Abington | Cole

Patent Blog

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Federal Circuit gives advice to future design applicants.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

In IN RE: TIMOTHY OWENS, the Federal Circuit found that in a design application, unclaimed boundary lines typically should satisfy the written description requirement only if they make explicit a boundary that already exists, but was unclaimed, in the original disclosure.

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Federal Circuit: Assignor estoppel cannot be used to create a claim for relief invoking federal jurisdiction.

Monday, February 11, 2013

In SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO. v. NAGATA, the Federal Circuit ruled that Federal jurisprudence does not recognize an affirmative cause of action based on violation of the assignor estoppel doctrine, and district court did not err in dismissing complaint alleging violation of federal patent law against co-inventor who assigned rights to plaintiff for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, or in declining supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims.

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Federal Circuit: It is not necessary that a party manufacture a product that is protected by a patent to seek relief under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

In INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS V. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION, the Federal Circuit ruled that under the clear intent of Congress and the most natural reading of the 1988 amendment, section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 makes relief available to a party that has a substantial investment in exploitation of a patent through either engineering, research and development, or licensing. It is not necessary that the party manufacture the product that is protected by the patent, and it is not necessary that any other domestic party manufacture the protected article. As long as the patent covers the article that is the subject of the exclusion proceeding, and as long as the party seeking relief can show that it has a sufficiently substantial investment in the exploitation of the intellectual property to satisfy the domestic industry requirement of the statute, that party is entitled to seek relief under section 337.

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Federal Circuit: When arguments with respect to indefiniteness are not being raised for the first time on appeal, there is no waiver.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

In EPLUS, INC., v. LAWSON SOFTWARE, INC., a suit for infringement of a patent directed to a method for a system that enables businesses and organizations to use computer networks to purchase goods online, the Federal Circuit found that, even though not addressed at trial (addressed in a motion for summary judgment), when arguments with respect to indefiniteness are not being raised for the first time on appeal, there is no waiver.

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Federal Circuit declines to invoke 112(6) for "height adjustment mechanism" limitation.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

In FLO HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS v. UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, the Federal Circuit found that the generic term "mechanism" standing alone may connote no more structure than the term "means." However, the court held that "height adjustment mechanism" in common parlance, reasonably imparts sufficient structure so that the presumption against means-plus-function treatment is not overcome.

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Federal Circuit reverses Apple's injunction victory over Samsung.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

In APPLE v. SAMSUNG, the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California the preliminary injunction enjoining Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone because the district court abused its discretion in entering the injunction.

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Federal Circuit addresses burden of proof in licensor/licensee declaratory judgment actions.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

In MEDTRONIC v. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC, the Federal Circuit held that in the limited circumstance when an patent infringement counterclaim by a patentee is foreclosed by the continued existence of a license, a licensee seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement and of no consequent liability under the license bears the burden of persuasion. A contrary result would allow licensees to use the shield established by the Supreme Court in MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 549 U.S. 118 (2007), as a sword -- haling licensors into court and forcing them to assert and prove what had already been resolved by license.

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Microsoft files patent application for "Immersive Display Experience."

Wednesday, September 6, 2012

The patent application (US Patent App. No. 20120223885) teaches an immersive display environment provided to a human user by projecting a peripheral image onto environmental surfaces around the user. The peripheral images serve as an extension to a primary image displayed on a primary display.

According to the application, interactive media experiences, such as video games, are commonly delivered by a high quality, high resolution display. Such displays are typically the only source of visual content, so that the media experience is bounded by the bezel of the display. Even when focused on the display, the user may perceive architectural and decorative features of the room the display is in via the user's peripheral vision. Such features are typically out of context with respect to the displayed image, muting the entertainment potential of the media experience. Further, because some entertainment experiences engage the user's situational awareness (e.g., in experiences like the video game scenario described above), the ability to perceive motion and identify objects in the peripheral environment (i.e., in a region outside of the high resolution display) may intensify the entertainment experience.

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Google granted patent for "Login to a Computing Device Based on Facial Recognition."

Tuesday, September 5, 2012

The patent (US Patent No. 8,261,090) teaches a method of logging a user in to a computing device by receiving an image of the user via a camera operably coupled with the computing device and determining the identity of the user based on the received image. If the determined identity matches a predetermined identity, then, based at least on the identity of the user matching the predetermined identity, the user is logged in to the computing device.

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Federal Circuit addresses appropriate legal standard for evaluating obviousness-type double patenting.

Friday, August 24, 2012

In ELI LILLY v. APP PHARMA Appellant Teva Parenteral Medicines, Inc., contended that the correct analysis for evaluating obviousness-type double patenting involves only the differences between the claims at issue, so that any features held in common between the claims would be excluded from consideration. Relying on Amgen Inc. v. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., 580 F.3d 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2009), the Court confirmed that the obviousness-type double patenting analysis is analogous to an obviousness analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103 and claim differences cannot be considered in isolation - rather claims must be considered as a whole.

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Apple granted patent for "Seamless Switching Between Radio and Local Media."

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The patent (US Patent No. 8,249,497) teaches systems and methods for seamlessly switching media playback between a media broadcast, such as a radio broadcast, and media from a local media library. When an electronic device determines that an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of interest to a user, the electronic device can switch playback from the media stream to a media item from the electronic device local library. The selected local media item can be related to a previously broadcast media item to ensure continuity in the user's listening or viewing experience. The electronic device can switch away from the local media item and return to the media stream when the media stream again broadcasts media items or segments of interest to the user.

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Google improves its patent search tool by adding European Patent Office patents and the new Prior Art Finder tool.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Google announced today the addition of search results from the European Patent Office for its widely used "Google Patents" search resource. The EPO search results are are automatically translated into English, French, and German.

The "Prior Art Finder" generates prior art search results broken down into 6 categories: Top 10, Scholar, Patents, Web, Books, and People. The "Prior Art Finder" automatically generates search terms from the source and also allows the the user to add custom search terms and a custom date range.

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/improving-google-patents-with-european.html