On July 18, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) instituted a covered business method (“CBM”) patent review for U.S. Patent No. 8,955,029 (“the ’029 patent”) on grounds of unpatentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101.[1]
For many students in the United States, the first day of school is less than a month away. This means the back-to-school shopping season has started. Teenagers, middle schoolers, and fashion conscious parents of elementary school children will visit malls and outlets in search of new clothing, shoes, and accessories. Many of these shoppers will also visit the websites of retail stores and e-commerce websites.
In Shipping and Transit, LLC v. Hall Enterprises, Inc., a district court recently held that a patent infringement case was “exceptional” under 35 U.S.C. § 285 and the defendant was entitled to recover attorney fees and costs from the plaintiff. The court’s ruling was in part because the plaintiff’s position was “objectively unreasonable” with regard to the validity of asserted claims under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
On remand from the Federal Circuit, the PTAB granted Veritas’s Supplemental Motion to Amend for one substitute claim and denied the motion with respect to a second claim in Veeam Software Corporation v. Veritas Technologies LLC, IPR2014-00090, Paper 48 (P.T.A.B. Jul. 17, 2017).
On July 13, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tremfya (guselkumab), a biologic manufactured by Janssen Biotech, for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy.
Trademark law is an important form of protection for the fashion and beauty industry. It protects both brand owners and consumers by regulating the registration of brands, or source identifiers, of fashion and beauty products. Historically, it has been difficult to federally register marks that might be deemed “offensive” to others because the Lanham Act, the federal statute governing trademarks, includes a ban against registering marks that are immoral, scandalous, or disparaging. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has been inconsistent in its application of the statute over the years.
The Trump White House released a Statement of Administration Policy on Wednesday in response to the House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 2430, a bill that would reauthorize the use of four FDA user fee programs: the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, the Medical Device User Fee Amendments, the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments, and the Biosimilar User Fee Act.
The PTAB has again addressed sovereign immunity in the context of an IPR. Reactive Surfaces, LTD. petitioned for IPR of U.S. Patents No. 8,394,618 and 8,252,571. The ’618 and ’571 patents are co-owned by Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and the Regents of the University of Minnesota (UMinn).
Philips recently announced that it will purchase Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI). The total value of the deal is estimated to be GBP 29.0 million (approximately $36.9 million). According to its website, EGI designs, develops, and commercializes various non-invasive neurodiagnostic products that monitor and interpret brain activity, such as its dense array electroencephalography (EEG) platform.
In an appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the Federal Circuit held that claims related to methods of testing for fetal chromosomal abnormalities were not invalid because there was not substantial evidence that the claims lacked written description support.
