This week in Other Barks & Bites: a House IP Subcommittee hearing on restoring the USPTO’s fee-setting authority turns heated over the original intention behind the America Invents Act; the Eleventh Circuit affirms a permanent injunction and trademark cancellation in an infringement case brought by the maker of “Wolf”-brand electric scooters; the United States scores high marks across 33 economic indicators in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recently released Statistical Annex to the International IP Index; the European General Court finds that Microsoft’s Edge browser is not an important gateway subject to regulations under the Digital Markets Act; the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the Library of Congress’ recent triennial rulemaking allowing circumventions to technological protection measures for medical devices; and Microsoft breaks out financial figures for its Azure cloud division for the first time in its most recent quarterly earnings report. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision today in Biofer S.p.A. v. Vifor (International) AG affirming a judgment of non-infringement by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in favor of Swiss Pharmaceutical company, Vifor (International) AG. The dispute centered on the construction of a claimed pH range recited in a patent covering a process for producing iron-sugar complexes used to treat iron deficiency.

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling in Vieth v. MOM Enterprises, LLC affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) invalidation of Elaine and Dr. Reinhold Veith’s patent claims to methods of administering vitamin D to human beings. The Federal Circuit agreed that most of the claim construction and prior art arguments raised by the Vieths on appeal were forfeited for not being properly developed in the proceedings below, and also dismissed the Vieths’ contentions that they had established nexus between industry praise for its products and the challenged method claims.