The Federal Circuit vacated a $78.9 million willful infringement verdict against DirecTV’s satellite broadcasting system, reversing on claim construction and holding that means-plus-function claims for software functions require more than a bare reference to software — the specification must d
The Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidation of Aristocrat’s slot machine patent, holding that computer-implemented means-plus-function claims are indefinite under § 112 unless the specification discloses the specific algorithm that transforms a general-purpose computer into the claimed speci
The Federal Circuit tightened the standards for inequitable conduct findings, requiring clear and convincing evidence of both materiality and intent to deceive before a patent may be rendered unenforceable — while also confirming that a patent examiner’s independent knowledge of withheld prior
The Federal Circuit addressed the interplay of written description and priority, holding that a claim amendment during prosecution that introduces new limitations must find support in the originally filed specification to maintain the benefit of the earlier filing date — a key ruling for patent draf
The Federal Circuit sitting en banc abandoned its 24-year-old willful infringement standard, adopting a new two-part objective/subjective recklessness test that raised the bar for enhanced patent damages and eliminated the automatic duty to obtain opinion-of-counsel letters.
The Federal Circuit reaffirmed that prosecution history estoppel bars application of the doctrine of equivalents when a claim was narrowed during prosecution to distinguish prior art — a landmark application of Festo’s flexible bar to a complex software patent dispute.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the validity of Forest Laboratories’ escitalopram (Lexapro) patent, holding the single-enantiomer antidepressant non-obvious over the known racemic citalopram — with the critical role played by unexpected superior pharmacological properties of the isolated (+)-enan
In one of the first major post-KSR Federal Circuit obviousness decisions, the court upheld the non-obviousness of Takeda’s pioglitazone (Actos) patent, applying the Supreme Court’s flexible obviousness framework while affirming that selection from a genus of prior art compounds requires
In one of the first post-KSR Federal Circuit obviousness decisions, the court invalidated Leapfrog’s patent on an electronic phonics learning toy as obvious, holding that it would have been obvious to combine the mechanical toy’s learning concept with electronic text-to-speech technology
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s obviousness finding in a Hatch-Waxman pharmaceutical case, holding that the court had improperly defined the level of ordinary skill in the art — which significantly affected the obviousness analysis for an antibiotic ear drop formulation patent