The Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s obviousness finding against Virtek’s laser-alignment patent, holding that showing a skilled artisan had the knowledge to make a combination is insufficient for motivation to combine — there must also be a reason why they would have done so.
The Federal Circuit affirmed that importing patented medical devices for a U.S. conference fell within the 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1) safe harbor because the importation bore a reasonable relationship to obtaining FDA approval, even if the conference also served commercial purposes.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s indefiniteness ruling on a lithium-ion battery patent, holding that two claim limitations are not contradictory—and therefore not indefinite—if they can both be satisfied simultaneously, even if one limitation makes an element optional while a na
The Federal Circuit affirmed obviousness of Pfizer’s pneumococcal vaccine patent, clarifying that the result-effective variable doctrine applies to optimize claim ranges even when the prior art does not disclose an overlapping range — expanding the scope of when routine optimization can render
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Amazon failed to prove inequitable conduct against Freshub’s voice-processing patents, reiterating that the clear-and-convincing evidence standard requires proving both the materiality of a misrepresentation and specific intent to deceive the USPTO.
The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a district court judgment in a voice-recognition/cable-TV patent dispute, holding that the district court improperly narrowed several claim terms—including ‘back channel’ and ‘centralized processing station’—to specific features descri
The Federal Circuit vacated the PTAB’s written description rejection of e-cigarette patent claims directed to a heater-length range, holding that in predictable arts a narrower claimed range can be adequately supported by a broader disclosed range without requiring explicit disclosure of the s
The Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB, holding that operating manuals distributed to a limited number of customers with confidentiality notices still qualify as ‘printed publications’ and prior art under § 102, because the relevant inquiry is whether interested members of the public coul
The Federal Circuit affirmed the ITC’s finding that Universal Electronics satisfied the domestic industry requirement under Section 337 based on its investments in QuickSet technology — a patented component integrated into televisions — even though those investments did not cover the entire te
The Federal Circuit held that the statutory prohibition barring time-barred, joined IPR parties from introducing new issues into a proceeding does not apply when a patent owner files a motion to amend its claims—a joined party may oppose such a motion even if it could not have raised new issues in t