Analysis of March-In Rights Guidance Marks a Sad Day for the GAO

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) just released its assessment of the Biden Administration’s “Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights.” A bipartisan combination of Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) along with Congressmen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) asked the GAO to evaluate the guidelines on three bases: what the guidelines did and how they were developed; stakeholder views on the draft; and the potential impact of the guidelines.

CAFC Reverses 101 Ineligibility Ruling, Finds Gene Therapy Claims Are Not Directed to a Natural Phenomenon

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in a precedential decision on Friday reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment that REGENEXBIO, Inc.’s patent claims were ineligible as directed to a natural phenomenon. The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware found that REGENXBIO’s and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania’s gene therapy patent claims were directed to a natural phenomenon and therefore patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. But the unanimous CAFC reversed that decision, thereby reviving REGENEXBIO’s infringement suit against Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. and Sarepta Therapeutics Three, LLC.

Other Barks & Bites for Friday, February 20: WIPO Report Shows Unprecedented Rates of Invention Diffusion; Tillis and Schiff Letters to ANSI and ALI Demand Transparency; and Judge Oldham Disputes Trade Secret Existence in Fifth Circuit Ruling

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit concludes that expert testimony did not properly support the patent owner’s equivalency argument; the World Intellectual Property Organization issues a report showing that technology diffusion is spreading across the world at historically high rates; Boeing returns its defense and security headquarters to St. Louis from the D.C. region; Senators Thom Tillis and Adam Schiff send letters seeking better transparency measures in standards development and answers regarding a controversial restatement of copyright laws; and more.

Tillis and Schiff Want Answers from ALI on Mass Resignations Around Latest Copyright Restatement Project

Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, respectively, sent a letter on Thursday to Director of the American Law Institute Diane Wood asking for answers to 14 questions about the latest Copyright Restatement Project. The letter follows mass resignations from the project last year over concerns about the final product. Specifically, key copyright proponents resigned over what one of those who resigned, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid, referred to as “a general undercurrent of anti-copyright sentiment that…manifests itself through a disproportionate focus on atypical court decisions that limit the scope of copyright protection.”

Sony Prevails at CAFC in Decision Faulting Patent Owner’s Means-Plus-Function Analysis

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Thursday issued a precedential decision finding Sony’s Playstation controllers and consoles did not infringe Genuine Enabling Technology’s (GET’s) patent for computer input devices. GET alleged that Sony directly and indirectly infringed its U.S. Patent No. 6,219,730 via certain Playstation products. Specifically, GET said that the products’ Bluetooth module “synchronized user input from controller buttons with input from controller sensors,” thereby meeting the claims’ “encoding means” limitation.

CAFC Partially Affirms PTAB Unpatentability Decision for Samsung but Vacates on Unchallenged Claims

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Wednesday affirmed in part a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding certain claims of ST Case1Tech, LLC’s (ST1’s) patent obvious, but vacated the decision as to two claims that petitioner Samsung had not challenged before the Board. The panel included Judges Reyna, Taranto and Stark and was authored by Judge Stark.

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