Justia Patents Opinion Summaries

This appeal stems from a patent dispute involving Amity's patent for a device that dispenses both toothpicks and tablets and Market Quest's alleged infringement of the patent. The court concluded that this case arises under the patent laws and therefore falls within the exclusive appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Circuit. The court lacked jurisdiction to resolve the merits of the appeal, but concluded that, had this appeal been filed with the Federal Circuit at the time it was filed with this court, the Federal Circuit would have had jurisdiction. And because this appeal is neither frivolous nor is there any indication that it was filed in bad faith, the court concluded that transfer is in the interest of justice. Therefore, the court ordered the matter transferred to the Federal Circuit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1631. View "Amity Rubberized Pen Co. v. Market Quest Grp." on Justia Law

Versata successfully sued SAP for infringement. The Federal Circuit affirmed a damages award, but vacated an injunction, and remanded. Meanwhile, SAP petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to institute covered business method (CBM) review --an administrative review procedure established in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), 125 Stat. 284 (2011), asserting that key claims were unpatentable and invalid. While the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was conducting CBM review, Versata sued to set aside the decision to institute review. The court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction: “AIA’s express language, detailed structure and scheme for administrative and judicial review, legislative purpose, and nature of administrative action evince Congress’s clear intent to preclude subject matter jurisdiction over the PTAB’s decision to institute patent reexamination.” The court state that “the decision to institute post-grant review is merely an initial step in the PTAB’s process to resolve the ultimate question of patent validity, not a final agency action. . . . Plaintiff retains an alternative adequate remedy through appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.” The Federal Circuit affirmed; Versata’s attempt to obtain judicial review was addressed to the decision to institute stage, so the court was correct in barring judicial review, 35 U.S.C. 324(e). View "Versata Dev. Grp. v. Lee" on Justia Law

SFA’s patents relate to a computer sales system that includes multiple subsystems or components; each component corresponds to a different phase of the sales process. The patents disclose “an event manager” that detects “events” and automatically implements operation. SFA sued online retailers, including Newegg, alleging infringement. After other accused infringers settled, the district court held Markman hearings and rejected Newegg’s proposed constructions that limited the asserted claims to systems that assist a salesperson, or are used by a salesperson. Newegg also argued that claims were invalid as indefinite, because the system claims contained method step limitations, making it unclear when infringement occurs. The parties jointly sought extension of the case schedule. The court denied the motion as premature and denied summary judgment that the claims were indefinite. The next day, SFA moved to dismiss with prejudice and covenanted not to sue Newegg on the patents at issue. The court found that Newegg was the prevailing party and granted costs, but denied its 35 U.S.C. 285 motion for attorneys’ fees citing the Supreme Court’s standard in Octane (2014), finding that, “[e]ven under the new, lower standard for an exceptional case designation, Newegg has provided no evidence that this case ‘stands out from others with respect to the substantive strength of [SFA’s] litigating position.’” The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "SFA Sys., LLC v. Newegg, Inc." on Justia Law

Versata sued SAP for infringing its 350 patent, entitled “method and apparatus for pricing products in multi-level product and organizational groups.” A jury awarded damages. Meanwhile, SAP petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, alleging that the patent was a covered business method patent, subject to the special provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, 125 Stat. at 329–31.3 Section 18 establishes a separately-designated transitional program for post-grant review proceedings concerning the validity of covered business method patents, under procedures governed by 35 U.S.C. 321– 329. The PTAB cancelled certain claims as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 101. The Federal Circuit held that, on appeal in a section 18 case, it has authority review issues decided during the PTAB review process, regardless of when they first arose in the process, if they are part of or a predicate to the ultimate merits. The invention claimed in the 350 patent is a covered business method patent and does not fall within the meaning of a “technological invention.” The court affirmed PTAB’s claim constructions and that the claims at issue were properly held invalid under section 101. View "Versata Dev. Grp., Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc." on Justia Law

Celgard is a developer and manufacturer of battery membranes, used to separate chemical cell components in lithium-ion batteries, preventing contact between the positive and negative electrodes. The patents concerns a separator technology that uses a ceramic composite coating that helps prevent electrical shorting. This technology is used in rechargeable batteries in electronic vehicles and consumer electronic devices such as laptops and cellular phones. Celgard is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. SKI is a manufacturer of separators for use in lithium-ion batteries. SKI mainly supplies the separators to third-party manufacturers, but also manufactures batteries that include the separators it produces. SKI’s principal place of business is in Seoul, Korea. All of SKI’s design, manufacturing, and sales operations are based in Korea. Celgard sued SKI for infringement. Celgard sought to establish the district court’s jurisdiction based on allegations that SKI purposefully directed activities at the forum state through sales and offers for sale of its accused separators to residents of North Carolina. The Federal Circuit affirmed dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, under either a purposeful-direction theory or a stream-of-commerce theory, noting an absence of evidence that SKI ever sold or offered for sale the accused products in North Carolina. View "Celgard, LLC v. SK Innovation Co., Ltd." on Justia Law

