ZYXEL COMMUNICATIONS CORP. v. UNM RAINFOREST INNOVATIONS
Before Dyk, Prost, and Stark. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: Because the PTAB’s MTA Pilot Program’s core purpose is to allow patent owners to address errors or deficiencies in motions to amend, the Board may exercise its discretion to allow reply briefing to correct such errors.
SOFTVIEW LLC v. APPLE INC.
Before Bryson, Lourie, and Reyna. Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”), Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”).
Summary: Estoppel under 37 C.F.R. § 42.73(d)(3)(i) only applies to obtaining new or amended claims in the PTO and does not apply to maintaining already issued claims.
SANHO CORP. V. KAIJET TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, INC.
Before Dyk, Clevenger, and Stoll. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: An invention is not “publicly disclosed” under 35 USC 102(b)(2)(B) by the inventor’s private sale, even though a private sale may constitute an invalidating “public use” under 35 USC 102(a)(1).
Almost half of the teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) were recently sued for copyright infringement. In the complaint filed against the Atlanta Hawks, one of the plaintiffs—publisher Kobalt Music Publishing America (Kobalt), the exclusive agent
for the licensing of all other plaintiffs’ copyrights at issue—alleged that the NBA teams have been exploiting the rights conferred to the copyright holders by syncing videos posted on various websites and social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok) with music owned by third parties without obtaining the necessary consent to do so. Knobbe Martens Partner Jonathan Hyman and Associate Nickolas Taylor recently authored an article discussing concerns surrounding intellectual property infringement by social media content creators. The lawsuits filed against the various NBA teams similarly highlights the intellectual property infringement concerns that can (and often do) arise in the modern world of social media and the internet.
On July 23, 2024, Dr. Jeff Shuren, the director for the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), announced that he will retire. Dr. Shuren became director of the CDRH in 2009. As director of the CDRH, Dr. Shuren oversaw the approval of medical devices and monitoring of radiation-emitting products.
Edwards Lifesciences recently announced that it would acquire Innovalve Bio Medical, an early-stage transcatheter mitral valve replacement (“TMVR”) company. Edwards had the option to acquire Innovalve following an initial investment in 2017. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year.
As we previously discussed, on November 7, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) sent warning letters to certain drug manufacturers regarding their purportedly improper listings of device patents in the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (“Orange Book” or “OB”).
On April 23, 2024, the United States Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), via a 3-2 vote, issued a final rule, which, according to the FTC’s rule summary, provides a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes nationwide and bans existing noncompetes with workers other than senior executives. The rule is scheduled to go into effect September 4, 2024. However, a federal judge in Texas temporarily halted the implementation and enforcement of the FTC rule and stayed the September 4 start date, at least with respect to the specific plaintiffs involved in a lawsuit that challenged the FTC rule, Ryan, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission Case (No. 3:24-cv-00986).
On May 24, 2024, member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted a new treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge that was over 20 years in the making. Genetic resources, which can include medicinal plants, agriculture crops and animal breeds, cannot themselves be claimed as intellectual property. However, inventions developed using genetic resources can be protected, usually through patents. The stated goals of the treaty include enhancing the efficacy, transparency, and quality of the patent system and preventing patents from being granted erroneously for inventions that are not novel or inventive with regard to genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
On Friday, June 21, 2024, the FDA updated its Patent Listing Dispute List to indicate that the ten pharmaceutical companies who had received warning letters from the FTC in April did not make changes to their patent listings in the FDA’s catalog in view of the warning letters.
