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Eileen McDermott

Editor-in-Chief

IPWatchdog, Inc.

Eileen McDermott is the Editor-in-Chief of IPWatchdog.com. Eileen is a veteran IP and legal journalist, and no stranger to the intellectual property world, having held editorial and managerial positions at several publications and industry organizations. She has acted as editorial consultant for the International Trademark Association (INTA), chiefly overseeing the editorial process for the Association’s twice-monthly newsletter, the INTA Bulletin. Eileen has also served as a freelance editor for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); as senior consulting editor for the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) from 2015 to 2017; as Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief at INTA from 2013 to 2016; and was Americas Editor for Managing Intellectual Property magazine from 2007 to 2013.

Recent Articles by Eileen McDermott

Will the CAFC Hear Amici’s Call to Grant Bid for En Banc Review of ODP Doctrine?

Just before the Thanksgiving break, a number of amici submitted briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) asking the en banc court to rehear a case that many feel has a good chance of helping to clarify the law around the judicially-created doctrine of non-statutory obviousness-type double patenting (ODP). Cellect, LLC filed its petition for rehearing en banc on November 13, asking the full court to consider whether the August panel decision should be overturned. In that decision, authored by Judge Lourie, the court held that patent term extension (PTE) and patent term adjustment (PTA) are not the same for purposes of an obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) analysis.

Federal Circuit Vacates TTAB Decision as Arbitrary and Capricious

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Wednesday vacated and remanded a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision that had sustained an opposition to the mark GET ORDAINED, holding that the TTAB had failed to “furnish a reasoned explanation for departing from its established practice of deeming unargued claims waived.”

‘I Want to Thank You’: Who and What IP Stakeholders are Giving Thanks for This Year

With another Thanksgiving holiday upon us in the United States, we once again asked the IP community to chime in with what they have been grateful for in the realm of IP for 2023. We received comments from more than two dozen practitioners who mentioned almost as many  unique topics for which they are thankful. From movement on AI and IP protection to pending patent eligibility and Patent Trial and Appeal Board legislation, to big trademark wins this year, read on to hear what IP stakeholders are saying thanks for this year.

Federal Circuit Says PTAB Has Authority to Issue Decisions After Statutory Deadline

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled in a precedential decision today that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) does not lose its statutory authority to issue a Final Written Decision when it misses the 1.5-year deadline to do so, as established by the patent statute. According to the opinion, which was authored by Judge Dyk, “[t]his appears to be the only proceeding in which the Board has failed to meet the statutory deadline, and this is accordingly a matter of first impression.”

Justices Won’t Consider Whether CAFC’s Claim Construction Constitutes a Judicial Taking

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied a petition that asked it to consider whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (CAFC’s) “construction of petitioner’s patent claim was unforeseeable and unjustifiable under the circuit’s prior decisions,” thereby constituting a judicial taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. The petition was an appeal from the CAFC’s April decision affirming a district court’s judgment that AT&T Mobility LLC did not infringe an inventor’s wireless communications technology patent but also holding that AT&T had forfeited its chance to prove the patent invalid on appeal.

Google and Qualcomm Reps Butt Heads on Impact of eBay

Last weekend, The Federalist Society hosted a panel as part of its 2023 National Lawyers Convention featuring in-house counsel from Google and Qualcomm, as well as two federal judges and an academic, to discuss whether U.S. law around IP injunctions is promoting or harming markets for innovators and creators. Predictably, Google’s and Qualcomm’s counsel had starkly different perspectives on that topic.

Teleflex Scores Again at CAFC with Affirmance of Medtronic’s PTAB Loss

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision today affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) finding that Medtronic failed to prove the challenged claims of Teleflex’s catheter patent unpatentable. In several previous precedential decisions issued this year, the CAFC similarly upheld the PTAB’s determinations. In May, the court said that Medtronic failed to show the challenged claims of five catheter patents unpatentable because the primary prior art reference cited by Medtronic did not qualify as prior art under pre-America Invents Act (AIA) first-to-invent provisions. Judge Dyk dissented. And in June, the court found in two separate rulings issued the same day that Teleflex’s objective evidence supported a presumption of nexus, that Medtronic copied Teleflex’s product and that Teleflex’s substitute claims did not lack adequate written description.

USPTO Publishes Final Rule Establishing Separate Design Patent Bar

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced that a final rule will be published tomorrow, November 16, in the Federal Register implementing a design patent practitioner bar. The Office first published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register in May 2023 contemplating a separate design patent practitioner bar. A request for comments (RFC) was also published in October 22.

Past Events with Eileen McDermott

IPWatchdog LIVE 2023

September 17-19, 2023

IPWatchdog LIVE 2022

September 11-13, 2022

IPWatchdog LIVE 2021

September 12-14, 2021