WI-LAN INC. v. SHARP ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

Before Dyk, Taranto, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

Summary: Source code evidence found to be inadmissible hearsay with no exception to save it.

Before the United States Supreme Court (Opinion by Justice Breyer) on Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Summary: Where use of copyrighted computer code is inherently bound together with uncopyrightable ideas and new creative expression, it may be fair use to copy that which is needed to reimplement a user interface for others to make use of their accrued talents.

IN RE: BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

Before Prost, Lourie, and Reyna. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Summary: The specific combination of purely mathematical steps in a claim are not inventive enough to transform patent ineligible mathematical algorithms and mental processes.

On February 26, 2021, Judge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval of a proposed $650 million settlement in a biometric privacy class action lawsuit brought against Facebook. In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation, Case No. 3:15-cv-03747-JD, Dkt. No. 537 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 26, 2021). The long-running litigation began in 2015, when class members alleged that Facebook collected and stored digital scans of their faces without prior notice or consent in violation of Sections 15(a) and 15(b) of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA” or “the Act”), 740 Ill. Comp. Stat. 14/1 et seq. (2008).

MYLAN LABS. LTD. v. JANSSEN PHARMACEUTICA, N.V.
Before Newman, Moore, and Stoll. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: The Federal Circuit lacks jurisdiction over appeals from decisions denying institution of an IPR. However, the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction over mandamus petitions challenging decisions denying institution, but mandamus relief is an extraordinary remedy.

DEPUY SYNTHES PRODUCTS, INC. v. VETERINARY ORTHOPEDIC IMPLANT, INC.

Before Prost, Clevenger, and Dyk. Appeal from the Middle District of Florida.

Summary: Internal efforts to maintain confidentiality are not enough to establish a confidential relationship with a third party and to warrant denying the public’s right to access information on a public docket.

In Re THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Before Prost, Lourie, and Reyna. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Summary: A claim directed to an innovative mathematical process to generate data was a patent ineligible algorithm that lacked any improvement of a technological process under the two-step Alice inquiry.

Defendants in US civil suits have sought to withhold discoverable material because of privacy concerns based on foreign laws, such as the GDPR. Almost all cases on the issue of US discovery and transnational privacy statutes have found that such concerns do not override parties’ obligation to comply with discovery requests.

UNILOC 2017 LLC v. FACEBOOK INC.

Before Lourie, Wallach, and Chen. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Summary: 35 U.S.C. § 314(d) does not preclude Federal Circuit review of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s post-institution application of § 315(e)(1) estoppel

EDGEWELL PERS. CARE BRANDS, LLC v. MUNCHKIN, INC.

Before Newman, Moore, and Hughes. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Summary: Apparatus claims’ non-functional terms should be construed to cover all of the apparatus’ uses; vitiation cannot be used to shortcut the doctrine of equivalents analysis.