For many years, the USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeals Board has been viewed as a Star Chamber which ritually invalidates patents. More recent experience suggests that the PTAB is no longer necessarily a place where patents go to die. Two cases from this summer are the topic of this post. In both cases, the PTAB [...]
With the wide and inexpensive availability of AI tools, we as IP attorneys need to decide how to employ them in our law practice. Our firm will discuss how AI tools such as Chat GPT could be used by us today, including what sensible controls we must employ to protect client confidences and privileges. We [...]
Judges won't readily dismiss a lawsuit. Usually, they will give the plaintiff several chances to correct flaws in a complaint before dismissing with prejudice. It's especially rare to see a judge dismiss a patent suit with prejudice because the infringement allegation is so weak that the patentee has no chance of success. These rare cases [...]
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2023. As we start the third decade of SoCal IP Law Group, we have some court decisions on fairly fundamental issues of patent law and procedure. In Plastipak v Premium Waters, the Federal Circuit (J Stark) vacated and remanded on whether the plaintiff had sufficient rights to sue for infringement. [...]
Two cases of interest in IPR practice, Provisur Technologies, Inc. v. Weber, Inc., and Polaris Innovations, Ltd. v. Brent. Both of these are precedential opinions of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.In Provisur, the PTAB invalidated claims directed to classifying slices or a portion cut from a food product according to an optical [...]
Summer time and the living is easy, so I’m a bit delayed in this week’s post. Apologies. In this week’s post, I highlight shifts in the patent litigation environment in Texas. The Eastern District of Texas, especially Marshall and Tyler, used to be the top venue choice for patent owners who wanted a fast path [...]
Who are the people in your neighborhood? Our neighborhood includes the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The CAFC currently has 19 sitting judges. Here's a list of the judges with links to their bios. The judges have diverse and interesting backgrounds. The bench includes a Chief Judge. Ever wonder how the chief judge [...]
The USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) handles five kinds of cases: 1. Appeals by patent applicants when an examiner has rejected their application at least twice.2. Appeals by patent owners in reexaminations3. Inter parte reviews (IPRs)4. Post Grant Reviews (PGRs)5. Covered Business Method Patent Reviews (CBMs) In support of the PTAB's public outreach [...]
In unrelated opinions published one week apart, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has pushed out the boundaries of IPR estoppel. IPR estoppel, like many patent law issues, seems esoteric, but it can have tremendous economic impact. Though estoppel is usually an issue of equity, well within a judge's sense of fairness, IPR [...]
On Monday, December 20, 2021, Steve Sereboff will lead a discussion of an older decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) about single color trademarks, and about a more recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) providing more guidance on its false trademark declaration jurisprudence. In re Cook [...]