By Scott B. Amankwatia "Decoding Motivation to Combine Principles in Key Rulings" as published in the 2023 APELLATE YEAR IN REVIEW from the PTAB Bar Association (Download the PDF here) In 2023, the Federal Circuit issued several opinions addressing motivation to combine in the context of inter partes review. As we will see in Axonics [...]
By Scott Amankwatia, Michelle E. O’Brien, and Tom Irving The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision in an ex parte appeal affirming the U.S. Patent Office Examiner’s rejection of claims 1-13, 16, 22-24, and 27 of U.S. Patent Application No. 15/909,314 as [...]
By Tom Irving and Michelle E. O’Brien In a much-anticipated decision, today the Supreme Court affirmed invalidity of two Amgen patents in Amgen Inc., et al. v. Sanofi, et al. (Case No. 21-757), with Justice Gorsuch writing for a unanimous Court. The case is of particular interest because it pits one brand pharma company, [...]
By Christine Norris, Michelle E. O’Brien, and Tom Irving The simple one letter word, “a” continues to spawn significant ambiguity in U.S. patent claim construction. We have seen the Federal Circuit interpret the term “a” open-endedly to leave room for plural claim elements (one or more), or as inferring a singular claim element (one). The [...]
By Michelle O’Brien, Bob Hansen, and Tom Irving The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking comments on various modifications, under consideration, to the rules of practice for inter partes review (IPR) and post grant review (PGR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board [...]
Trade Secrets protect information: 1) that a business has taken reasonable measures to keep secret; and 2) that derives real or potential independent economic value from not being generally known or ascertainable. Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836(b), misappropriation of a trade secret occurs when a person acquires the trade secret [...]
