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  New Claim Construction Standard at the PTAB as of November 13, 2018 By Bradley J. Van Pelt The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now issued a final rule with a new claim construction standard for claim interpretation during America Invents Act trials and proceedings including inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and…

  Is a New Crystal Polymorph Useful and Non-Obvious Over a Prior Art Form of the Same Chemical Formula? By Sarah A. Kagan Four Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigants presented their competing theories of utility, obviousness, and inducement to infringe patents related to the opioid tapentadol hydrochloride in oral arguments to a panel of…

Aseet Patel discusses the potential for more clarity for United States patents involving software innovations, and how that could lead to an improvement in depressed patent valuations, increase in patent licensing activity and raised shareholder value, in Today’s General Counsel. Click here to read the article.

Sarah A. Kagan discusses the potential impact of the Federal Circuit’s decision invalidating patents on Acorda Therapeutics Inc.’s multiple sclerosis drug Ampyra in Law360. Ms. Kagan authored an amicus brief that BIO filed in the case. Click here to read the article, “Fed. Circ. Ruling Takes ‘Blocking Patents’ To New Places.”

Jeffrey Chang volunteered to teach public school students in Washington, D.C., about the Constitution today as part of the American Constitution Society Constitution in the Classroom program. The DC Bar partnered with the DC Lawyer Chapter of the ACS to place volunteer attorneys and law students in public school classrooms. Mr. Chang and other volunteers were able…

Timothy C. Meece and Audra C. Eidem Heinze analyze the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., on the business and legal community for Bloomberg Law. Click here to read the article, “Patent Exhaustion in View of Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc.”

Kirk A. Sigmon explains how startups can avoid or mitigate intellectual property traps if they avoid five common mistakes in World Intellectual Property Review. Click here to read the article, “5 common IP traps startups should avoid.” Subscription is required.

  Does Secret Prior Art Survive in the AIA? Twelve Interested Parties Weigh In By Sarah A. Kagan In May, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit applied an on-sale bar under the America Invents Act (AIA) to Helsinn’s U.S. Patent No. 8,598,219 (Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA,…

  Company Founder Joined and Potentially Liable for Attorneys’ Fees — An Interesting Wrinkle in a Typical “Exceptional” Case By Scott M. Kelly and Apurv Gaurav In the wake of Octane Fitness, 134 S. Ct. 1749, 1756 (2014), courts have awarded attorneys’ fees if the opposing party’s conduct has been exceptional, based on a totality…

  Full Panel of Fed. Cir. Clarifies that Even Voluntarily Dismissed Cases Start the Year Time-Bar Clock for Inter Partes Review By Bradley J. Van Pelt and Kevin C. Keenan The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that even patent suits that are voluntarily dismissed begin the one-year time period for filing a…