Justia Patents Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff, a pharmaceutical company, owns a patent that claims conjugated estrogen pharmaceutical compositions for use in hormone replacement therapies. Plaintiff alleged infringement of the patent based on defendant's Abbreviated New Drug Application for a generic version of plaintiff's hormone replacement therapy product, arguing the doctrine of equivalents. The district court entered summary judgment for defendant. The Federal Circuit affirmed. Plaintiff failed to rebut the presumption of prosecution history estoppel based on unforeseeability. The doctrine of prosecution history estoppel prevents a patent owner from recapturing, through the doctrine of equivalents, subject matter surrendered to acquire the patent. Because plaintiff narrowed the scope of the patent's claims in response to a prior art rejection, a presumption of prosecution history estoppel applies. View "Duramed Pharm., Inc. v. Paddock Labs, Inc." on Justia Law

This suit stemmed from the efforts of plaintiff and its owner and founder to obtain a patent for an invention related to personalized postage stamps and the suit involved state law claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with a patent application. Plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants, holding that there was no genuine issue of material fact as to whether plaintiff's claims were time-barred such that defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law and that in the alternative, there was no genuine issue of material fact as to the causation elements of plaintiff's claims. The court held that this case raised issues of patent law, and those issues were substantial because of the special federal interest in developing a uniform body of patent law in the Federal Circuit as recognized in Scherbatskoy v. Halliburton Co. and expressed by Congress's grant of exclusive appellate jurisdiction over patent cases to that court. Therefore, the court held that it lacked jurisdiction over the appeal and transferred the suit to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1631. View "USPPS, Ltd. v. Avery Dennison Corp., et al." on Justia Law

A jury found infringement of certain claims of plaintiff's patents, relating to retractable syringes, which are medical syringes that feature a needle that retracts into the syringe body after the syringe is used, and found that the asserted patents were not invalid for anticipation or obviousness. The federal circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part.court erred in its construction of the claim term "body;" in light of the specifications, that term refers to a one-piece structure. View "Retractable Techs., Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Co." on Justia Law

The patents concern vehicle computer systems. The car-mail patents cover systems for notifying owners about the condition of the vehicle; the radio patent relates to the entertainment system. Service provider patents concern maintenance; search patents and status patents allow searches of vehicle systems. A notable-condition patent relates to emergent situations. The district court found the status patent, the car-mail patent, and notable condition patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct; granted summary judgment of noninfringement of the car-mail patents, service provider patents, and the radio patent; and granted summary judgment of infringement of the notable condition patent. The Federal Circuit affirmed the determinations of noninfringement, reversed with respect to validity of the notable condition patent, and vacated and remanded the decision on inequitable conduct. To prove inequitable conduct, the accused infringer must provide evidence that the applicant misrepresented or omitted material information with specific intent to deceive the patent office. The district court applied the wrong standard in finding intent and failed to make a finding that the withheld information would have blocked issuance of the patents. View "Am. Calcar, Inc. v. Am. Honda Motor Co., Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff and defendant had co-pending patents relating to innovations in dietary supplements, particularly formulations that increase the bioavailability of creatine, an amino acid derivative naturally present in muscle tissue. Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment that the defendant's patent was invalid and not infringed; defendant responded alleging infringement and seeking declaratory judgment that plaintiff's patent was invalid. The district court ruled in favor of defendant. The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part. Defendant's patent is not invalid and is infringed, but the court lacked jurisdiction with respect to plaintiff's patent. The court applied the correct standard under 35 U.S.C. 282: each claim of patent is presumed valid, an accused infringer must prove invalidity by clear and convincing evidence. The plaintiff did not establish prior invention or disclosure in prior art. Plaintiff offered no argument as to why or how the process it employed did not infringe defendant's patent. Plaintiff never accused defendant of infringement; defendant has, at most, an economic interest in clarifying its customers' rights under plaintiff's patents. Absent a substantial controversy between the parties, the court lacked declaratory judgment jurisdiction. View "Creative Compunds, LLC . Starmark Labs." on Justia Law

