The Patent Trial and Appeal Board granted a rare request for rehearing of its earlier decision denying institution of an asserted anticipation ground in Asustek Computer, Inc. v. Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd, IPR2016-00647, Paper 23 (P.T.A.B. March 8, 2017).    

Under U.S. trademark law, any person (including a celebrity) can obtain a trademark registration for their name if they can establish that the public recognizes the name as a source identifier for certain products or services.  Celebrities frequently obtain a federal trademark registration for “entertainment services.”

The Supreme Court in Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp held that providing a single component of a multicomponent invention for manufacture abroad does not give rise to patent infringement liability under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1). 

The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s final written decision holding that claims from Michael Meiresonne’s patent were obvious in Meiresonne v. Google, Inc., Case No. 16-1755 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 7, 2017).

The PTAB issued two final written decisions upholding The University of Pennsylvania’s claims to methods of treating high cholesterol based, in part, on commercial success and the meaning of a “printed publication” in Coalition for Affordable Drugs VIII LLC v. The Trustees of The University of Pennsylvania, IPR2015-01835, Paper 56 (P.T.A.B., March 6, 2017) and IPR2015-01836, Paper 58 (P.T.A.B., March 6, 2017).

Is a patent directed to electronic communications between computing devices patent eligible?  As with many legal questions, the answer to this question is not black and white.  In the recent Fitbit, Inc. v. Aliphcom decision, the district court for the Northern district of California held that claims in Fitbit’s patent directed to a specific approach to pairing a wireless device to client or server is patent eligible.

The Federal Circuit held that a rat study in a provisional application and a conversion method in an uncited reference did not support the claimed human dosage form in Los Angeles Biomed. Research Inst. v. Eli Lilly & Co., No. 16-1518 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 28, 2017).  The Federal Circuit further held that claims directed to an underlying condition should not be construed broadly to treat symptoms of that condition.

The Federal Circuit held that the PTAB may consider legal conclusions of obviousness by experts, but the expert papers must make adequate factual findings and provide a satisfactory explanation as to determinations of obviousness in Icon Health and Fitness, Inc. v. Strava, Inc., No. 16-1475 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 27, 2017).  

In a final written decision, the Board denied a patent owner’s request for a certificate of correction filed shortly after IPR institution in Douglas Dynamics, L.L.C. v. Meyer Products, LLC, IPR2015-01839, Paper 51 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 1, 2017).

With more consumers cutting the cord to their TVs and paying for premium subscriptions or ad blockers to avoid advertising, social media has become an important medium through which advertisers reach the purchasing public. Companies are allocating substantial marketing dollars to advertising on social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, in the form of social media endorsements.