IP Blog
patent
Patent That Survived Alice Is Not Obvious
A little less than a year after finding that claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,474,159, directed to an inertial tracking system, were patent-eligible under the Alice abstract idea test, the Federal Circuit has affirmed a decision of the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that claims of the ’159 patent have not been shown to be obvious under 35...
Estoppel, or Lack Thereof, in Inter Partes Reexaminations
The Federal Circuit recently clarified the scope of estoppel for inter partes reexaminations, ruling in a pair of decisions that a district-court decision only estops arguments against individual claims of a patent and that a dismissal without prejudice does not estop the reexamination. In re Affinity Labs of Texas, 2016-1092, -1172, -1173 (Fed. Cir. May 5, 2017). Affinity Labs sued...
Federal Circuit Invalidates Business Method Patent (Yawn)
The Federal Circuit has upheld the invalidity of a patent whose claims recite “[a] computer-implemented method for providing certified financial data indicating financial risk about an individual.” Clarilogic, Inc. v. FormFree Holdings Corp., No. 2016-1781 (March 5, 2017) (opinion by Judge Reyna, joined by Judges Lourie and Chen) (non-precedential). The court affirmed the lower court’s summary judgment of invalidity under...