CA
Bite (noun): more meaty news to sink your teeth into.
Bark (noun): peripheral noise worth your attention.
Senator Thom Tillis’ dog, Mitch.
This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued several precedential decisions this week, correcting the U.S. International Trade Commission’s economic prong analysis for the domestic industry requirement of Section 337, finding that petitioners at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board have no self-executing discovery obligations to present evidence from parallel ITC proceedings, and more; strong global demand for AI chips buoys Broadcom’s first quarter results; a new IFI CLAIMS patent report shows Novo Nordisk leading pharmaceutical firms worldwide in anti-obesity drug patent filings; the CAR Coalition urges the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the REPAIR Act; and the Fifth Circuit tosses trade secret and unjust enrichment claims out with the rest of a workplace discrimination case filed by an unpaid mentor against Texas Tech University after participating in a tech accelerator program at the institution.
Bites
CAFC Finds No Self-Executing Discovery Obligations for IPR Petitioners – On Friday, March 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in AliveCor, Inc. v. Apple Inc. in which the appellate court affirmed a series of final written decisions in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings conducted by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) after finding that AliveCor had forfeited its challenge to Apple’s IPR discovery production. The Federal Circuit found that Apple’s discovery obligations, which AliveCor “characterizes as… self-executing,” did not require the IPR petitioner to provide evidence on secondary considerations of nonobviousness that was credited in parallel proceedings conducted at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
CAFC Says ‘Pull Cord’ Claim Limitation Not Limited to Preferred Embodiments – On Friday, March 7, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Iqris Technologies LLC v. Point Blank Enterprises, Inc. in which the appellate court vacated the Southern District of Florida’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement for Point Blank after finding that the district court’s ruling rested upon an erroneous construction of the claim term “pull cord.” Although the Federal Circuit acknowledged that “this is a close question,” the appellate court ruled that the disputed claim term was not limited by the preferred embodiments disclosed by the patent’s specification, walking a “fine line between reading the claims in light of the specification and importing limitations from the specification into the claims” in finding that the claimed pull cord did not require a handle that was directly pulled by a user to practice the invention.
CAFC Finds Arthrex Challenge to Examiner Rejection Not Timely Presented or Preserved – On Thursday, March 6, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corp. v. Stewart in which the appellate court affirmed the Eastern District of Virginia’s dismissal of Odyssey Logistics’ Appointments Clause challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s rejection of its patent application. The After The Federal Circuit, having first remanded the case for Eastern Virginia’s improper summary judgment standard that decided genuine issues of material fact against non-movant Immunogen, affirmed the district court’s decision on obviousness grounds related to claim limitations involving adjusted ideal body weight of patients receiving the claimed cancer treatment, and not on the grounds that the body weight limitations rendered the patent claims “fatally indefinite.”
Senate Commerce Committee to Hold Executive Session on Kratsios Nomination March 12 – On Wednesday, March 5, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, announced that the full committee would hold an executive session on the morning of Wednesday, March 12, to discuss the nominations of Michael Kratsios to serve as the Director of the Office of Science and Technology, and Mark Meader to serve as a Federal Trade Commissioner. The However, the Federal Circuit affirmed the ITC’s finding that Lashify did not satisfy the technical prong for its utility patent asserted in the Section 337 proceedings after finding that the agency did not commit clear error in construing the claim term “heat fused” as requiring that artificial fibers form a single entity that cannot be easily separated.
ParkerVision Reply Brief Says Respondents Concede Impropriety of Rule 36 Affirmances – On Friday, February 28, American wireless communication developer ParkerVision filed a reply brief at the U.S. Supreme Court on its petition for writ of certiorari currently before the Court to challenge the Federal Circuit’s Rule 36 summary affirmance of the invalidation of its patent claims as violating statutory provisions regarding Federal Circuit appeals from the PTAB. Parker SS 144, which requires that the Federal Circuit issue “an opinion” in response to appeals from the PTAB.
BarksAuto Repair, Parts Providers Urge House of Representatives to Pass REPAIR Act
– On Wednesday, March 5, a collection of 21 automotive service organizations and aftermarket parts companies known as the CAR Coalition sent a letter addressed to the U.S. House of Representatives urging the nation’s representatives to support passage of the Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair (REPAIR) Act, which they say will address anticompetitive practices by major carmakers including control of vehicular data that makes it difficult for many service providers to complete otherwise routine repairs.Court Grants Nike’s Motion in Counterfeit Sneakers Case
– On Monday, March 4, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Nike Inc.’s motion for partial summary judgment that resale platform StockX LLC was liable for distributing counterfeit goods with respect to a total of 37 pairs of shoes sold to Nike Investigators and sneaker collector, Roy Kim. The The order underscores broader issues around
IFI CLAIMS Report Shows Novo Nordisk With Significant Lead in Anti-Obesity Patents – On Tuesday, March 4, patent data analytics company IFI CLAIMS issued a report into global patents covering glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist hormones widely used by the current generation of anti-obesity drugs, which shows that Danish company Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical firm with a long history of treating diabetes, holds nearly 100 patents on GLP-1 anti-obesity treatments, nearly 40 patents more than second-place Eli Lilly & Company.
Fifth Circuit Nixes Trade Secret, Unjust Patent Filing Claims in Workplace Discrimination Case – On Monday, March 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling in Wells v. Texas Tech University in which the appellate court affirmed the Northern District of Texas’ dismissal of various claims, including trade secret misappropriation and unjust enrichment stemming from the filing of patent applications covering Wells’ inventive concepts, that Wells filed following a series of allegedly discriminatory activities occurring in connection with Wells’ involving with tech incubator programs at Texas Tech.
MoU Between EPO, Bahrain on Streamlining International Applications is Effective – On Monday, March 3, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that it had concluded bilateral agreements with the government of Bahrain, resulting in a memorandum of understanding effective from this January that adds Bahrain to the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program, which now works to streamline international filings for patent applications at 18 different national and regional intellectual property agencies.
U.S. Chamber Urges CMS to Reconsider Negotiation of GLP-1 Anti-Obesity, Other Drugs – On Saturday, March 1, Brad Watts, Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), sent a letter addressed to Stephanie Carlton, Acting Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), urging CMS and the Trump Administration more generally to review the price-setting provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and how they have been put into practice by CMS following CMS’ second cycle of price setting for 26 drug products, including several diabetes and anti-obesity treatments.
This Week on Wall StreetPositive Broadcom Earnings Heralds Strong Global Demand for AI Chips
– On Thursday, March 6, American semiconductor developer Broadcom reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2025, beating analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings per share with the company also issuing positive guidance for 2025’s second quarter based on strong demand worldwide for the company’s line of computer chips developed for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.Quarterly Earnings
– The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2024 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2023 rank in parentheses):
Monday: Oracle Corp. (56th)
Tuesday: None
- Wednesday: Adobe Inc. (112th)
- Thursday: None
- Friday: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (137th); Innolux Corp. (145th)
