Justia Patents Opinion Summaries

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

The Board of Trustees of Stanford University filed suit against Roche Molecular Systems ("Roche") claiming that their HIV test kits infringed upon Stanford's patents. The suit stemmed from Stanford's employment of a research fellow who was arranged by his supervisor to work at Cetus, a research company developing methods to quantify blood-borne levels of HIV. The research fellow subsequently devised a PCR-based procedure for measuring the amount of HIV in a patient's blood while working with Cetus employees. The research fellow had entered into an agreement to assign to Stanford his "right, title and interest in" inventions resulting from his employment there and subsequently signed a similar agreement at Cetus. Stanford secured three patents to the measurement process. Roche acquired Cetus's PCR-related assets and commercialized the procedure into HIV test kits. At issue was whether the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980, 35 U.S.C. 200 et seq., commonly referred to as the Bayh-Dole Act ("Act"), displaced the basic principle that rights in an invention belonged to the inventor and automatically vested title to federally funded inventions in federal contractors. The Court held that the Act did not automatically vest title to federally funded inventions in federal contractors or authorize contractors to unilaterally take title to such inventions and therefore, affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which held that the research fellow's agreement with Cetus assigned his rights to Cetus, and subsequently to Roche; that the Act did not automatically void an inventor's rights in federally funded inventions; and thus, the Act did not extinguish Roche's ownership interest in the invention and Stanford was deprived of standing. View "Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc." on Justia Law

Patent application 747, covering a mixing device for use in preparation of sugar-water nectar for certain bird and butterfly feeders, was rejected on grounds of obviousness. The examiner cited prior art on devices for mixing sugar-to-water ratios. The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirmed. The Federal Circuit reversed, reasoning that the application described a device with moveable dividers to allow mixing of different ratios for different species, which is not analogous to the devices cited by the examiner. View "In Re Klein" on Justia Law

The district court held that check-security products sold by defendant did not infringe plaintiffâs patent on a method and system for guarding against check fraud and forgery. The Federal Circuit reversed a holding that there could be no direct infringement because defendant did not direct or control the encrypting or printing steps referenced in the patent claims; the defendant could "use" the described process without controlling those steps. The court vacated summary judgment on a claim that defendant induced infringement by banks and disagreed with the district court's construction of a phrase in the claim. The specifications supported plaintiff's construction. The court acted within its discretion in denying a motion to amend the complaint to include a false advertising claim.