FedCircuitBlog

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 a “California software company has warned that a venue dispute it lost at the Federal Circuit . . . has opened the door ‘for improper venue to be rectified by new facts arising any time throughout litigation’”;
• an article about “more than half a dozen amicus briefs” urging the Federal Circuit “to keep the [design patent] law as is in order to avoid major disruptions”; and
• an article about the future of AI, highlighting the Federal Circuit’s holding that “AI did not qualify as a human.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:

• an article highlighting five important Federal Circuit rulings so far in 2023;
• a blog post contemplating the idea of intellectual property rights for “AI creations”; and
• an article for discussing the impact of the recent precedential Federal Circuit decision in a patent case addressing obviousness.

Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. With respect to granted cases, there is no new activity to report since our last update. With respect to petitions, seven new petitions were filed, three briefs in opposition, and three reply briefs in support of petitions were filed. The Court also denied four petitions. Here are the details.

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:

• an article about the changing burdens in computer software copyrightability;
• a blog post about potential ethical dilemmas artificial intelligence presents to patent attorneys; and
• an article about a petition for certiorari that “outlined a confusing procedural history that arguably mirrors the broader confusion over Section 101.”

Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. With respect to granted cases, there is no new activity to report since our last update. With respect to petitions, no new petitions were filed with the Court, but the government waived its right to respond in a pro se case; the Solicitor General filed a brief in opposition in two patent cases and another brief in opposition was filed by a private party in one of the same cases; two amicus brief were filed in another patent case, four amicus briefs were filed in a veterans case, and one amicus brief was filed in another patent case; and the Court denied certiorari in a patent case. Here are the details. 

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 Supreme Court petition asking the Court “to weigh whether former Commissioner of Patents . . . had the power to reject a request for director review”;
• another article about another petition filed with the Supreme Court asking it “to review a Federal Circuit decision affirming the partial invalidation of a footwear stitching patent challenged by rival Adidas AG”; and
• a blog post commenting on “AI tools creating inventive output.”

Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. With respect to granted cases, on Monday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case addressing patent law’s enablement requirement. With respect to petitions, two new petitions were filed with the Court in a patent case and veterans case; a party waived its right to respond in another patent case; and the Court denied a petition in a government contract case. Here are the details. 

Last week, the Federal Circuit issued its opinion in Thaler v. Vidal, a patent case we have been watching because it attracted amicus briefs. On appeal, Thaler sought review of a district court’s grant of summary judgment to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which decided that an artificial intelligence machine cannot be an inventor under the Patent Act. In a unanimous opinion authored by Judge Stark and joined by Chief Judge Moore and Judge Taranto, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court. This is our opinion summary.

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 “[a] recent ruling opened the door for an administrative patent tribunal to wipe out certain Federal Circuit decisions, which may entice the full federal appeals court to grant a rare re-hearing request”;
• another article addressing “steps to secure and safeguard US patents for AI-assisted inventions” following the Federal Circuit’s decision in Thaler v. Vidal; and
• a third article asserting that “[i]nventors who revise a patent to overcome an examiner’s finding that the claims are not patent-eligible cannot later walk back those changes through the reissue process.”

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:

• an article addressing how the Federal Circuit recently ruled that “[a]rtificially intelligent machines cannot be named inventors on patents”;
• a blog post similarly discussing that, “for the purposes of patent law, an inventor must be human”; and
• another article arguing that a Federal Circuit holding addressing patent law’s written description requirement, if allowed to stand, “threatens to remove the patent system’s incentives to innovation.”