In Medtronic, Inc., Medtronic Vascular, Inc. v. Teleflex Innovations S.A.R.L., the case addresses whether the final written decisions in a consolidated inter partes appeal (“IPR”) correctly found that U.S. Patent 7,736,355 (“the ’355 patent”) does not qualify as prior art to related U.S. Patents 8,048,032, RE45,380, RE45,776, RE45,760, and RE47,379 (collectively, “the challenged patents”) under pre-AIA’s first-to-invent provisions.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB’s Ruling of Swearing Behind a Prior Art Reference

In Medtronic, Inc., Medtronic Vascular, Inc., v. Teleflex Innovations S.A.R.L., the case addresses the weight the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) should give to the intended purpose of a primary reference when evaluating a Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art’s (POSITA) motivation to combine that primary reference with secondary references.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Weighs in on Relevance of Primary Reference’s Intended Purpose to a POSITA’s Motivation to Combine

In Malvern Panalytical Inc. v. TA Instruments-Waters LLC, the Federal Circuit addressed the proper construction of the claim term “pipette guiding mechanism.” Specifically, the Federal Circuit found the plain and ordinary meaning of “pipette guiding mechanism” sufficient and addressed how various claim construction doctrines affected its analysis, including the use of a non-related patent cited in an IDS as intrinsic evidence.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Vacates District Court’s Claim Construction of the Term “Pipette Guiding Mechanism”

In United Therapeutics Corp. v Liquidia Tech Inc., the Federal Circuit reviewed the district court’s decision on invalidity and infringement of two pharmaceutical patents and the impact of the Final Written Decision (FWD) in a parallel inter-partes review (IPR) upon the district court’s decision.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Evaluates Impact of the Final Written Decision (FWD) in a Parallel Inter-Partes Review (IPR) on District Court’s decision of Invalidity and Infringement

In its first opportunity to apply the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties v. VIP Products LLC, which held that the First Amendment did not protect infringing works that “use [the complainant’s] mark [ ] as a mark,” the Second Circuit upheld an Eastern District of New York order enjoining art collective MSCHF from offering its “Wavy Baby” sneaker that likely infringed Vans’ marquee “Old Skool” sneaker. See Vans, Inc. v. MSCHF Prod. Studio, Inc., 602 F. Supp. 3d 358 (E.D.N.Y. 2022). The Vans case and appeal had both been stayed pending the outcome of Jack Daniel’s.Continue Reading Second Circuit Finds Art Collective Can’t Use First Amendment to Skate Out of Injunction

In Medronic, Inc. v. Teleflex Life Sciences Limited, 2022-1721, 2022-1722 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 16, 2023), the Federal Circuit considered whether U.S. Patent RE46,116 (“the ’116 patent”) was entitled to an alleged priority date sufficient to moot Medtronic’s asserted pre-AIA §102(e) prior art reference, which depended on whether Medtronic had waived its challenged to Teleflex’s asserted priority date by attempting to incorporate those arguments by reference in its Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) petitions, and whether the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) correctly found that Teleflex sufficiently demonstrated not only the date of conception, but also that the inventors had diligently reduced the claimed invention to practice.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Rebukes Attempt to Incorporate Arguments by Reference to a Related IPR Petition

App developers who pay 30% commission fee to Apple via In-App Purchasing should take note of an important legal decision recently presented to the Supreme Court for possible review. The Supreme Court’s decision whether to take the case, and its ultimate decision if it does take the case, will directly affect the commission that developers must pay Apple to sell their products using the App Store. In particular, Apple has asked the Supreme Court to limit the scope of a permanent injunction issued against it by a lower federal court in the Northern District of California in Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple, Inc. and upheld on appeal by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Epic also filed a separate petition requesting Supreme Court review of the lower court’s rejection of certain antitrust claims, but this blog only discusses the petition filed by Apple.) Continue Reading Will Supreme Court Consider Whether to Allow an Alternative to In-App Purchasing on the App Store?