Firm News

Arthrex: Federal Circuit Rejects En Banc Rehearing On PTAB Judge Constitutionality

»»The Federal Circuit has denied the request for rehearing on their Arthrex decision from this past fall. As Maier and Maier’s own Steven Kunin describes here, this rejection sets up a probable grant of certiorari on the issue from the Supreme Court. “The split among the judges provides a roadmap for a probable Supreme Court […]

New Rules For Proving Unintentional Delay At USPTO

»»On March 2, 2020, the USPTO published a new notice in the Federal Register clarifying their practice regarding unintentional delay. “The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is clarifying its practice as to situations that will require additional information about whether a delay in seeking the revival of an abandoned application, acceptance of a […]

Federal Circuit Uses Reference Number Conventions In Claim Construction

»»On February 21, 2020, the Federal Circuit remanded Ironworks Patents LLC v. Samsung Elecs. Co. back to the Northern District of California due to its flawed claim construction below. The panel of judges found the term ‘camera unit’ to have been misinterpreted to require a battery and external interface device over the specification and convention […]

Federal Circuit: Indefinite Claims Reviewable In IPRs

»»On February 4, 2020, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Prisua Engineering Corp.. The decision remanded an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for review of claims under the proposed novelty and obviousness grounds, despite the fact that the Board had […]

Jury Hits Apple & Broadcom With $1.1 Billion Infringement Award To CalTech

»»2020 has started off with a bang as a jury in the Central District of California returned a verdict finding for CalTech on five counts of infringement against both Apple and Broadcom. The suit centered around Broadcom Wi-Fi components that had been used in a variety of products resulting in awards of $270,241,171 from Broadcom […]

Maier & Maier’s Stephen G. Kunin Tapped For 15th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute

»»Next month is the 15th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute at the USPTO, and Maier and Maier’s own Stephen G. Kunin is set to moderate the Thursday morning session focused on Section 101: High Tech v. Life Sciences. Per the program description: ‘The U.S. patent statutes apply equally to all patent applications, but the application […]

USPTO Awaits Arthrex En Banc Rehearing Decision As PTAB Judges Remain In Flux

»»Final briefing from Appellant Arthrex, Inc., Appellees Arthrocare Corp. and Smith & Nephew, Inc., and the Intervening United States Government was filed January 17, 2020 on the request for en banc rehearing. The decision at issue centered on the constitutionality of the appointment process for the PTAB Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) and whether PTAB proceedings […]

Supreme Court Rejects Federal Circuit’s Plea For Help With §101

»»This past summer, the Federal Circuit issued an en banc decision against rehearing in Athena Diagnostics, Inc., et al. v. Mayo Collaborative, et al. In the 7-5 decision, there were a staggering 8 separate opinions (four concurring and four dissenting). The common refrain in each was the need for the Supreme Court to address the […]

Alice Test Saves Nintendo From Jury’s $10.1 Infringement Verdict As Northern District of Texas Rules Patent Invalid Under §101

»»On January 17th, 2020, Chief Judge Barbara Lynn granted Nintendo’s Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, invalidating iLife’s patent claim asserted against Nintendo for its Wii U games and the resulting jury verdict award of $10.1 million. In the motion, Nintendo raised challenges that the patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,796) for Systems Within […]

Maier & Maier Helps GREE, Inc. Successfully Overcome §101 And §112 Attacks At The PTAB By Supercell Oy

»»On October 15, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a Final Written Decision upholding all 19 remaining claims at issue as valid over 101 and 112 arguments in PGR2018-00061. The challenged patent, 9,700,793, “relates to a recording medium storing a game program, a game processing method, and an information processing apparatus.” The petition […]