On August 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision in Kamstrup A/S v. Axioma Metering UAB affirming a final written decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated all challenged claims as obvious or anticipated. In so holding, the Federal Circuit found that the PTAB properly construed a product-by-process claim element as not entitled to patentable weight and dismissed Kamstrup’s arguments that the asserted prior art was not analogous to the patented invention.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Biogen MA, Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc., reversing the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey’s judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) for Biogen. The New Jersey court had found no anticipation of Biogen’s patent claims, overturning a jury’s finding that the claims were anticipated by the prior art. The Federal Circuit’s decision, which turned on the issue of applying a product-by-process novelty analysis to certain nested claim limitations, said that a reasonable jury could find the claims anticipated and remanded with instructions to reinstate the jury verdict.