The PTAB expunged non-compliant motions for observations on cross-examination in Xilinx, Inc. v. Papst Licensing GMBH & Co., KG, IPR2016-00104, Paper 22 & IPR2016-00105, Paper 22 (P.T.A.B. May 3, 2017). 

Patent enforcement by Texas-based DataTreasury Corp. (“DataTreasury”) was a key motivation for the creation of Covered Business Method Review (“CBM”) proceedings.  Senator Charles Schumer of New York, referring to DataTreasury, explained that “one company has made a cottage industry out of extracting legal settlements by exploiting a fuzzy part of the law on patents.”

In Superior Communications, Inc. v. Voltstar Technologies, Inc., IPR2017-00067, Paper 14 (P.T.A.B. Apr. 25, 2017), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted inter partes review of U.S. Patent No. 7,910,833, despite Voltstar’s objection that such an institution was statutorily barred under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b). 

An MIT group consisting of the CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang and 18 of his colleagues recently published a paper in Science demonstrating a new platform for using CRISPR technology as a diagnostic tool for detecting nucleic acids.  The CRISPR-based diagnostic tool (or CRISPR-Dx) may be valuable for applications ranging from detecting the presence of bacterial or viral pathogens to nucleic acid markers for genetic diseases or cancer. 

The USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has released its March 2017 statistics.  The end of March marking the halfway point in the USPTO’s fiscal year, the overall totals for fiscal year 2017 (FY 2017) are coming into focus. 

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court established the current framework for determining patent-eligible subject matter in Alice_[1].  The Alice framework is a two-part test, with step one requiring a determination regarding whether a claim is directed to an abstract idea. 

Old Republic’s IPR petition was effectively unopposed due to a defect in the chain of assignment, which led the PTAB to hold all claims unpatentable without considering arguments or evidence submitted in favor of patentability in Old Republic Gen. Ins. Group, v. Owner of U.S. Patent No. 6,519,581, IPR2015-01956, Paper 39 & IPR2015-01957, Paper 38 (P.T.A.B. Apr. 18, 2017).

The PTAB granted-in-part motions to amend in three related proceedings:  Activision Blizzard, Inc. v. Acceleration Bay, LLC, IPR2015-01953, Paper 107 (P.T.A.B. sealed on March 23, 2017, made public on April 19, 2017); IPR2015-01972, Paper 111 (P.T.A.B. sealed on March 23, 2017, made public on April 19, 2017); IPR2015-01996, Paper 101 (P.T.A.B. sealed on March 29, 2017, made public on April 19, 2017).

On March 21, 2017 the Supreme Court issued a monumental holding removing the availability of laches as a defense in a claim for damages under patent infringement. The case changes decades of legal precedent, and adopts reasoning similar to that used by the Court in a 2014 copyright case.

The PTAB weighed five factors in its discretionary denial of a second IPR petition filed by the same petitioner in Xactware Solutions, Inc. v. Eagle View Tech., Inc., IPR2017-00034, Paper 9 (P.T.A.B. April 13, 2017).