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Category Archives: Patent Eligibility

CAFC Raises Doubts on Reverse Doctrine of Equivalents in Steuben Foods

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Steuben Foods, Inc. v. Shibuya Hoppmann Corp., 127 F.4th 348 (Fed. Cir. 2025)

In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit in Steuben Foods, Inc. v. Shibuya Hoppmann Corp. left the application of the reverse doctrine of equivalents hanging on by a thread. While the CAFC found Steuben’s RDOE arguments compelling, it ultimately held that resolving the RDOE issue was not necessary to determine that the district court’s judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of noninfringement was improper.
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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…

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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No Do-Overs: Federal Circuit Denies Unsuccessful IPR Petitioner’s Request for a New Hearing in Light of Arthrex

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Ciena Corp. v. Oyster Optics, LLC, Appeal No. 2019-2117 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 28, 2020)

The Federal Circuit has held that a party that petitioned for inter partes review before the Patent Trial Appeal Board and subsequently obtained an unfavorable ruling cannot now invoke Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc. to vacate and remand the Board’s decision for a new hearing before a differently constituted panel.

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