The Federal Circuit sitting en banc held that the machine-or-transformation test is the definitive standard for determining whether a claimed process is patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101, rejecting a patent application on a business method for hedging commodity-trading risk.
The Federal Circuit held that the ITC’s limited exclusion order authority under Section 337 does not extend to downstream products of non-parties to the investigation — rejecting the ITC’s longstanding practice of excluding finished goods containing infringing components made by responde
The Federal Circuit sitting en banc eliminated the two-part ‘point of novelty’ test for design patent infringement and replaced it with a unified ordinary observer test — holding that design patent infringement is determined by whether an ordinary observer, familiar with the prior art, w
The Federal Circuit held that violation of an open-source software license condition — not merely a contractual covenant — constitutes copyright infringement, giving open-source licensors the full array of copyright remedies (including injunctions and statutory damages) rather than only contract dam
The Federal Circuit held that direct infringement of a method claim divided across multiple parties requires that a single defendant direct or control the performance of every claimed step — a ruling that made it significantly harder to prove infringement of internet-era method patents implemented t
The Supreme Court held that the doctrine of patent exhaustion applies to method patents and that an authorized sale of a product that substantially embodies a patented method exhausts the patent holder’s rights — foreclosing downstream infringement suits against purchasers.
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