Federal Circuit orders district court to reconcile inconsistencies On June 22, the Federal Circuit vacated the Southern District of New York’s summary judgment ruling which held a patent for an inflatable decorative holiday figure invalid because it was on sale more than a year before the patent application was filed. The Federal Circuit found that there was a factual dispute as to whether […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit withdraws a preliminary injunction Abbott Laboratories (‘Abbott’) brought a suit against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA (‘Teva’) claiming patent infringement of its extended release clarithromycin (Biaxin XL). Abbott requested a preliminary injunction against Teva whereby preventing Teva from manufacturing and selling a generic form of the extended release clarithromycin. The District Court granted Abbott’s motion but on appeal the Federal Circuit […] Continue Reading →
Supreme Court dismisses landmark patent case Laboratory Corporation of America (‘LabCorp’) filed an appeal against Metabolite Laboratories (‘Metabolite’). Patent holders and attorneys have been anxiously awaiting the ruling on this case. This legal dispute began when a jury trial at the District Court resulted in a verdict against LabCorp for patent infringement. LabCorp appealed to the Federal Circuit which subsequently upheld […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit examines construction of settlement agreement language and patent claims On June 12, 2006, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s determination that there was no breach of a settlement agreement of a patent infringement suit. The party alleged to have infringed the patent redesigned its product, and the court found this new product did not fall under either of the two definitions in the […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit further extends nearly decade-long litigation On June 8th, 2006, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s decision to grant summary judgment for invalidity of a patent based on anticipation, obviousness and indefiniteness. In doing so, the court engaged in a fact-specific comparison of the operations of the patented technology and the prior art references in order to determine whether the […] Continue Reading →
Res Judicata applicable in Pactiv v. Dow On June 5, the Federal Circuit decided its second case in as many weeks dealing with the doctrine of res judicata. The decision affirmed the district court’s resolution to dismiss a declaratory judgment for noninfringement, invalidity and unenforceability. Pactiv Corporation and Dow Chemical Company were involved in a three-year suit relating to infringement of two […] Continue Reading →
The Federal Circuit discusses the standards for measuring likelihood of confusion In a recent case, the Federal Circuit settled a trademark opposition between M2 Software and M2 Communications. An opposition is an administrative proceeding at the Patent and Trademark Office that allows the owner of a registered trademark to challenge a pending trademark application which is believed to be too similar to or would weaken their […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit discusses application of res judicata to trademark oppositions In a recent case, the Federal Circuit settled a dispute over whether a trademark applicant must defend all oppositions in order to preserve their right to defend against any one of them.In this case, Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (‘Sharp’), owner of the registered trademark SHARP, filed a Notice of Opposition with the Trademark Office to prevent […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit reaffirms it stance on various common issues that arise in patent cases In a recent case, the Federal Circuit heard a second appeal in the patent infringement case between Liquid Dynamics Corporation (‘LD’) and Vaughan Company (‘Vaughan’). Vaughan brought the second appeal to challenge findings of willful infringement against it as well as findings that the asserted patent was valid and not unenforceabile due to inequitable conduct.Vaughan’s […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit discusses enablement, written description In a recent case, the Federal Circuit settled a dispute determining which group of inventors were the first to invent a new method to produce vaccines for viruses. Virus vaccines are typically ‘attenuated’ viruses, or rather viruses that have lost most or all of their ability to cause disease which is usually accomplished by inactivating […] Continue Reading →