In a divided decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed that Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drug patent lacked adequate written description because the specification’s single passing reference to a 480 mg/day dose of dimethyl fumarate did not demonstrate the inventors actually possessed that specific thera
The Federal Circuit granted mandamus to compel transfer from the Western District of Texas, holding that a district court’s faster time to trial cannot alone outweigh other venue factors that favor transfer.
The Federal Circuit affirmed dismissal of Celgene’s Hatch-Waxman patent suit for improper venue, holding that for ANDA litigation venue purposes, the act of infringement is the submission of the ANDA itself — not the receipt of a notice letter or the state where future generic sales are antici
The Federal Circuit reversed a PTAB obviousness determination, holding that the Board lacked substantial evidence for a reasonable expectation of success because the cited prior art references did not actually achieve the claimed result of inactivating antibiotic-resistant bacteria without photosens
The Federal Circuit addressed the scope of IPR estoppel under § 315(e)(2), holding that an IPR petitioner is estopped from raising in district court invalidity grounds based on prior art that could reasonably have been raised in the IPR petition — including prior art patents and publications the pet
The Federal Circuit held that a forum selection clause in a non-disclosure agreement requiring disputes to be litigated in New York courts does not preclude the counterparty from filing inter partes review petitions at the PTAB, because the connection between the IPR and the NDA was too attenuated.
The Federal Circuit held that the USPTO acted arbitrarily by ordering ex parte reexamination based on arguments substantially identical to those the same requester had already raised and lost in IPR proceedings, affirming the agency’s discretion to reject repetitive patent challenges.
The Federal Circuit clarified that willful patent infringement requires only deliberate or intentional infringement — no heightened standard applies — and reinstated a doubled damages award against Cisco for its litigation conduct and disdain toward the patent holder.
The Federal Circuit affirmed that a patent is unenforceable for inequitable conduct when a company’s chief science officer withheld from the USPTO material information about a competitor’s epinephrine product that he disclosed to the FDA during the same period.
The Federal Circuit held that a corporate officer can be personally liable for actively participating in a corporation’s patent infringement even without any piercing of the corporate veil, and clarified that the patent marking statute limits pre-notice damages regardless of whether the infrin