In a recent en banc decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has overruled its prior test for nonobviousness of design patent inventions, holding that design patents are subject to the same test as utility patents. LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations (Federal Circuit, May 21, 224).Continue Reading Federal Circuit Changes Obviousness Test For Design Patents
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down many patents on the grounds that they are invalid as directed to an abstract idea, relying on the Supreme Court’s Alice decision. In In re Elbaum (Fed. Cir. 12/20/2023) 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 33719, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s rejection of the claims in a patent application as directed to an abstract idea.Continue Reading And Again, Abstract Ideas are Not Patentable!
Every year, I write about patents that have to do with Christmas. Here are a few I have found, some of which were issued in 2023 and others of which are older.
Design patent D990,096 is a rather strange patent entitled “Elf Hand.” The design looks like a prickly glove with four claws on the end of a round dowel. It is not very appealing. The listed prior art includes a backscratcher, so maybe that is what this is for.Continue Reading MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has again relied on the Supreme Court’s Alice case to invalidate patents on the grounds that they are directed to an abstract idea. Realtime Data LLC v. Fortinet Inc. ( Fed. Cir. 8/2/2023) 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 19857.
Realtime owned several patents covering systems and methods for digital data compression. In 2017 and 2018, Realtime sued a number of entities in the District of Delaware for infringement of five of its patents. The defendants moved to dismiss Realtime’s complaints on the grounds that the claims in the patents were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. section 101. In 2019, the district court granted the defendant’s motion and held that all of the claims in the five patents were invalid.Continue Reading Federal Circuit Continues to Strike Down Patents as Abstract Ideas
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated seven patents owned by an AI technology company after applying the two-step Alice test. Scott Hervey and Audrey Millemann talk about this decision on this episode of The Briefing.Continue Reading The Briefing: A Prototypical Corporate Salesperson is Not Patentable
