Tag: covered business method
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PTAB Expanded Panel Decides Sovereign Immunity Is Waived For District Court Patent Assertions by State Entities
Sovereign immunity has been a topic of great debate ever since the Patent Trial and Appeal Board applied it to dismiss inter partes reviews (IPRs) involving state owned patent rights. In Covidien v. University of Florida Research Foundation the Board dismissed three IPRs based on sovereign immunity. (IPR2016-01274, -01275, -01276.) Other universities caught wind of the Covidien decision…
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Are Patent-Friendly PTAB Decisions On the Rise?
Patent litigation changed with passage of the America Invents Act. Overnight the PTAB became a new venue for challenging patent claims using IPRs, CBMs and PGRs. The initial reaction by the patent bar to the PTAB’s “take charge” approach to instituting review and canceling patent claims was met with approval by businesses under attack by…
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PTAB Relies on the Federal Circuit’s Recent § 101 Decision to Deny CBM Institution
On May 12, 2016, the Federal Circuit issued a decision on 101 patent eligibility that overturned a summary judgment finding of § 101 invalidity for software used for databases. Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., No. 2015-1244, 2016 WL 2756266 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2016). The Enfish v. Microsoft decision interpreted the “abstract idea” first prong of…
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New PTAB Trial Practice Rules Effective May 2, 2016
On April 1, 2016 the PTO published its final rule on Amendments to the Rules of Practice for Trials Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A small correction to these Amendments was published on April 27. I presented a summary of these rule changes at the AIPLA Spring Meeting in Minneapolis, MN on May 18, 2016. The…
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IPRs And Settlement of Patent Infringement Cases
The passage of the AIA is still relatively recent, yet statistics are starting to emerge that demonstrate the effective use of IPRs to settle patent infringement cases. IAM magazine recently published an interesting report by Unified Patents showing that IPRs have the effect of increasing the median time to settle litigations (from 211 to 420 days), but when viewed…
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Patent Trends to Watch in 2016
2016 is starting off with a bang! A number of interesting new developments have occurred as we enter into this new year: The Supreme Court will review broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), courtesy of the petition for cert in Cuozzo The Federal Circuit continues to selectively review and provide guidance on PTAB decisions, such as in Ethicon Endo-Surgery…
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Board Guidance on its View of Petitioner Estoppel: Westlake Services v. Credit Acceptance Corp:
July 21, 2015 Last week, the Board provided an opinion to offer guidance on its view of the scope of petitioner estoppel. The Westlake Services v. Credit Acceptance Corp. decision relates to the scope of estoppel to a Petitioner following a final written decision from a first petition. Westlake Services v. Credit Acceptance Corp., CBM2014-00176, Paper 28 (PTAB May 14,…
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Are Your Patent Procurement Guidelines Outdated?
I saw a bumper sticker that said: “Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.” This is true in many facets of life, and it is true for patent practice. The changes of the past few years are numerous and far-reaching. Is your patent portfolio strategy growing with these changes? One Simple Exercise If you are…
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The Settlement Effect of PTAB Proceedings and Recent Patent Office Trial Statistics
December 29, 2014 The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) released statistics for AIA Patent Office trials as of Dec. 18, 2014. Different commentators have recently reported that the institution rate for these proceedings has dropped to about 60-70 percent, depending on how you calculate it. Those familiar with PTAB trial practice (IPR, CBM, PGR and…
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U.S. Bancorp CBM Results in Cancellation of Retirement Capital Access Management Co.’s Patent Claims
In 2011, U.S. Patent 6,625,582, entitled Method And System For Converting A Designated Portion of Future Social Security And Other Retirement Payments To Current Benefits, was assigned to Retirement Capital Access Management Company LLC. Benefit Funding Systems LLC asserted the ‘582 patent against U.S. Bancorp in June of 2012. Benefit Funding Systems LLC v. U.S. Bancorp, Case…