Yesterday Democrat and Republican legislators from both the Senate and the House of Representatives released a one page outline of a proposal to change the law of patent eligibility.  The legislators supporting this proposal include Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC); Senator Chris Coons (D-DE); Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA-9); Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA-4); and Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH-15).

A New Jersey jury awarded Mondis $45 million in patent damages, based on LG’s sales of infringing televisions that support the “Plug & Play” standard.  

Before Newman, O’Malley, and Wallach.  Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Summary: Diligence requires “reasonably continuous diligence” and is not negated if the inventor works on improvements and evaluates alternatives while developing an invention. 

Before Prost, Lourie and Stoll.  Appeal from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Summary: In evaluating whether a webpage printout is an acceptable specimen of use for a trademark in connection with goods, the USPTO may look for information on the webpage essential to purchasing decisions such as price for the goods, minimum quantities one may order, accepted methods of payment, and shipping information.  If the webpage simply provides a phone number or email address to contact for sales information, this is likely not enough to show the specimen is a point-of-sale display and thus an acceptable specimen of use. 

Before Prost, Dyk, and Wallach. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Summary: Asserting the district court’s claim construction prevented consideration of additional prior art, without identifying the specific prior art, fails to meet the requirements of FRCP 46.

A Florida judge recently entered a permanent injunction against a handful of Florida businesses and their owner, barring them from further infringing a patent covering biometric security for automobiles.  

Before Wallach, Clevenger, and Stoll.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

Summary: Claims directed to a specific method of treatment for specific patients using a specific compound at specific doses to achieve a specific outcome may be patent eligible, despite using a natural law or phenomenon. 

Before Judges Reyna, Taranto, and Chen. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Summary: There may be no reasonable expectation of success in producing a specific polymorph of a compound when that compound is not known to be polymorphic, and existing synthesizing methods do not necessarily produce or provide specific guidance for producing the specific polymorph.

Before Prost, Dyk, and Wallach.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Summary: When the Federal Circuit holds that a combination of references does not teach a particular limitation, that does not foreclose all other obviousness theories based on the same combination of references.

Before Prost, Reyna, and Taranto.  Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Summary: An abstract idea cannot be used to supply an inventive concept that renders a claim “significantly more” than an abstract idea.