The Federal Circuit held that where a patent specification consistently and clearly defines the invention in terms of a specific structure, the claims are limited to that structure even if the claim language is broader.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s injunction requiring Napster to block access to infringing content — holding that Napster’s peer-to-peer music file sharing service was liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and that the Sony Betamax staple article de
The Federal Circuit sitting en banc adopted a sweeping complete-bar rule: any narrowing amendment made during prosecution to comply with the Patent Act creates an absolute estoppel that bars all claims of equivalence for the amended element — a rule later rejected by the Supreme Court in 2002.
The Federal Circuit held that a claim limitation that does not use the word “means” carries a strong presumption against means-plus-function treatment under § 112(6), and that even when that presumption is overcome, the limitation must still be construed in light of the specification to
The Federal Circuit invalidated OxyContin-related patent claims because the applicant added a specific plasma concentration ratio during prosecution that had not been disclosed in the original filing, violating the written description requirement of § 112.
The Federal Circuit affirmed infringement of a process patent covering genetically engineered bacteria for producing the amino acid threonine, holding that importing bacteria manufactured abroad using the patented method constitutes infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(g) even when the manufacturing w
Priceline.com’s patent on the ‘name-your-own-price’ reverse auction method for travel services was one of the defining e-commerce patents of the late 1990s — illustrating the type of business method patent that became common after State Street Bank and creating competitive tensions
The Federal Circuit vacated a TTAB opposition ruling, holding that the Board improperly analyzed likelihood of confusion by focusing only on the “Packard” component of HEWLETT-PACKARD rather than considering the marks in their entireties, and failed to apply the correct legal test for th
The Federal Circuit affirmed non-infringement, holding that Amgen’s synthetic consensus interferon-alpha (INFERGEN) did not infringe Schering’s recombinant DNA patents because it duplicated no natural interferon subtype and therefore did not use the patented recombinant DNA methods to pr
The Federal Circuit reversed a finding of priority in favor of Genentech, holding that reduction to practice of a recombinant protein invention requires the inventors themselves — not a third party — to recognize the utility of what they have made.