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Category Archives: IPR

Fed Circuit: Patent Application is Prior Art Before Publication

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In a significant ruling, the Federal Circuit has clarified the status of patent applications in the realm of intellectual property law, asserting that a patent application can be considered prior art even before its publication. This decision has important implications for inventors, businesses, and the overall landscape of patent law. Understanding how a patent application functions as prior art is crucial for navigating the complexities of patentability and innovation. In this blog post, we will explore the details of this ruling, its impact on patent strategy, and what it means for the future of intellectual property rights, particularly regarding the patent application as prior art.

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I Say Yes, You Say No: PTAB Articulates Different Standards for Determining Whether a Printed Publication Was Publicly Available

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Ex parte Grillo-Lopez, Appeal No. 2018-006082 (Jan. 31, 2020)

On April 7, 2020, the PTAB designated its January decision in Ex parte Grillo-Lopez (“the Decision”) as precedential. In the Decision, the Board held that patent examination and IPR proceedings have different standards for establishing a prior art printed publication, with the petitioner in an IPR facing a higher burden of showing that a reference was publicly accessible. Having been designated as precedential, the Decision is now binding authority in all USPTO ex parte proceedings. Continue reading…

PTAB Determines That Medical Journal Article Qualifies as a Publicly Available Printed Publication

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Grunenthal GmbH v. Antecip Bioventures II LLC, PGR2018-00092 (Feb. 25, 2020)

In a recent decision invalidating certain claims of a pain treatment patent, the PTAB held that a 2012 article published in the scientific journal Rheumatology was a publicly available printed publication that qualified as prior art.

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Indefinitely Not: Federal Circuit Rules that the PTAB Cannot Cancel Claims for Indefiniteness During an IPR

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Samsung Electronics America, Inc. v. Prisua Engineering Corp., Appeal Nos. 2019-1169, 2019-1260 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 4, 2020)

The Federal Circuit has held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may not cancel claims as indefinite in an IPR proceeding.

In 2016, Prisua Engineering Corp. sued Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and other Samsung entities for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,650,591 (“Video Enabled Digital Devices for Embedding User Data in Interactive Applications”). Samsung then petitioned the PTAB for inter partes review of the ‘591 patent, asserting that claims 1–4, 8, and 11—which are directed to methods and apparatuses for “generating a displayable edited video data stream from an original video data stream”—were unpatentable.

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A User’s Guide to Prior Art: PTAB Holds That a User Manual May Qualify As a Printed Publication

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Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Centripetal Networks, Inc., IPR2018-01437 (Jan. 23, 2020)

In a recent inter partes review decision invalidating a patent disclosing systems and methods for filtering network data transfers, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board held that a user manual was a publicly available printed publication that qualified as prior art.

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