The Supreme Court held that a patent licensee need not terminate or breach its license agreement before seeking a declaratory judgment that the underlying patent is invalid or not infringed — a licensee under an active license has standing to bring such a challenge.
The Federal Circuit addressed the requirements for functional claim limitations in software-implemented gaming machine patents, reinforcing that functional language in claims must be supported by adequate structural or algorithmic disclosure in the specification — a key ruling on the § 112 disclosur
The Federal Circuit sitting en banc resolved a circuit split and held that induced infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b) requires proof that the defendant specifically intended to cause direct infringement — not merely that it intended to perform acts that happen to constitute infringement.
The Federal Circuit reversed a finding of obviousness in a spinal implant patent case, holding that the district court failed to identify a sufficient motivation or reason why a person of ordinary skill would have combined the cited prior art references — possibility of combination is not enough; th
The Federal Circuit held a textile dye process patent invalid as obvious, clarifying that the teaching-suggestion-motivation (TSM) test for obviousness is flexible and allows motivation to combine to be found in common knowledge, common sense, and efficiency goals — not just explicit documentary evi
The Federal Circuit invalidated Align Technology’s patents on incremental orthodontic aligners as obvious over prior art, holding that packaging convenience and commercial success driven by aesthetic and unclaimed features cannot overcome a prima facie case of obviousness.
The Federal Circuit held that the patent exhaustion doctrine does not give a purchaser the right to use replicated copies of a self-replicating patented technology, and that conditional sales of patented seed prevent exhaustion from arising in the first place.
The Federal Circuit invalidated a key Lipitor patent claim because the dependent claim attempted to claim subject matter outside the scope of the independent claim it depended on, violating 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph 4.
The Federal Circuit held that the sale of a licensed device does not exhaust a patent holder’s method claims, ruling that purchasers of Intel chips who used them in unauthorized combinations remained liable for infringement of LG Electronics’ method patents — a holding the Supreme Court
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Agfa’s patents were unenforceable due to inequitable conduct based on intentional withholding of material prior art, and confirmed that inequitable conduct claims may be tried to the court without a jury.