Plaintiff holds a patent on formulations of a hypnotic sleep-inducing drug that is one of a class of compounds known as benzodiazepines. Pharmacological formulations of the drug have been marketed internationally for the treatment of insomnia since the 1970s, and in the United States since 1981. Plaintiff responded to an FDA filing by a competitor by filing an infringement claim. The district court found plaintiff's patents invalid on grounds of obviousness. The Federal Circuit affirmed. The only limitation of the disputed claims that was not fully disclosed by the prior art capsules is the lower dosage; those skilled in the art (physicians) have an undisputed preference for prescribing the lowest effective dose. View "Tyco Healthcare Group LP v. Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., Inc." on Justia Law

The district court entered summary judgment, finding that asserted patents relating to modernizing conventional elevator systems by allowing passenger to input their destinations when calling for an elevator were invalid for failure to meet the definiteness requirement of 35 U.S.C. 112. The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded. The district court erred in holding that the claimed "modernizing device" and "computing unit" limitations were means-plus-function limitations subject to the requirement and that the written descriptions failed to disclose any corresponding structure. The inventor did not draft the claims in "means for" format, and his decision to avoid the term "means" raises a strong presumption that the claimed "computing unit" connotes sufficiently definite structure to those skilled in the art. View "Inventio Ag v. Thyssenkrupp Elevator Ams. Corp." on Justia Law

The district court found infringement on a patent for coronary stents--stainless steel tubes that are surgically inserted into an occluded artery and expanded in place, opening the artery to blood flow. The court awarded damages calculated as a royalty on defendant's sale of the infringing product, but did not award enhanced damages or attorney fees, despite a jury finding of willful infringement. The Federal Circuit affirmed the determination of infringement, finding that the evidence supported a finding that the patent was not "obvious," and affirmed.the jury’s choice of a five-percent royalty as reasonable in light of trade practices and the economic and competitive circumstances. The court vacated the district court's denial of attorney fees and enhanced damages and remanded for a determination concerning the egregiousness of defendant’s conduct based on all the facts and circumstances, the test for enhanced damages. View "Spectralytics, Inc. v. Cordis Corp." on Justia Law

Respondents (collectively, "i4i"), holding a patent which claimed an improved method for editing computer documents, sued petitioner, Microsoft Corp. ("Microsoft"), for willful infringement of the patent. Microsoft counterclaimed and sought a declaration that the patent was invalid pursuant to the on-sale bar under Section 102(b) of the Patent Act of 1952 ("Act"), 35 U.S.C. 102(b), which precluded patent protection for any "invention" that was "on sale in this country" more than one year prior to the filing of a patent application. At issue was whether Section 282 of the Act required an invalidity defense to be proved by clear and convincing evidence. The Court rejected Microsoft's contention that a defendant need only persuade the jury of a patent invalidity defense by a preponderance of the evidence and also rejected Microsoft's argument that a preponderance standard must at least apply where the evidence before the factfinder was not before the Patent and Trademark Office during the examination process. Accordingly, the Court held that Section 282 required an invalidity defense to be proved by clear and convincing evidence. The Court also added that it was in no position to judge the comparative force of the parties' policy arguments as to the wisdom of the clear and convincing standard that Congress adopted where any recalibration of the standard of proof remained in Congress' hands. View "Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Limited Partnership" on Justia Law

The district court held that the patents-in-suit, relating to drug-eluting coronary stents used in the treatment of coronary artery disease, are invalid for failure to comply with 35 U.S.C. 112 for lack of adequate written description. The Federal Circuit affirmed. Determining whether a specification contains adequate written description requires an objective inquiry into the four corners of the specification from the perspective of a person of ordinary skill in the art. No reasonable jury could have determined that the description was adequate. View "Boston Scientific Corp. v. Johnson & Johnson" on Justia Law