Nearly a century after endorsing the doctrine of assignor estoppel, the Court concluded that it applies "when, but only when, the assignor's claim of invalidity contradicts explicit or implicit representations he made in assigning the patent."
The Supreme Court is considering a petition in a §101 case, in which the Federal Circuit split six-to-six in denying rehearing en banc, and in which the Supreme Court recently called for the views of the Solicitor General.
Federal Circuit, Citing Forum-Shopping, Transfers Patent Cases to California
In a decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court ruled that the statutory scheme appointing PTAB administrative patent judges (APJs) to adjudicate IPRs violates the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Federal Circuit Rejects Theory of Infringement Based on Oversimplified Claim Interpretation and Finds That the ITC Correctly Required Proof of Substantial Non-infringing Use Based on Real-World Evidence Federal Circuit Reverses District Court's Decision Dismissing a Declaratory Judgment Action for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction Because the Patent Owner Directed Extensive Communications to the Judicial District
Courts are increasingly excluding all evidence relating to post-grant proceedings before the PTAB, except when it is used for impeachment. This article reviews recent decisions on this issue from some of the nation's busiest patent districts.
Federal Circuit: The Doctrine of Equivalents Is Not a Binary Choice Federal Circuit: No Estoppel for Party That Joined IPR
The decision appears to take steps to harmonize the prior cases that appropriately were guided by the Wands factors with the cases discussing the "full scope" of enablement that have engendered some confusion in the law.
Federal Circuit Wasn't Chicken to Grant Equitable Intervening Right in Poultry Processing Equipment Case A dispute between the two titans in the poultry processing equipment market led the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to construe the term "protection of investments" in 35 U.S.C. §252.
