Before O’Malley, Reyna, and Hughes. Appeal from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: Courts should not give too much weight to evidence purporting to show a lack of actual confusion in an ex parte proceeding.
Before Newman, Dyk, and Taranto. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
Summary: Pharmaceutical patents were obvious where the claims covered species of a genus taught by the prior art, the prior art taught achieving the claimed concentrations of the same compound but for a different indication, and a person of ordinary skill in the art would expect the claimed outcome. Evidence of secondary considerations of nonobviousness such as long-felt need carried diminished weight because there was a blocking patent that may have deterred investment in the “blocked” invention.
Before Newman, Hughes, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
Summary: Objective indicia of nonobviousness cannot be dismissed merely because all the ingredients in a formulation were generally known and nothing prevented a skilled artisan from combining them.
Before Prost, O’Malley, and Taranto. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: The PTAB may initially accept an IPR petitioner’s identification of real-parties-in-interest, but if and when a patent owner produces evidence disputing the identification, the burden is on the petitioner to demonstrate that the correct real-parties-in-interest were identified.
Before Prost, Moore, and Reyna. Appeal from the District of Delaware.
Summary: Plain language claim construction will not be narrowed based on the prosecution history unless the patentee clearly and explicitly disclaims claim scope.
On August 23, 2018, Dthera Sciences announced that the Food and Drug Administration granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to its Alzheimer’s disease therapeutic device. According to the FDA, Breakthrough Therapy designation is intended to help patients have more timely access to breakthrough technologies that provide treatment for diseases for which no approved treatment exists or which offer significant advantages over existing treatments. A therapy that receives Breakthrough Therapy designation will be reviewed within 60 days of receipt.
Blockchain is a technological innovation underlying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Given the importance of cryptocurrencies not only for buying and selling goods and services, but also as funding and investment vehicles, the underlying blockchain technology is obviously of interest in the fintech space.
Boston Scientific recently announced an agreement to acquire privately-held VENITI, Inc. for $160 million. According to the press release, VENITI submitted a pre-market approval application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2018 for the VICI stent system for treating obstructive venous disease. The VICI stent system received CE Mark approval in 2013.
On July 18, 2018 the well-known luxury goods company, Cartier International AG and Cartier, a division of Richemont North America Inc. (collectively, “Cartier” or “Plaintiffs”) filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Wholesale Jewelry, Inc. d/b/a Diamond Source (“Defendant”). Plaintiffs’ claims include federal counterfeiting, trademark and trade dress infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and similar claims of trademark infringement and unfair competition under New York common law.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published an update to the AIA Trial Practice Guide (‘‘Trial Practice Guide’’) in August 2018 to revise guidance on practices before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (‘‘Board’’). The original Trial Practice Guide was published in 2012 at the same time as the promulgation of AIA Trial Rules. The Trial Practice Guide contains informative material of standard practices in front of the Board, and outlines procedures during AIA trials. The recent update incorporates the Board’s current practices and changes in applicable regulations.
