reaffirms Targeted Advertising Is an Abstract Concept – On NationalLawReview.com, three Finnegan attorneys report on a recent determination by the Federal Circuit that certain claims were directed to an abstract idea of targeted advertising.

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• Federal Circuit Affirms Decision to Vacate Judgment Following Evidence of Fraud – Joseph Marinelli at JDSupra.com commented on a recent decision by the Federal Circuit that may have implications in future attempts to vacate a final judgments based on allegations of fraud, misrepresentation, or misconduct by an opposing party.
• Federal Circuit Revives Trimble Patent Claims in Jurisdiction Ruling – Blake Brittain from Reuters reported about the Federal Circuit’s reversal of a district court’s decision to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.
• License Agreement Not Enough for Standing on Appeal of an IPR Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Inc. – Alexandra Leigh Lodge and George E. Quillin reported for NationalLawReview.com about how Apple was unable to prove that it had standing to appeal final written decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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• Consensus-Building Judge Taking the Reins at Federal Circuit – According to Perry Cooper at BloombergLaw.com, as the new Chief of the Federal Circuit, Judge Moore could try to bring the court together on sticky issues.
• Court Reverses Ruling Critics Said Left Feds Vulnerable to Retaliation, Citing ‘Magnitude’ of Errors – Eric Katz at GovernmentExecutive.com commented on a recent employment law decision by the Federal Circuit reversing the Merit Systems Protection Board.
• Australian Company Loses Ugg Trademark Battle – Yan Zhuang from the New York Times reported on a Federal Circuit trademark decision that reportedly “hits a nerve for Australians, who consider [Ugg] footwear a national, if unfashionable, symbol.”

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• Lin Names Sebela Ireland Ltd. v. Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc. as the Case of the Week – In his weekly summary of Federal Circuit activity, Eric Lin named Sebela Ireland Ltd. v. Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc. as his case of the week.
• Spotlight on Upcoming Oral Arguments – May 2021 – Kaitlyn Pehrson summarizes upcoming oral arguments that will occur in the first week of May.
• Welcome To The Next Era of The Federal Circuit – Dani Kass provides an informative overview of how the makeup of the Federal Circuit will change in the near future.

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On Monday, the White House announced that President Biden officially transmitted to the United States Senate the nomination of Tiffany P. Cunningham to become a Circuit Judge of the Federal Circuit. The Senate, in turn, referred the nomination to its Committee on the Judiciary.

• Roche Challenges $171M Patent Judgment At Federal Circuit – Meso Scale Diagnostic’s $171M verdict has been appealed by Roche to the Federal Circuit on Wednesday.
• Raytheon Engine Patent Wrongly Nixed by “Futuristic” Invention – In a precedential opinion issued Thursday, the Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s decision to invalidate Raytheon’s patent based on obviousness.
• Federal Circuit Told Albright Has “Impossible Barrier” To Stay Cases – The Federal Circuit received a petition for a writ of mandamus to order Judge Albright to grant a stay during a review by the PTAB.

Here’s the latest.

• NYIPLA Amicus Brief in Ericsson v. Samsung Advocates the Adjudication of U.S. Patent Rights by U.S. Courts – The New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) recently submitted an amicus brief urging the Federal Circuit to balance the interests of the U.S. in resolving domestic patent protection against the rule of comity.
• Vivint Patent Ruling Upheld Over Belated Appointments Argument – The Federal Circuit ruled that Vivint forfeited the constitutional arguments from Arthrex when it failed to raise such arguments on appeal, even though Arthrex had not yet been issued at the time of the appeal.
• Banks Face Lawsuit ‘Frenzy’ After Business Patent Reviews End – In the last eight months, nearly three times as many patent suits involving financial services patents have been filed against banks and e-commerce companies after the PTO’s covered business method review program expired last September.

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• The Upshot of Google v. Oracle: An Absurd Ruling Will Lead to Absurd Results – This recent decision in copyright law may transform how copyrights in software are viewed and force copyright owners to be more secretive with their code.
• Federal Circuit Appears Unswayed by Patent Board Bias Attack – In oral argument, a majority of the panel seemed skeptical of New Vision’s argument of bias towards institution of IPRs by the PTAB.
• Justices Asked To Revisit “Life Issues” In Tinder’s IP Alice Win – The Supreme Court was asked to reconsider the Federal Circuit’s decision in NetSoc LLC v. Match Group LLC over concerns of the application of Alice to NetSoc’s patent.

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• Supreme Court Backs Google in Copyright Fight With Oracle – A 6-2 ruling ended the decade-long copyright dispute between Google and Oracle over Google’s use of Java programming code in its Android operating system.
• Apple Can’t Appeal Patent Board Rulings After Qualcomm Deal – In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit ruled that a settlement agreement between Apple and Qualcomm bars Apple from challenging a PTAB decision that upheld two Qualcomm patents.
• Fitbit Wins Challenge to Health Technology Patent at Tribunal – On remand from the Federal Circuit, the Patent Trial and Appel Board ruled in favor of Fitbit and concluded that parts of a health-monitoring patent were invalid as obvious.  

Here’s the latest.