On September 29, 2021, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit struck down a USPTO decision to permit Ex Parte reexamination when “a requester who has repeatedly tried to [IPR] to forward the same arguments.” The [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court created the enhanced damages standard in its 2016 Halo v. Pulse ruling that created the enhanced damages standard. On September 28, 2021, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit clarified enhanced damages [...]
In May 2013, North Carolina added Article 8 — entitled “Abusive Patent Assertions” — to chapter 75 of the North Carolina General Statutes, which covers consumer protection. Article 8 gives targets of patent trolls standing to sue [...]
A recent case from the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit suggests that the scope of Section 101 may, depending upon interpretation, have bounds which is much greater than most parties, including practioners and patent owners, [...]
Weide & Miller successfully obtained 57 patents for its clients in the first half of 2020, outpacing the number of patents the firm obtained for clients in 2019.
UNDERSTANDING 35 U.S.C. § 101 AND THE ALICE DECISION Overview Section 101 sets forth the type of inventions which are entitled to be patented (assuming they meet the other requirements for patentability, such as novelty (under Section [...]
A long-accepted rule in U.S. patent law was that to find direct infringement of a method claim, performance of all claimed steps must be attributable to a single entity. Under prior case law, the actions of a [...]
In accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1400, a patent infringement suit may only be brought in a jurisdiction where the defendant resides or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established [...]
The Copyright Act bars copyright protection for “useful items”. Thus, in the case of Star Athletica LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that copyright protection would not extend to the shape, cut or [...]
“Laches” is an equitable defense under the law which a defendant may assert to block a plaintiff from pursing a legal claim when the plaintiff did not bring the claim in a reasonable period of time. In [...]
