

Defective Service of Complaint Fails to Trigger Time Bar
By Tova Werblowsky* and Matt Johnson - Institution of an IPR is automatically barred if the “petition requesting the proceeding is filed more than 1 year after the date on which the petitioner…is served with the complaint alleging infringement of the patent.” 35...

Federal Circuit Finds Deuterated Analogs Of Small Molecule Drug Obvious
By Raffaella Faraoni and Kunyong Yang - On August 22, 2023, the Federal Circuit issued a nonprecedential decision holding that claims directed to deuterated analogs of ruxolitinib were unpatentable as obvious. Sun Pharm. Indus., Inc. v. Incyte Corp., No. 2019-2011,...

PTAB Rejects Double-Dose of Prior Art
By Matt Modderman, Asvhi Patel, Geoffrey Gavin - In Sandoz Inc. v. Acerta Pharma B.V. (IPR2023-00478), a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) panel denied IPR institution where the asserted prior art was cumulative of that considered during prosecution. This denial...

Error In Declaration Insufficient To Sink IPR
By Marc Blackman - In a precedential opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated a final written decision in which the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) found that Apple had failed to meet its burden of showing unpatentability due to an error in...

PTAB Applies General Plastic Factors to Serial Petitions Seeking Joinder
By David Linden and Dave Maiorana - In February 2023, T-Mobile USA, Inc. (“T-Mobile”) filed petitions requesting four inter partes reviews (“the T-Mobile IPRs”)—two of which challenged U.S. Patent No. 8,630,234 and two of which challenged U.S. Patent No. 10,880,721...