Intellectual Ventures owns the 137 patent, entitled “Administration of Financial Accounts,” claims methods of budgeting, particularly methods of tracking and storing information relating to a user’s purchases and expenses and presenting that information to the user based on pre-established, self-imposed spending limits. Its 382 patent, entitled “Advanced Internet Interface Providing User Display Access of Customized Webpages,” claims methods and systems for providing customized web page content to the user as a function of user-specific information and the user’s navigation history. The 587 patent, entitled “Method for Organizing Digital Images,” claims methods for scanning hard-copy images onto a computer in an organized manner. Intellectual Ventures sued, asserting infringement by Capital One. Following the district court’s claim construction of the term “machine readable instruction form” in the 587 patent, the parties stipulated to non-infringement. The district court also determined that the asserted claims of the 137 patent claimed ineligible subject matter and the asserted claims of the 382 patent claimed ineligible subject matter and were indefinite under 35 U.S.C. 112(b). The Federal Circuit affirmed, concluding that the asserted claims of the 137 and 382 patents claim unpatentable abstract ideas and that claim construction with respect to the 587 patent was correct. View "Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Captal One Bank" on Justia Law

The Patent Act restores a patent’s term for delay during prosecution: “A Delay,” arises when the PTO fails to meet statutory deadlines; “B Delay,” arises when, through the fault of the PTO, the agency fails to issue a patent within three years after the application’s filing date, 35 U.S.C. 154(b). Until 2010, the PTO’s practice was to restore, upon issuance, patent term equaling the greater of the number of days of A and B Delays. In 2007, a patent-holder successfully challenged that practice. In response, the PTO adopted an “interim procedure” and an “optional interim” procedure for patents that issued before March, 2010, under which patentees could seek reconsideration up to 180 days after issuance, for adjustments made under the earlier calculation method. Daiichi claims that, in adjusting its patents, the PTO restored days for either the A or B Delay, but not both, so that the term of each was shortened by at least 321 days. The PTO dismissed Daiichi’s requests for reconsideration as untimely under the two-month window. The Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of the PTO, declining to find that the consistent treatment of all patents issuing before the Optional Interim Procedure or use of the 180-day administrative review period arbitrary and capricious. View "Daiichi Sankyo Co. v. Lee" on Justia Law

TMC owns patents relating to the drug bivalirudin, a synthetic peptide anti-coagulant. TMC sells the drug for injection under the Angiomax® brand and, from 1997 to 2006, purchased pharmaceutical batches from BV Laboratories. In 2005, BV created batches of bivalirudin with levels of impurity that exceeded the FDA approved maximum. TMC hired a consultant, who discovered that certain methods of adding a pH-adjusting solution during the compounding process minimize the impurity. In 2008, TMC filed two patent applications, describing this discovery. A year before filing these applications, TMC hired BV to prepare batches of bivalirudin using the patented method. Each was released to TMC for commercial packaging. In 2010, TMC sued Hospira, alleging infringement by Hospira’s ANDA filings. The district court found the patents not infringed and not invalid as obvious, indefinite, or under the on-sale bar under 35 U.S.C. 102(b), which applies when, before the critical date, the claimed invention was the subject of a commercial offer for sale and was ready for patenting. The court found that the claimed invention was ready for patenting but not commercially offered for sale. The Federal Circuit reversed, finding that the batches prepared by BV were sold to TMC and not prepared primarily for experimental purposes. View "The Medicines Co v. Hospira, Inc." on Justia Law

WesternGeco’s patents relate to technologies used to search for oil and gas beneath the ocean floor. Ships tow long streamers equipped with sensors. An airgun bounces sound waves off of the ocean floor. The sensors pick up the returning sound waves and create a map of the subsurface geology to aid in identifying drilling locations. The streamers can be miles long and can tangle or drift apart, resulting in distorted maps. The patents relate to controlling the streamers and sensors in relation to each other by using winged positioning devices and generating four-dimensional maps with which it is possible to see changes in the seabed over time. WesternGeco manufactures the Q-Marine, and performs surveys for oil companies. ION manufactures the DigiFIN, and sells to its customers, who perform surveys for oil companies. WesternGeco filed suit. A jury found infringement and no invalidity and awarded $93,400,000 in lost profits and $12,500,000 in reasonable royalties. The Federal Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that WesternGeco was not the owner of the patents and lacked standing and that the court applied an incorrect standard under 35 U.S.C. 271(f)(1). The court upheld denial of enhanced damages for willful infringement and reversed the award of lost profits resulting from conduct occurring abroad. View "WesternGeco L.L.C. v. Ion Geophysical Corp." on Justia Law

SpeedTrack’s patent, entitled “Method for Accessing Computer Files and Data, Using Linked Categories Assigned to Each Data File Record on Entry of the Data File Record,” describes methods for searching and accessing files stored on a computer system. The claimed methods require use of: “category descriptions,” corresponding to stored files; a “file information directory” containing information linking “category descriptions” to specific system files; and a “search filter,” to locate files that have “category descriptions” matching those in the filter. SpeedTrack sued, alleging that Walmart’s online retail website infringed the patent by permitting visitors to search for available products by selecting pre-defined descriptive categories. Walmart licensed and used Endeca’s software to achieve this functionality. After reexamination by the PTO, the district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement , finding that, because the accused Endeca software uses numerical identifiers instead of descriptive words, users did not use “category descriptions” required by the patent. The Federal Circuit affirmed the claim construction. Speedtrack later sued Office Depot. The Federal Circuit affirmed judgment as a matter of law, finding that SpeedTrack’s claims were barred by res judicata and under the “Kessler doctrine,” which bars suits against customers for use of a product previously found not to infringe in a suit against the product’s supplier. View "SpeedTrack, Inc. v. Office Depot, Inc." on Justia Law