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Patent owners facing inter partes review (IPR) challenges have the option of filing a motion to amend as a contingency plan. This motion, accompanied by proposed substitute claims, allows the patent owner a fallback position if the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finds the original claims unpatentable. If successful, despite the unpatentability of the original claims, the patent owner maintains the substitute claims. While this sounds great in concept, the historical success rate of such motions is low. From October 2012 through March 2020, only 14% of motions to amend were granted. This improved slightly in 2020, to 25%, but dropped back to 18% in 2021 (calculated using data from Docket Navigator). The recent decision in Hunting Titan, Inc., v. DynaEnergetics Europe GmbH thus presents the somewhat rare case in which an amendment was granted by the PTAB and affirmed on appeal. That said, the Federal Circuit’s narrow holding does not indicate an easier future for patent owners’ motions to amend; indeed, the opposite may be true....
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/26/federal-circuit-signals-appetite-increased-ptab-discretion-motions-amend/id=148636/
With the rapid development of communication technologies, the world is more connected than ever. As the academic communities are drawn closer, international research collaborations increase dramatically. Researchers and scientists from all over the world often come together to make new inventions..... Such global collaboration can result in exciting innovations for which the inventors or their employers often would like to seek patent protections. Due to the “global” nature of these inventions, it is only natural that the applicants desire to patent them in multiple countries to maximize the rights. However, while science and technology observe no national borders, patent protections and related regulations do....
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/26/navigating-foreign-filing-requirements-cross-border-patent-inventions-part/id=148647/
Comcast and the High Tech Inventors Alliance (HTIA) filed amicus briefs last week backing a Supreme Court petition brought by Cisco Systems, Inc. last month. The petition asks the Court to consider whether: 1) enhanced damages may be awarded absent a finding of egregious infringement behavior; and 2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) may award enhanced damages without first allowing the district court to exercise its discretion to decide that issue. Cisco filed the petition for a writ of certiorari on March 16, following a November 2021 decision of the Federal Circuit that reversed a district court’s denial of SRI International’s motion to reinstate a jury’s willfulness verdict against Cisco. That ruling restored the district court’s award of enhanced damages and affirmed an award of attorney fees for SRI. The CAFC specifically clarified that its reference to language in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Halo Elecs., Inc. v. Pulse Elecs., Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1923, 1934 (2016) on a first appeal in the case was not meant to create a heightened requirement for willful infringement....
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/25/amici-back-ciscos-bid-scotus-review-enhanced-damages-standard/id=148639/
This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Health Committee will host a hearing on Tuesday to address ways that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s user fee program can better advance innovation in medical products. In the House of Representatives, the Financial Services Committee will explore data privacy and consumer protection concerns that are related to the increasing available of digital wallets on mobile devices. Elsewhere, the Center for Strategic & International Studies partners with the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation to discuss the role of intellectual property in driving forward the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, while the U.S. Copyright Office, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and others celebrate World Intellectual Property Day on Tuesday with a focus on this year’s theme, IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future....
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/25/week-washington-ip-honoring-world-intellectual-property-day-ensuring-fda-user-fees-advance-innovation-ips-role-combating-covid-19-pandemic/id=148632/
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Friday directed Judge Alan Albright’s Waco Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to transfer a case brought by CPC Patent Technologies PTY Ltd against Apple to the Northern District of California. The CAFC said the district court erred in weighing the convenience of the witnesses factor as only slightly favoring transfer, noting that the court has historically rejected the view that this factor should be based solely on the distance the witness would have to travel....
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/24/cafc-continues-its-censure-of-albright-on-transfer-analyses/id=148624/
This week in Other Barks & Bites: the USPTO updates its website to improve transparency surrounding the process for requests of Director review of PTAB decisions under Arthrex; former Federal Circuit Judge Kathleen O’Malley joins Irell & Manella as of counsel with a practice focusing on litigation consulting; the Ninth Circuit affirms the dismissal of trademark and right of publicity claims filed by Chuck Yeager against sales and promotional material developed by Airbus; the Ninth Circuit also affirmed an injunction preventing LinkedIn from using technical measures to prevent a people analytics firm from scraping publicly available data; Netflix stock drops by 35% this week after it reported its first net subscriber loss in more than a decade; statements from the Biden Administration to HuffPost indicate efforts to get the WTO to release its draft text of the proposed TRIPS waiver; and the U.S. Supreme Court invites the U.S. Solicitor General to file a brief on the Section 112 enablement issues involved in Amgen v. Sanofi....
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/22/barks-bites-friday-april-22-biden-administration-seeks-release-wto-draft-proposal-trips-waiver-scotus-asks-solicitor-general-brief-section-112-issues-amgen-ninth-circui/id=148620/
Knobbe Martens is looking to hire a full-time Patent Scientist for their office located in California, New York, or Washington. Candidates will assist with the successful procurement of patent protection for innovative technologies, the designs of new products, and assist with the evaluation of competitor products. The candidate will learn about a variety of new technologies, learn to identify inventive features, learn to describe the inventions, and work with the Patent Office to allow a patent for the technology. The position also requires a candidate to possess the ability to explain and describe new technologies in a way that is concise and descriptive. To be successful in this position the candidate must be a strong communicator, both written and oral. The candidate must be able to work independently, with a large amount of working freedom. In addition, each candidate will eventually participate in a patent law course and become registered with the United States Patent Office....
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2022/04/22/knobbe-martens-is-seeking-a-patent-scientist-computer-science/id=148592/
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