For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, March 5, 2018, we will discuss the following cases:

Nalco v. Chem-Mod, (CAFC, February 27, 2018) (available here). Nalco sued Chem-Mod for patent infringement of the ‘692 patent, a method for treating mercury in coal mining plants. The district court created its own claim construction during the pleading phase, and dismissed the action under FRCP 12(b)(6), for failure to state a claim. The CAFC reversed and remanded, holding it was improper for the district court to have found no possibility of willful infringement so prematurely.

Arendi v. Google , (CAFC February 20, 2018) (available here). Google requested an IPR on Arendi’s ‘853 patent, method, system and computer readable medium for addressing handling from a computer program. The PTAB granted the petition for review and found all claims invalid under both a broad and narrow construction of the claims. The CAFC affirmed the decision, except under the broad construction not the narrow one.

All are invited to join us on March 5, 2018, at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.