Mealey's Patents : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Patents

September 26, 2025
Mapping Patent Claims Rightly Found Abstract, Federal Circuit Holds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel saw no errors in an Illinois federal judge’s finding that all asserted claims in patents related to methods for displaying brand information on a geographic map were invalid as abstract, affirming the judge’s dismissal with prejudice of the patent holder’s suit in a nonprecedential Sept. 25 opinion.
September 25, 2025
EcoFactor To High Court: Federal Circuit Wrong To Vacate Jury’s Patent Damages

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Google LLC on Sept. 24 waived its right to a respond to a smart thermostat company’s petition for a writ of certiorari in which the company argues that the en banc Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to order a Texas federal judge hold a new trial on damages wrongly eschewed the jury’s factual findings in its favor.
September 25, 2025
Federal Circuit Vacates $166 Million Award Against Nokia, AT&T In Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 24 vacated a jury’s $166 million damages award against AT&T Mobility LLC and Nokia of America Corp., holding that a Texas federal judge should have granted the companies’ request for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of noninfringement against a plaintiff-appellee wireless technology company.
September 25, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment In Wig Product Patent Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement to defendant wig product manufacturers in a patent infringement suit, finding no error in the judge’s construction of a disputed claim term.
September 25, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Error In PTAB Rejection Of Motorola Challenge To Lens Patent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) final written decision upholding all claims in a patent regarding an optical lens assembly for compact devices challenged by Motorola Mobility LLC, holding that substantial evidence supported the board’s finding that there was no motivation to combine Motorola’s cited prior art references.
September 24, 2025
Federal Circuit Partly Vacates PTAB’s Obviousness Ruling Against Bayer

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 23 agreed with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that some claims in a patent held by Bayer Pharma Aktiengesellschaft are unpatentable as obvious, but the panel vacated the board’s finding of obviousness for other claims, holding that it was based on an incorrect claim construction regarding the administration of aspirin in a cardiac medication regimen.
September 24, 2025
Judge Tosses FCA Suit Related To Drug Patent Pursuant To Public Disclosure Bar

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 23 dismissed a qui tam relator’s suit alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and related state laws regarding pharmaceutical companies’ purported fraudulently obtained patents for the drug Xyrem resulting in government health insurers reimbursing Xyrem prescriptions “at inflated prices,” finding that facts in the complaint were previously disclosed and that the public disclosure bar applies.
September 23, 2025
Federal Circuit Vacates Jury’s Patent Verdict Over Faulty Claim Construction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A jury’s finding of noninfringement in a patent dispute involving magnetic objects used in data recording may have been based in part on a Pennsylvania federal judge’s improper construction of a patent claim term, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, vacating the jury’s verdict and remanding for a new trial.
September 18, 2025
Del. Federal Judge Won’t Order Permanent Injunction Barring Bid For FDA Approval

WILMINGTON, Del. — A pharmaceutical company that sought “equitable relief that is unprecedented under” federal law “has not established that its story warrants such relief,” a Delaware federal judge said, denying a motion that sought to bar a competitor from seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a drug to treat narcolepsy.
September 12, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Reinstate Invalidity Finding In Cherry Plant Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a short Sept. 11 order, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by cherry-growing entities requesting that a Washington federal judge be directed to reinstate a previous finding of patent invalidity against the Canadian government department covering agriculture in a dispute over U.S. plant patents.
September 12, 2025
High Court Requests Response To Cert Petition In Entresto Patent Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court requested a response from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to generic drugmakers’ petition for a writ of certiorari in response to the petitioners’ argument that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly considered after-arising technology in a dispute over the patent for heart medication Entresto.
September 11, 2025
Clothing Maker Seeks Fees After Federal Circuit Reverses Infringement Verdict

