Posts Tagged: "CAFC"

Google Escapes $20 Million Judgment as SCOTUS Denies Petition on CAFC Reissue Standard

Just a few weeks after Google waived its right to respond, the Supreme Court denied a petition challenging a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision that held a Texas district court erred in ruling against the search engine and tech behemoth. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found the inventors of a method for protecting computers from malware—Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman (the patent is now assigned to Melanie, Megan and Morgan Rozman)—had proven that Google’s Chrome web browser infringed their reissue patents RE43,500, RE43,528, and RE43,529 and that the claims were not invalid. After a first time at the Federal Circuit in which the case was remanded to the district court, a jury awarded Cioffi, et. al. $20 million in past damages and the district court in post-trial review rejected Google’s “original patent defense.”

CAFC Orders Response from Apple and USPTO in Ongoing APPLE JAZZ Battle

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) this week ordered Apple, Inc. and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to respond to a petition for writ of mandamus filed by the owner of the APPLE JAZZ trademark, who has been embroiled in a fight with Apple, Inc. over rights to the mark since 2016. Charles Bertini, who owns APPLE JAZZ, petitioned the CAFC last week, asking the court to direct the USPTO to issue a final decision on its petition to cancel Apple’s mark, APPLE (Registration No. 4088195) for nonuse/ abandonment on the ground that Apple never used the mark in commerce for entertainment services listed in the Registration Certificate.

CAFC Says Lack of Concrete Plans to Market Eye Treatment Dooms Allgenesis Appeal

On November 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision in Allgenesis Biotherapeutics Inc. v. Cloudbreak Therapeutics, LLC, dismissing Allgenesis’ appeal after an unsuccessful challenge to Cloudbreak’s patent claims at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The Federal Circuit ruled that Allgenesis lacked Article III standing to bring the appeal for failing to establish an injury in fact stemming from potential infringement liability or the impact of the PTAB’s priority determinations on the scope of Allgenesis’ patent rights.

The ‘Lead Compound’ Rule: Problems and More Problems

On August 22, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued yet another decision reinforcing what can only be described as the “lead compound” rule for challenging pharmaceutical and other chemical compound patents on the basis of obviousness…. The Federal Circuit has been utilizing the “lead compound” construct since around 2000. The Sun panel cited an earlier decision which couched the construct as something the court “ordinarily” employs. Otsuka Pharm. Co., Ltd. v. Sandoz Inc., 678 F. 3d 1280, 1289 (Fed. Cir. 2012). That earlier decision cited yet an earlier decision which stated that the “lead compound” methodology is used “in general.” Esai Co. v. Dr. Reddy’s Labs., Ltd., 533 F. 3d 1353, 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2008).

Irreconcilable Differences: Comparing the CAFC’s Finjan and ABS Global Decisions

If you’re a regular reader of IPWatchdog, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear that two different U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit (CAFC or Federal Circuit) panels recently issued inconsistent, irreconcilable opinions. But what just happened over the last month is particularly concerning. Specifically, within the span of six days, the Federal Circuit held that: “A computer” means one and only one computer when a subsequent claim element recites “the computer” (Finjan v. Sonicwall); and “A sample stream” means one or more sample streams when a subsequent claim element recites “the sample stream” (ABS Global v. Cytonome/ST).