Petitioners Bear Burden Of Proving Claims Amended During IPR Unpatentable . . . For Now
By Greg Castanias, Jaclyn Stahl, John Marlott, and Dave Cochran In yesterday’s decision in Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, No. 15-1177 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 4, 2017) (en banc), the Federal Circuit issued five opinions, spanning 148 pages, addressing the question of who bears...
PTAB Disqualifies Reference for Failure to Show Public Accessibility
By Albert Liou and Joe Beauchamp The PTAB’s recent final written decision denying a finding of unpatentability in ABS Global, Inc. v. Inguran, LLC, Case IPR2016-00927, Paper 33 (PTAB Oct. 2, 2017) highlights the importance of obtaining affidavit evidence to prove...
Timely Joinder Cannot Save Untimely IPR When Nothing to Join
By Lin Yu, Ph.D. and Cary Miller, Ph.D. In IPR2017-01054 and IPR2017-01055 (Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC v. Hospira Inc.), the PTAB denied institution of inter partes reviews of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,242,158 and 8,338,470, because Petitioner Fresenius filed the IPR petitions...
Five-Judge PTAB Panel Interprets “Module” As Non Means-Plus Function
By Carl Kukkonen and Amanda Leckman On September 13, 2017, the PTAB, a five-judge panel, granted a petition to institute an inter partes review brought by HTC America, Inc. (“Petitioner”) against Virginia Innovation Sciences, Inc. (“Patent Owner”) regarding U.S....
PTAB Grants Rare Rehearing Due To Insufficient Evidence Of Obviousness
By J. Jason Williams and J. Patrick Elsevier, Ph.D. In Coalition For Affordable Drugs VI, LLC v. Celgene Corp. (2015-01096, -01102, -01103),[1] the PTAB granted Patent Owner Celgene’s request for rehearing of a final written decision that had found the challenged...