PHOENIX — After the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an Arizona federal jury’s more than $20 million award against a clothing maker in a design patent and trademark infringement dispute related to oversized sweatshirts, the company now tells the court that it is owed roughly $3.6 million in attorney fees and costs, arguing that the case was “exceptional.”
September 11, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 10 denied generic drugmakers’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel’s June opinion affirming a Delaware judge’s grant of summary judgment of no invalidity to a biopharmaceutical company that holds the patent for a medication used to treat hallucinations.
September 10, 2025
Federal Circuit: Applicants’ Vitamin Claims Anticipated By Own Prior Applications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) rejection of a patent application based on previous applications from the appellants for a vitamin C and betaine product; the panel also dismissed arguments about patent term adjustment and abandonment for lack of jurisdiction.
September 10, 2025
Federal Circuit: Fees Owed To Chipmaker In Tossed Infringement Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have granted attorney fees to Realtek Semiconductor Corp. because it was the “prevailing party” after the judge converted a patent owner’s voluntary dismissal of a pair of infringement suits to a dismissal with prejudice, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 9.
September 09, 2025
Federal Circuit Orders New Trial In Oil Refining Patent Infringement Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have approved Magēmā Technology LLC’s request for a new trial in a patent infringement suit it brought against Phillips 66 and related entities, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Sept. 8; the panel said it could not be certain if an improperly introduced theory from Phillips informed a jury’s verdict in its favor.
September 09, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Wrong To Skip Alice Analysis For Patent Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to fully consider the indefiniteness and abstractness of an inventor’s proposed patent describing a system for distributing content between online users, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in a nonprecedential judgment, vacating part of PTAB’s findings and reversing other aspects.
September 08, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Disturb Sanctions In Floor Tape Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the fourth consideration of a dispute over a patent describing a floor-marking tape product,a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 5 summarily affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s entry of sanctions against an inventor and his company, holding that the mandate rule applied because the appeals court explicitly affirmed the entry of sanctions in its March 2025 opinion related to the third appeal.
September 05, 2025
Generic Med Amicus Echoes Calls For High Court Look At Entresto Patent Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief in support of MSN Pharmaceuticals and related entities (MSN) that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals created a situation where medicine patent holders “will see a new strategy they can employ to fashion overbroad claims to delay generic competition” while skirting patent law requirements “that protect the public’s interests in ensuring that patents do not let inventors control more than they invented.”
September 05, 2025
Union Sues Over Elimination Of Patents Office Workers’ Collective Bargaining Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An August executive order (EO) that expanded on a March EO and nullified the collective bargaining rights of additional agencies, including the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, was “retaliatory and not based on the statutory criteria” contained in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) argues in a complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
September 03, 2025
PTAB Wrongly Excluded Google’s Arguments In Database IPR, Federal Circuit Holds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred in claim construction and wrongly rejected Google LLC’s reply evidence in inter partes review proceedings Google brought against a technology company, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, vacating findings that Google failed to show some of the company’s patents’ claims to be invalid.
September 02, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Prosecution Laches For PTO’s Rejection Of Applications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held on Aug. 29 that a District of Columbia federal judge did not err in finding that a prolific patent applicant’s applications were barred under the doctrine of prosecution laches, rejecting as forfeited the inventor’s argument that a 1992 decision by the Board of Patent Appeals and Inferences showed he had no reason to change his method of prosecuting the applications.
August 29, 2025
Federal Circuit: Judge Wrongly Applied Prosecution Laches In Speaker Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In mixed results for both parties, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 28 held that a California federal judge wrongly invalidated claims in some of a speaker company’s patents in a dispute with Google LLC and improperly applied prosecution laches, while also holding that the judge correctly invalidated claims in another one of the speaker company’s patents.
August 28, 2025
Med Maker To High Court: Federal Circuit Created After-Arising Tech Loophole

WASHINGTON, D.C. — MSN Pharmaceuticals and multiple related entities (MSN) tell the U.S. Supreme Court that it must step in to clarify the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ approach to the disclosure of “after-arising technology,” arguing that the appeals court split its own law regarding when it can be considered while ruling on a dispute over the validity of patents related to the heart medication drug Entresto.
August 28, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB Findings In First Look At Post-AIA Derivation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals considered for the first time a derivation proceeding that was filed pursuant to the 2011 Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), which allows “a first-inventor second-filer to pursue such a claim against a first-filer,” finding that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had substantial evidence to support its judgment in favor of a defendant-appellee in a dispute over the inventorship of an ointment for wound treatments.