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Mealey's Patents

  • 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.

  • July 21, 2025

    Judge Tosses AI Patent Inventorship Claims For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge dismissed an artificial intelligence (AI) data scientist’s complaint against his former employer, an industrial supplier, seeking the invalidation of patents for which he claimed to be the inventor, noting that the scientist appeared to cite a nonexistent subsection of the Patent Act and sought relief that was not possible.

  • July 21, 2025

    Judge: No Juror Could Find Infringement In Metrology Tech Suit

    BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant semiconductor manufacturer, holding that “no reasonable juror” would find that its use of another company’s product infringed a nonpracticing plaintiff entity’s patent on a piece of metrology filtering technology.

  • July 17, 2025

    Texas Federal Judge: Patents Asserted Against Cisco Invalid As Abstract

    WACO, Texas — A Texas federal judge who found that Cisco Systems Inc. did not infringe multiple claims of a computer system patent before a jury began deliberations said in a July 16 opinion that two remaining patents at issue are invalid as being directed at an abstract concept without a necessary transformative inventive idea added to it.

  • July 17, 2025

    Judge Says AI Photo Analysis Patent Not Abstract Per Alice Test

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge rejected a defendant artificial intelligence company’s argument that the machine learning patents it is accused of infringing are invalid as abstract, agreeing with the insurance company patent holder that “the patents recite the patent-eligible arrangement of two independently trained classifiers to analyze property characteristics and conditions.”

  • July 16, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Patent Claims Against DraftKings, But Not FanDuel

    TRENTON, N.J. — In a pair of opinions issued on the same day, a New Jersey federal judge found that sports betting company DraftKings Inc. and a related entity successfully showed that a technology company failed to substantiate its patent infringement claims against the sportsbook, while separately finding that FanDuel Inc. failed to show that patents held by the same company were invalid as abstract.

  • July 15, 2025

    Federal Circuit Finds No Error In AAPA Use In PTAB Catheter Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) should have found all claims of a patent related to a cardiovascular catheter device to be unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held July 14, affirming the bulk of the board’s findings but reversing as to a single claim PTAB did not invalidate.

  • July 15, 2025

    Judge Sanctions IP Lawyer For Giving Netflix Info To 3rd Party In Patent Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge ordered sanctions against an attorney from Ramey LLP who formerly represented a pro se plaintiff in a patent infringement dispute brought against Netflix Inc., holding that the attorney inappropriately shared discovery information with a third party the court previously blocked from being joined to the litigation.

  • July 11, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Smart HVAC System Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of opinions, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated patents related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) held by EcoFactor Inc. in a series of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Google LLC, in the latest step in the battle between the companies over smart thermostat technologies.

  • July 10, 2025

    Federal Circuit Again Finds For Janssen On Mental Health Drug Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New Jersey federal judge’s finding that two appellant medicine makers failed to show that claims in a patent related to dosing regimens for an injectable schizophrenia treatment were invalid as obvious, holding that it saw no error in the judge’s analysis of the motivation to combine prior art references.

  • July 09, 2025

    Device Maker Tells High Court Shortened Discovery Timeline Tainted Patent Trial

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical product company tells the U.S. Supreme Court that a North Carolina federal court violated its due process rights by changing both the time to trial and the time for discovery in a patent infringement case for which the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has already ordered a new trial.

  • July 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Cisco’s Noninfringement Of Server Management Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 7 affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement on some patent counts and a jury’s verdict of noninfringement on others, agreeing that Egenera Inc. failed to show that Cisco Systems Inc. infringed a patent on a server management system.

  • July 03, 2025

    Dismissal Stipulated In Coverage Dispute Over Loss Of Patent Litigation Counsel

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An inventor, his Colorado-based company and a captive insurer filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in a Tennessee federal court, resolving and dismissing with prejudice all claims asserted in a case concerning a coverage dispute over loss of patent litigation counsel.

  • July 02, 2025

    High Court Rejects Micron’s Mandamus Bid To Protect Source Code

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an American chip maker’s request for relief from a California federal judge’s discovery order requiring it to turn its source code over to a Chinese rival in a patent infringement dispute.

  • July 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Induced Infringement Arguments For Generic Drug

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a biopharmaceutical company’s petition for rehearing en banc in a July 1 order, rejecting the company’s contention that an appeals court panel improperly analyzed its intent to encourage practitioners to use its antipsychotic medication in a way that would infringe on another company’s patented injectable medication used to treat schizophrenia.

  • July 02, 2025

    PTAB Claim Construction Error Caused Fact Analysis Errors In Eye Med Patent Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred while construing a claim phrase during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings regarding an eye redness medication; the panel reversed the PTAB’s claim construction and vacated a finding of obviousness that stemmed from it.

  • July 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Can Patent, Mum On Location Of ‘Second Point,’ Invalid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s finding that certain claims of a food packaging company’s patents on a type of can for beverages are invalid as indefinite, upholding the judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of other can-making companies.

  • June 19, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Can AI Be Patented? Navigating Patent Subject Matter Eligibility

    By John H. Mutchler

  • July 01, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Mixed PTAB Findings On Automatic Computing Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of June 30 opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a set of mixed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that held that most, but not all, claims valid in patents describing a method for improving computer processor power for autonomous actions, despite arguments from Amazon.com Inc. and other entities that prior art rendered all claims unpatentable as obvious.

  • July 01, 2025

    Lyft’s Noninfringement Of Tech Patent Claims Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a finding by a California federal judge that Lyft Inc. did not infringe on a technology company’s patents describing a computerized system for diagnosing problems with a vehicle remotely, saying that it saw no issues with the way the judge construed terms in the patents’ claims.

  • June 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Mandamus For Qualcomm, Apple On Patent Suit Transfer Bid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge did not clearly err when denying requests from Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. to transfer a patent infringement suit against them to a California federal court, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found, denying the companies’ request for a writ of mandamus.

  • June 27, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Reasonably Tossed Patent Claims Against Google

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s finding that a pro se inventor’s patent infringement allegations against Google LLC failed as a matter of law because they relied on third-party modifications to Google’s product; the panel said the inventor could not point to a prior appellate win involving Apple as preclusive because it involved separate issues.

  • June 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says Data ‘Translation’ Patent Abstract Per Alice Test

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a California federal judge that a technology company’s data transfer patent is directed at the abstract concept of translation, affirming the judge’s grant of judgment on the pleadings in a June 25 opinion.

  • June 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says PTAB Got Obviousness Of Streaming Patent Right

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a patentholder’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred when analyzing the motivation to combine prior art elements during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings concerning a patent related to adaptive bitrate streaming for media services.

  • June 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Erred On ‘Unexpected Results’ In GI Drug Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision to uphold a drugmaker’s patent on a molecule for use in gastrointestinal disorder medications, finding that the board erred in its analysis of whether the patent holder had shown that its patented product had “unexpected results” when considering whether the patent’s claims were rendered obvious by prior art references.