Posts in IPWatchdog Articles

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a pair of petitions for writs of certiorari filed by motion sensing camera developer Gesture Technology that challenged rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholding agency invalidations of patent claims, including several past their date of expiration. In denying cert, the Supreme Court leaves in place precedential decisions from the Federal Circuit expanding the public rights doctrine from Oil States to expired patents even though the patent owner has lost the right to exclude infringers, fundamental to Oil States’ reasoning on the public’s “interest in seeing that patent monopolies are kept within their legitimate scope.”

Welcome to the very first installment of Cool AI Patents of the Month. Each month, we’ll look at some of the more eye-catching and creative ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) is showing up in innovations that themselves wind up represented in patents or patent applications. The goal isn’t to get overly technical, but to highlight technology that’s genuinely cool and thought-provoking — the kind of inventions that make you say, “Wow, that’s clever.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday affirmed a district court’s award of attorney’s fees to an accused infringer due to the “substantive weakness” of the patent owner’s litigation position. The opinion was authored by Judge Reyna. Hawk Technology Systems LLC sued Castle Retail LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, claiming infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 10,499,091, titled “High-quality, Reduced Data Rate Streaming Video Production and Monitoring System.” The district court ruled that the patent is directed to the abstract idea of “video storage display” under Alice Step one and that nothing transformed the abstract idea into patent eligible subject matter at step two and granted Castle’s request for dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Huawei announces that it earned $630 million USD in patent licensing revenues last year; the U.S. Supreme Court nixes CPC Patent’s cert petition challenging the Federal Circuit’s Rule 36 practice on the same day that it faces another Rule 36 ruling; WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators report shows that patent application filings at China’s patent office increased nearly 10% last year while WIPO’s IP awareness report shows major strides in the Asia-Pacific region; and more.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today released its second edition of the WIPO Pulse comprehensive survey, titled “Global intellectual property perception survey 2025,” analyzing the perceptions of intellectual property of 35,500 respondents in 74 countries that represent approximately 80% of the target population aged 18 to 65 worldwide between February 20 and April 25.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Smartrend Manufacturing Group (SMG), Inc. v. Opti-Luxx Inc. reversing and vacating an infringement ruling from the Western District of Michigan following a jury verdict for patent owner SMG in a case over illuminated school bus signs. In assessing Opti-Luxx’s challenge to Smartrend’s expert testimony offered on the perspective of ordinary observers, the Federal Circuit strongly hinted that such testimony could support design patent infringement allegations by drawing upon relevancy principles from the utility patent context.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday heard oral argument in Micron Technology v. Longhorn IP, a test of state “anti-troll” statutes’ interplay with federal patent law. As inter partes review (IPR) becomes more and more difficult to obtain, those state statutes could play an important role in discouraging abusive patent enforcement—provided they are deemed to be constitutional.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today issued a precedential decision reversing a district court’s finding that an error in Canatex Completion Solutions, Inc.’s patent claims rendered the claims indefinite. Canatex’s U.S. Patent No. 10,794,122, titled “Releasable Connection for a Downhole Tool String,” contains a phrase that reads “the connection profile of the second part,” which appears in all the independent claims, and should have read “the connection profile of the first part,” according to Canatex. The error also appears in the Abstract and twice in the written description.

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO’s) new Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, adopted in May 2024, would impose additional disclosure obligations on patent applicants under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Specifically, it would require disclosure of traditional knowledge and genetic resources even when those details have no bearing on patentability.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied certiorari in Halicki v. Carroll Shelby Licensing, a case in which Denice Shakarian Halicki, widow of the creator of the “Gone in 60 Seconds” film franchise sought review of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision that held the car character “Eleanor,” a customized Ford Mustang, was not entitled to copyright protection.

In our latest IPWatchdog Unleashed podcast, we had a riveting and sometimes emotional conversation that unfolded around one of the most pressing issues in life sciences today: the journey of life-saving drugs from laboratory to patient. We discuss the pivotal role a strong patent system plays in this important journey with guest Sherry Knowles. Sherry is the founder of Knowles Intellectual Property Strategies and former Senior Vice President and Chief Patent Counsel for GlaxoSmithKline. In addition to being one of the leading voices in the life sciences and patent industries, Sherry is also a cancer survivor. Among other things we discuss numerous patent system challenges facing innovator drug companies, the downward pressure generic drugs place on the industry and leading to important drugs becoming unavailable, the role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) with respect to significantly raising the cost of drugs for Americans, and policy influences and legislation on Capitol Hill. Sherry also shares her personal story and insights into why patents are more than just legal constructs—they are deeply personal lifelines.

In October 2025, a federal district judge with an active docket of patent suits addressed the question of whether the filing (and, presumably, the service) of a complaint for patent infringement in and of itself precludes the defendant from asserting that it was unaware of the patent (and, thus, could not be a willful infringer). The bad news for plaintiffs: the answer was no. The court also addressed the question of whether a defendant could utilize a Rule 12(b) (6) motion to dismiss a plaintiff’s assertion of entitlement to enhanced damages under 35 U.S.C. §284 for willful infringement. The bad news for defendants: the answer was no again.

Two weeks after the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay an interlocutory injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in September that allowed Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter to return to her post pending her lawsuit against President Donald Trump for allegedly illegally removing her from office, Perlmutter has responded. In her opposition to the application for a stay, filed on Monday, Perlmutter accused the administration of making “an inexcusable mess of Congress’s plans for the governance of its Library.”

In the latest episode of IP Innovators, host Steve Brachmann discusses the evolution of patent practice, in-house innovation, and the growing role of AI with Phil Harris, Equity Partner and Patent Practice Group Leader at Holland & Hart. As firms navigate when to build their own tools versus partnering with vendors, Harris offers a grounded look at how automation is reshaping the daily realities of patent work, and why the most forward-thinking teams treat innovation not as a one-time project, but as a continuous practice.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a nonprecedential ruling in CPC Patent Technologies Pty Ltd. v. ASSA ABLOY AB reversing an obviousness determination by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) over a dissent by Circuit Judge Evan Wallach from the majority’s analysis of the PTAB’s factual findings on prior art disclosures. Although the reversal gives CPC Patent another opportunity to salvage patent claims to biometric card security systems, the CAFC also issued a Rule 36 summary affirmance affirming the invalidity of other claims from the patent-at-issue, while the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert to a CPC Patent petition challenging the CAFC’s Rule 36 practice in separate PTAB appeals.