FedCircuitBlog

• Inventor Group Wants To Halt All New PTAB Reviews – U.S. Inventor has filed an injunction request seeking to bar the PTAB from instituting any new patent reviews. However, unlike several tech companies who want to diminish the authority of the USPTO director to deny institution, U.S. Inventor hopes to enhance it.
• Biogen’s Patent Loss Spotlights Need to Stress Invention Novelty – The Federal Circuit’s recent decision emphasizes the need for patent applicants, particularly when seeking to patent biological drug products, to distinguish their inventions from those previously introduced to the public.
• Federal Circuit: Patent Directed to Physician to Patient Communication System Abstract, Invalid – The Federal Circuit issued an opinion earlier this month, which addressed both Section 101 patent eligibility and recusal under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a).

Here’s the latest.

On Monday, the Federal Circuit issued its opinion in Biogen MA Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc., a case we have been tracking because it attracted an amicus brief. In the opinion, a panel of the court composed of Judges Newman, Linn, and Hughes unanimously reversed the district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law and remanded with instructions to reinstate the jury verdict finding that the patent-in-suit was invalid as anticipated. Here is a summary of the opinion.

This morning, the Federal Circuit issued two precedential opinions in a patent case and a veterans case. The court also issued a nonprecedential order denying a petition for a writ of mandamus that would have directed a district court to stay proceedings. Here are the introductions to the opinions and text from the order.

About once a month we provide an update on activity in patent cases pending before panels of the Federal Circuit where the cases involve at least one amicus brief. We keep track of these patent cases in the “Other Cases” section of our blog. There we also highlight non-patent cases that attract amicus briefs, but only once those cases have been scheduled for oral argument. Today, with respect to these cases we highlight three dispositions, four recent oral arguments, and one upcoming oral argument.

Our final argument recap this month comes in Biogen MA Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc. As we noted in our argument preview, in this case the court confronts invalidity and infringement arguments related to IFN-β-related polypeptides, which can be used to treat multiple sclerosis. Last Friday, the parties (Plaintiff-Appellee Biogen MA, Inc. and Defendants-Appellants EMD Serono, Inc. and Pfizer Inc.) presented their arguments to a panel of the court that included Judges Newman, Linn, and Hughes.

This week, the Federal Circuit will hold 16 panel hearings and hear oral arguments in about 58 cases. Amicus briefs were filed in four of these cases. The first of these is a patent case dealing with patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The second case addresses the issue of obviousness-type double patenting. The third is a takings case involving a notice of interim trail use. The fourth case focuses on invalidity and infringement standards for the administration of a multiple sclerosis treatment. Continue reading for more information about each of the featured cases.

Next week is argument week at the Federal Circuit, and four cases slated to be argued attracted amicus briefs. A patent case, Biogen MA v. EMD Serono, Inc., drew interest from Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals on the issue of invalidity of a patent “for the use of recombinant IFN-β ‘polypeptides’ to treat various diseases.” Here is our argument preview.

As a reminder, once a month we provide an update on activity in patent cases pending before panels of the Federal Circuit where the cases involve at least one amicus brief. We keep track of these patent cases in the “Other Cases” section of our blog. (There we also highlight non-patent cases that attract amicus brief, but only once those cases have been scheduled for oral argument.) Today, with respect to patent cases, we highlight one new opinion, a recent oral argument, and three upcoming oral arguments.