Posts in Federal Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision today in In re Magnolia Medical Technologies, Inc., affirming a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision from an ex parte reexamination that found claim 1 of U.S. Patent 10,039,483 anticipated and therefore unpatentable.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision today in Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc., affirming a district court ruling that found several patent claims covering deep learning based dental image analysis invalid as directed to ineligible subject matter under Section 101. Dental Monitoring SAS owns U.S. Patent 11,049,248 and U.S. Patent 10,755,409, both of which relate to dental arch image analysis. The ‘248 patent covers “a method for assessing the shape of an orthodontic aligner using a deep learning device,” while the ‘409 patent covers a method for acquiring and analyzing an image of a dental arch using the same type of device.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today denied a request for mandamus relief by Lambeth Magnetic Structures, LLC, who asked the CAFC to direct the  U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to vacate its order staying a patent infringement suit pending resolution of an ex parte reexamination (EPR) of the asserted patent claims.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision today in Linfo IP, LLC v. Trustpilot, Inc., dismissing an appeal brought by Linfo IP, LLC as moot. The dismissal followed Linfo and Trustpilot, Inc.’s settlement of their dispute while the appeal was still pending.

On July 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the dismissal  of Etison LLC d/b/a ClickFunnels’ patent infringement suit against HighLevel Inc., holding the disputed website creation patents claim ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. While the CAFC found that the district court erred by treating a single claim as representative of all asserted claims without adequately addressing ClickFunnels’ argument that the two dependent claims at issue contained a distinct limitation,  the panel ultimately concluded that the error was harmless

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision Thursday in TrackTime, LLC v. Amazon.com Services LLC, vacating a district court’s indefiniteness ruling on one TrackTime patent. It also affirmed a jury verdict of invalidity on a related patent asserted against Amazon.com Services LLC and Audible, Inc.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision today in Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. v. Hetero Labs Limited, affirming a preliminary injunction that blocks Hetero Labs Limited from launching a generic version of the neurological drug Nuedexta. The court also vacated a district court order that had excused Otsuka from posting a bond pending appeal, remanding the issue for further proceedings. Circuit Judge Dyk dissented in part from the majority’s claim construction and would have reversed the injunction.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), in a Per Curiam opinion, today affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) ruling that the mark MON AMI is confusingly similar to the previously registered mark, AMÌ, and that MON AMI could therefore not be registered.

On the same day it granted a trademark petition, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in a number of patent cases as its term nears an end, including the closely-watched case of Hyatt v. Squires, which challenged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (CAFC’s) approach to the doctrine of prosecution laches. In addition to the Hyatt case, the Court also denied cert today in Finesse Wireless LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, et. al.; Polar Electro Oy v. Firstbeat Technologies Oy; and Ortiz & Assoc. Consulting, LLC v. Vizio, Inc.

Recent developments in ex parte Corteva Agriscience LLC (Reexamination Control 90/019,130; Patent 10,947,555 B2) clarify obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) in the context of patent families with multiple continuations and varying patent term adjustments (PTA)…. In Corteva, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) distinguished Cellect and extended Allergan by holding that a child patent (here, the ’555 patent) is not unpatentable for ODP if it does not expire later than the original patent in the family, including any PTA awarded to the original patent. Below is a figure from Corteva.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision today in Sansone v. United States Patent and Trademark Office, affirming the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s dismissal of a pro se inventor’s lawsuit and denial of his motion for summary judgment. Stanley Sansone filed U.S. Patent Application No. 16/255,511 on January 23, 2019, seeking a patent for a wearable thermal device, but a patent examiner rejected all claims. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) affirmed the rejection, after which Sansone sought continued examination.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Tuesday issued a decision in Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Pfizer Inc., affirming summary judgment that all claims of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s U.S. Patent 11,358,953 are invalid as anticipated. The court held that Enanta’s provisional application failed to provide adequate written description support under 35 U.S.C. Section 112 for a key chemical substituent claimed in the ‘953 patent. As a result, the patent could not claim the provisional’s earlier priority date and was anticipated by Pfizer’s prior disclosure of nirmatrelvir.

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied a petition for certiorari in Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation v. Unified Patents LLC, a case that asked the High Court to consider whether patent owners have a right to require Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) petitioners to identify all real parties in interest (RPIs) in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. The petition stems from a precedential June 2025 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision dismissing Dolby Labs’ appeal from the PTAB for lack of an injury-in-fact to confer Article III standing. The Federal Circuit held that, although patent owners might have the right to dispute unnamed RPIs during IPR proceedings, the America Invents Act (AIA) does not give patent owners a freestanding right to identify RPIs.

The Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari today in Game Plan, Inc. v. Uninterrupted IP, LLC, leaving in place a precedential decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) that affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB’s) cancellation of Game Plan’s trademark registration and dismissal of its opposition to six intent-to-use applications filed by Uninterrupted IP, LLC (UNIP).