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Welcome to the Snell & Wilmer intellectual property and technology litigation blog! Check here for useful news and information about patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other IP and technology litigation developments.
Our IP & Technology Litigation Attorneys:
Federal Circuit Erases Juno’s $1 Billion Judgment by Invalidating Patent for Inadequate Written Description
By Anne Bolamperti and David G. Barker The Federal Circuit invalidated Juno Therapeutics, Inc.’s T cell therapy patent for cancer treatment and erased a billion dollar judgment in Juno’s favor. The court held that the jury verdict regarding the patent’s written description under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) was not supported by substantial evidence. Juno’s U.S. Patent No. 7,446,190 (the “’190 patent”) relates to a nucleic acid polymer encoding a three-part chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”) for a T cell. The first two portions of the CAR allow T cells to both kill target cells and divide into more T cells. The third portion Read More »
Posted in IP and Technology Litigation, Patent Litigation
| Tagged damages, Federal Circuit, patent, Patent Litigation
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Supreme Court Determines New Limitations to Assignor Estoppel Doctrine
By Marsha Cotton and David G. Barker The Supreme Court upheld assignor estoppel in Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., et al. but held that the Federal Circuit “failed to recognize the doctrine’s proper limits.” In doing so, the Court imposed new limitations on when the equitable doctrine applies in a patent case. The Court did away with the bright-line rule that any time an inventor assigns a patent, he or she cannot later argue that the patent is invalid. Previously, courts applied the rule without looking to the individual facts and circumstances in each case. But the Court held Read More »
Posted in IP and Technology Litigation, Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings
| Tagged Federal Circuit, PTAB, Supreme Court
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Supreme Court Holds that PTAB Judges Are Unconstitutionally Appointed
By Daniel M. Staren and David G. Barker The Supreme Court held this week that the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) appointment of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) judges cannot be constitutionally enforced because the USPTO director does not have authority to review final PTAB decisions. Smith & Nephew, Inc. and ArthroCare Corp. petitioned for inter partes review in the USPTO against Arthrex, Inc.’s patent on a surgical device. A PTAB panel consisting of three administrative patent judges (“APJs”) concluded that Arthrex’s patent was invalid. On appeal, the Federal Circuit determined that the appointment of APJs violated Read More »
Posted in Inter Partes Review, Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings
| Tagged Federal Circuit, PTAB, Supreme Court
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Supreme Court Grants Certiorari to Resolve Long-Running Debate on Assignor Estoppel
By: David G. Barker and Emily R. Parker Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Minerva Surgical v. Hologic, thereby agreeing to resolve a long-running debate on patent law’s doctrine of assignor estoppel. Minerva Surgical has asked the Court to abolish the doctrine, which bars inventors who sell their patent rights from challenging the patent’s validity in district court. The inventor in this case, Csaba Truckai, co-founded a company called NovaCept and developed two patents for endometrial ablation, a surgical process used to treat menstrual bleeding. NovaCept sold its patents to Cytyc Corp., which was acquired by Hologic. Read More »
Posted in Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings
| Tagged Federal Circuit, PTAB, Supreme Court
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IPRs Terminated by PTAB After Petitioner Failed to Name Client as RPI
By Anne Bolamperti and David G. Barker In RPX Corp. v. Applications in Internet Time LLC, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) held in a precedential opinion that three inter partes reviews (“IPRs”) were time-barred under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) because the petitioner, RPX Corp. (“RPX”), failed to name its client Salesforce.com (“Salesforce”) as a real party in interest (“RPI”) in the proceedings. One of RPX’s business solutions is “to file IPRs where its clients have been sued by non-practicing entities.” RPX filed the IPRs against Applications in Internet Time LLC’s (“AIT’s”) regulatory monitoring patents (US 8,484,111 B2 and US 7,356,482 B2). AIT Read More »
Posted in Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings
| Tagged Federal Circuit, PTAB, real party in interest
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