Gibbons Law Alert

Gibbons Law Alert

Category: Patent

AIA Post Issuance Proceedings – Patent Owner Challenges Standing of United States Entities to Bring PGR Review of CBM Patent

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Posted in Patent

On July 28, 2014

The United States Court of Federal Claims recently deferred decision on whether to stay a litigation brought in 2011 by a patent owner against the United States. In the case, captioned Return Mail, Inc. v. United States, patent owner Return Mail seeks compensation under 28 U.S.C. § 1498(a) for what it alleges to be use and manufacture by or for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) of its patent related to methods and systems for providing address change services. The government’s stay motion in the Return Mail litigation was filed on the same day that it filed a petition with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for post-grant review (PGR) of the patent-in-suit, which it claims is a covered business method (CBM) patent under the America Invents Act. The government’s petition and related stay motion come more than three years into the litigation.

PTAB Decides First Pharma IPR

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Posted in Patent

On July 1, 2014

Last week, in what appeared to be one of the first pharmaceutical based cases brought to a decision under the IPR regime, the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) of the US Patent and Trademark Office held that the majority of claims in a series of vitamin supplement patents were invalid. This decision turns the welcoming lights on for the generic drug industry to utilize the inter partes review (IPR) procedures under the America Invents Act to challenge proprietary pharmaceutical patents. In this matter, the challenger Gnosis, a defendant in an infringement action brought by Merck & Cie, South Alabama Medical Science Foundation and Parmlab, which was stayed pending the IPR decision, successfully defended against the four patents in issue: United States Patent Nos. 5,997,915, 6,011,040, 6,673,381 and 7,172,778 which are directed to compositions and methods of use involving chiral reduced natural folate compounds used as food supplements to prevent or treat folate deficiency diseases.

USPTO Implements Test for Patent Eligible Subject Matter Under §101 Following the Supreme Court’s Alice Decision

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Posted in Patent

On June 30, 2014

We recently discussed the Supreme Court’s test for patentable subject matter under section 101 in Alice Corp. Pty v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. ___ (2014). In its opinion, the Court applied the two-step process set forth in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. __ (2102); (i) whether the claims are directed to patent-ineligible matter (e.g., abstract idea) and (ii) whether the claims contain an inventive concept (e.g., “additional features to ensure that the claim is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the abstract idea.”).

Carving Out State Protections in Patent Enforcement

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Posted in Patent

On June 25, 2014

We have previously posted on proposed federal and state legislation aimed at addressing the toll of patent troll litigation on the U.S. economy. To date, twenty-five states have passed or are considering legislation aimed at curbing bad-faith patent assertion through state law, either based in consumer protection or through laws directed at bad business practices. From Vermont, one of the first states to adopt such legislation, MPHJ Technology Investments LLC (“MPHJ”), an alleged patent troll, seeks the opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the issue of federal patent law preemption.

AIA Post-Issuance Proceedings – Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response Persuades PTAB Denial of IPR

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Posted in Patent

On June 24, 2014

In accordance with the statutory provisions of the America Invents Act, a patent owner may at his/her option file a preliminary response to a third-party petition requesting inter partes review (IPR) of a patent. Through the first quarter of 2014, about 55 percent of patent owners opted to file preliminary responses to IPR petitions, while 45 percent of patent owners opted instead either to expressly waive or file no preliminary response.

Alice is Not in Wonderland: Generic Computers and Abstract Ideas Don’t Mix

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Posted in Patent

On June 19, 2014

District courts have been abuzz with accused infringers asserting invalidity based on ineligible subject matter under section 101. This is a result of evolving jurisprudence developed by the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court over the last few years. Today, that continued with the Supreme Court unanimously holding in Alice Corp. Pty v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. ___ (2014) that, for claims drawn to an abstract idea, “merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.”

NJ District Courts Bar Defendants’ Indefiniteness Argument During Claim Construction Because Not Alleged in Invalidity Contentions

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Posted in Patent

On June 17, 2014

We previously reported that New Jersey District Court Judges will limit a patent infringement defendant’s discovery to the claims and defenses identified in its Invalidity Contentions served under Local Patent Rule 3.3. For the same reasons, a defendant may be barred from taking certain positions during claim construction. In an opinion issued last week, Judge Jose L. Linares held in Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. & FCB I LLC v. Watson Laboratories, Inc., No. 12-3084 (JLL) that a defendant that does “not raise an indefiniteness defense in its invalidity contentions . . . cannot seek a determination that the patents-at-issue are invalid for indefiniteness through claim construction.”

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: Supreme Court Declines to Expand the Scope of Indirect Infringement Liability in View of Federal Circuit’s Muniauction Ruling

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Posted in Patent

On June 16, 2014

The United Supreme Court has been a “hot bench” for patent cases. On the same day, it issued two unanimous decisions reversing the Federal Circuit relating to claim definiteness and inducement infringement, the former of which we previously discussed. In the latter, Limelight Networks v. Akamai Tech. No. 12-786, 572 U.S. ___ (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a party cannot be liable for inducing infringement under 35 U.S.C. §271(b) unless there is direct infringement in 35 U.S.C. §271(a). The Court in dicta also suggested that the Federal Circuit may wish to reconsider its prior decision, Muniauction, Inc. v. Thomson Corp., 532 F.3d 1318 (2008), which held that a party–who does not perform all the method steps–cannot be liable for direct infringement in §271(a) unless it controls or directs another party to complete the other steps.

USPTO Adopts Final Rules of Practice for Recalculation of PTA

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Posted in Patent

On June 12, 2014

On May 15, 2014, The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a Federal Register notice regarding the final changes to the rules of practice that relate to the patent term adjustment (PTA) provisions of section 1(h) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) Technical Corrections Act. The previously published information was in guideline form only and did not encompass issues addressed by the presently provided rules.

AIA Post-Issuance Proceedings – Live Testimony Finds Its Way Into Oral Argument for Inter Partes Review

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Posted in Patent

On June 11, 2014

In order to achieve the statutory requirement of rendering a final determination no later than one year following the institution of an Inter Partes Review (IPR), the Trial Practice Guidelines set forth by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office “lay out a framework for conducting the proceedings aimed at streamlining and converging the issues for proceeding.” For example, the guidelines for oral arguments prohibit the submission of new evidence and arguments by the parties, and suggest that live testimony is generally unnecessary. The parties may however move for live testimony in “appropriate situations.”

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