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This article was originally published on PatentlyO.com.

In Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., the Federal Circuit had its first opportunity to address the impact of the “or otherwise available to the public” clause contained in post-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102. In finding that the AIA “did not change the statutory meaning of ‘on sale’ in the circumstances involved here,” the Federal Circuit provided insight into the continued relevance of the forfeiture doctrine of Metallizing Engineering v. Kenyon Bearing.
Continue Reading Metallizing Forfeiture Post-Helsinn

In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit reaffirmed that the Patent Trial and Appeal’s Board (PTAB) is required to explicitly state motivations to combine prior-art references in claim rejections for obviousness.  Rejections that rely on mere statements that a person of ordinary skill in the art reading the prior-art references would understand that the combination would have allowed for claimed features is not enough.
Continue Reading You’re So Vague: Federal Circuit Sends IPR Decision Back to PTAB for More Thorough Analysis

Patent attorneys are often asked the question: “Is my idea patentable?”  Often the idea is related to software or business methods.  Well-known business methods include Amazon’s “1-click shopping” and Priceline’s “reverse auction.”  In the new digital economy, innovative software and business method models have given rise to new very successful companies such as LinkedIn, Uber, and Airbnb.  As important software and business method inventions are in the new digital economy, it is often unclear whether they can be patented.  This uncertainty is largely due to a legal rule that “abstract ideas” are not eligible for patent protection.  This rule originates from a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases, with Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International, decided in June of 2014, being the most recent and influential of these cases.  The basic rationale for the rule is a concern over so-called “preemption” of abstract ideas.  That is to say abstract ideas are the basic building blocks of science and industry, and allowing patents to monopolize abstract ideas can preempt the use of such basic building blocks.
Continue Reading Software and Business Method Inventions After Alice

The Federal Circuit overturned a District Court ruling that a patent directed to automated lip synchronization and manipulation of animated characters’ facial expressions was invalid under Section 101 as being an abstract idea. The patent disclosed that this automation is accomplished through rules that aim to produce more realistic speech by taking into consideration the differences in mouth positions for similar phonemes based on context.
Continue Reading Federal Circuit is In Sync with Patent’s Validity Under Section 101