Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Patents

  • August 15, 2025

    Federal Circuit Revives Haptic Patent Suit Against Apple After Judgment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in Apple Inc.’s favor on infringement allegations regarding patents for haptic feedback on devices, finding that the judge abused his discretion by striking the patent owner’s expert testimony and erred by importing narrowing claim limitations not supported by the evidence.

  • August 15, 2025

    USAA Tells High Court Federal Circuit Affirmed Arbitrary IPR Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding that its mobile banking patents are invalid; USAA argues in its petition for a writ of certiorari that PTAB acted arbitrarily given opposite decisions regarding its patents on materially similar issues in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings sought by different petitioners.

  • August 14, 2025

    Federal Circuit Reverses Jury’s Infringement Finding In DNA Sequencing Kit Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 13 reversed a Delaware federal jury’s finding that a genetic sequencing kit-maker infringed a competitor’s patents and owed $4.7 million in damages; the panel held that no reasonable jury could have found that the accused product met multiple specifications of the patents at issue.

  • August 14, 2025

    Texas Federal Judge Rejects Fees For Microsoft After Patent Judgment

    AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas denied Microsoft Corp.’s motion for attorney fees in a patent infringement suit filed against it, despite a federal magistrate judge’s recommendation that Microsoft’s motion be partially granted; the judge disagreed with the magistrate judge’s assessment that the plaintiff company’s post-discovery conduct did not justify finding that the case was “exceptional.”

  • August 13, 2025

    E-Cig Maker To High Court: Federal Circuit Gets Patent Damages Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Electronic cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a jury’s award of more than $95 million in damages for infringing on another company’s tobacco pod technology conflicts with Supreme Court precedent on the apportionment of damages in patent infringement cases.

  • August 12, 2025

    Federal Circuit Revives Dumbbell Patent Row, Reversing Invalidity

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 11 that a federal judge in Utah was wrong to find that a patent was directed to an abstract idea, conflating a “rather simple mechanical invention” for stacking dumbbells with the kind of computerized automation that is often unpatentable as abstract.

  • August 12, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB’s Invalidation Of Bone Plate Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) correctly invalidated all challenged claims in two related inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming PTAB’s finding that the claims in the patents relate to bone plates for certain types of foot surgery.

  • August 11, 2025

    Federal Circuit Reverses Jury’s Finding That LG Infringed Display Unit Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 8 reversed a New Jersey federal jury’s finding of willful infringement, holding that LG Electronics Inc. and a related entity successfully showed that two claims of the patent at issue were invalid for lack of an adequate written description because the patent’s specification does not claim possession of a disputed claim limitation.

  • August 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB’s Reasoning Not Specific Enough In X-Ray Security IPR

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 7 that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not adequately explain its finding that a patent related to an X-ray system for scanning cargo containers was rendered anticipated and obvious by prior art references, vacating and remanding for further proceedings.

  • August 06, 2025

    Federal Circuit Largely OKs Rejection Of Petitioner’s Arguments In Electrical IPRs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 5 that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not fully consider an inter partes review (IPR) petitioner’s obviousness arguments due to an incorrect analysis of a prior art combination in a patent dispute involving an electrical safety device.

  • August 05, 2025

    PTAB’s Constructions Right In Network Speed IPRs, Federal Circuit Holds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed eight inter partes review (IPR) decisions made by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), holding that substantial evidence supported the board’s constructions of disputed claim terms in its consideration of patents describing a system for improving network communication speed.

  • August 05, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Wrong Construction Of ‘Composition’ Causes Erroneous Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a Pennsylvania federal judge improperly imported a claim limitation into a term when considering a preliminary injunction in a patent infringement dispute over the active ingredients in pest control products.

  • August 04, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rethink Groupon’s Estoppel Arguments, Despite Dissent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The full Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 1 denied Groupon Inc.’s petition for either en banc or panel rehearing, rejecting the company’s contention that an appeals court panel erred when it held that a patent owner’s infringement claims in a Delaware federal court were not estopped by a previous decision by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB); in a dissenting opinion, two circuit judges said that the opinion cannot be squared with the circuit’s precedent.

  • August 01, 2025

    Wrong Claim Construction Led To Erroneous JMOL For Comcast, Federal Circuit Holds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a Florida federal judge’s judgment of noninfringement in favor of Comcast Cable Communications Inc. in a patent infringement dispute, agreeing with a patent holder that the finding was based on an erroneous claim construction in a dispute over a patent describing a digital program guide for televisions.

  • August 01, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Tech Company’s Lens Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding that all challenged claims in a company’s patent describing a lens for imaging for mobile devices were unpatentable as obvious, finding that substantial evidence supported the finding that a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSA) would be motivated to combine prior art references.

  • July 31, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Obviousness In Processing Patent IPR Sought By Netflix

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed that Netflix Inc. successfully showed that multiple claims of a patent describing a distributed processing system were invalid as obvious during an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding, affirming the findings of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • July 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit Orders New Trial On Validity, Damages In Lighting Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Texas wrongly prevented a defendant lighting company from presenting evidence of the invalidity of a plaintiff patent holder’s lighting patents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that the error makes a new trial on invalidity and damages necessary.

  • July 29, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees With DocuSign On Invalidity Of Security Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it saw no errors in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding that DocuSign Inc. successfully showed that all challenged claims in web security patents were unpatentable as obvious in three separate inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, rejecting the appellant inventor’s contention that PTAB’s findings stemmed from an incorrect claim construction.

  • July 28, 2025

    Federal Circuit Finds No Jurisdiction Over Patent Royalty Row, Transfers Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held July 25 that it lacks jurisdiction to consider a medicine maker’s request for changes to an arbitration award requiring royalty payments to another company for a patented active ingredient because the issues on appeal do not sound in patent law, transferring the case to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • July 28, 2025

    Xerox Again Sees Patent Invalidation Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) invalidation of all claims in a patent held by Xerox Inc. describing a method of content delivering content to users, agreeing with the PTAB’s claim construction that all parties agreed would be dispositive if upheld.

  • July 28, 2025

    On Remand From 9th Circuit, Judge Dismisses FCA Suit Against Drugmakers

    SAN FRANCISCO — On remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and after the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, a California federal judge dismissed without prejudice a qui tam suit accusing pharmaceutical companies of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) and related state laws by artificially inflating drug prices, finding that dismissal “is warranted” because the second amended complaint “lumps” the companies “together in an undifferentiated mass” regarding the alleged fraud.

  • July 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit OKs Judgment On Patent, Copyright, Other Claims On Steel Brace

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A steel company failed to show that a construction company infringed its patent describing a type of bracing for preventing seismic damage to buildings, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a Utah federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in the construction company’s favor.

  • July 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Right To Reject Interference Estoppel In Gambling IPR

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that there was no error in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding that an appellant patent owner’s patent for an invention that applied to transfers of data between gaming machines was invalid as obvious; the panel also found “no shenanigans” in the decision not to apply interference estoppel.

  • July 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rethink AI Patent Eligibility 1st Impression Decision

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The full Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 23 denied a machine learning patent holder’s petition for panel or en banc rehearing, leaving in place an April panel decision on a matter of first impression that affirmed the invalidation of the patents for describing the abstract concept of machine learning without pointing to specific improvements.

  • July 22, 2025

    Federal Circuit Reverses Patent, Trademark Infringement Finding In Sweatshirt Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed an Arizona federal jury’s verdict in a design patent and trademark infringement dispute related to oversized sweatshirts, holding that substantial evidence does not support the jury’s finding that a manufacturer infringed another entity’s trademarks.