Justia U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

In 1882-1883, the Railway acquired property and constructed the now-abandoned railroad line. In 2008, the Railway filed a notice of exemption from formal abandonment proceedings with the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The Illinois Department of Natural Resources showed interest in railbanking and interim trail use under the 1983 National Trails System Act Amendments, 16 U.S.C. 1247(d). The STB issued a Notice of Interim Trail Use (NITU). The owners of property adjoining the railroad line sued, alleging takings by operation of the Trails Act with respect to 51 parcels; 22 parcels were conveyed by instruments including the words “right of way” (ROW Agreements); three were conveyed by instruments including the words “for railroad purposes” (Purpose Agreements); and three are those for which no instruments were produced.The Claims Court granted the government summary judgment, finding that the Railway held the ROW Agreement and Purpose Agreement parcels in fee simple and that the owners failed to show that they had cognizable property interests in the non-instrument parcels. The Federal Circuit reversed. The court rejected the government’s argument that using the term “right of way” in the ROW Agreements referred to the land conveyed, not a limitation on the interest conveyed. For the Purpose Agreements, the Claims Court mistakenly relied on cases discussing deeds that did not include an expression of purpose in the granting clause. Illinois law indicates that the Railway obtained, at most, an easement over the non-instrument parcels. View "Barlow v. United States" on Justia Law

Purdue sued Collegium for infringement of its patent, meant to deter the abuse of opioid analgesics by the inclusion of an aversive agent, Collegium petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for post-grant review (PGR) of claims 1– 17. The Board found the challenged claims eligible for PGR because the pre-America Invents Act (AIA) 2001 application to which Purdue claimed priority did not contain sufficient written description support for the claimed invention. Under 35 U.S.C. 326(a)(11), the Board had one year to issue a Final Written Decision subject to a six-month extension. In September 2019, Purdue filed a Notice of Bankruptcy. The PGR proceeding and court case were stayed. In October 2019, a six-month extension was approved: “Petitioner should seek any relief it deems appropriate from the Bankruptcy Court.” Neither party sought guidance or an order lifting the stay from the bankruptcy court. The April 2020, extended deadline passed. In July 2020, the bankruptcy court lifted the stay for both proceedings.Rejecting Purdue’s motion to terminate the PGR, the Board concluded that “the AIA’s silence as to a consequence for timely issuing a final written decision does not divest us of our authority” and found claims 1–17 unpatentable for lack of written description and anticipation. The Federal Circuit affirmed. Under Supreme Court precedent, the Board has the authority to issue a Final Written Decision after the deadline proscribed in the statute has passed absent any contrary indication in the language, structure, or legislative history of the statute. View "Purdue Pharma L.P. v. Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc." on Justia Law

Telefex’s 116 patent. is directed to a method for using a guide extension catheter with a guide catheter. In 2019, Medtronic launched its own allegedly infringing guide extension catheter product, Telescope. Medtronic filed two petitions for inter partes review (IPR) of the 116 patent. The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board in holding that Medtronic had not shown the challenged claims to be unpatentable. In finding that the claimed invention was conceived before the critical date of alleged prior art (Itou), the court determined that the claimed invention was actually reduced to practice before the critical date of Itou and the patent owner diligently pursued work on the invention until its constructive reduction to practice. “In vivo” testing was not required for actual reduction to practice because the claims at issue are method claims reciting “advancing . . . a guide catheter . . . through a main blood vessel to an ostium of a coronary artery.” View "Medtronic, Inc. v. Teleflex Life Sciences Ltd.," on Justia Law

In 2018, Presidential Proclamation 9693 imposed duties on imports of solar panels, starting at 30% and scheduled to decrease each year to 25%, 20%, and in the final year, 15%. Importers of bifacial solar modules, consisting of cells that convert sunlight into electricity on both the front and back of the cells, petitioned the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), asking that bifacial solar panels not be subjected to the duties. Ultimately, bifacial solar panels were excluded from the duties. In October 2020, Presidential Proclamation 10101, “modified” Proclamation 9693 to withdraw the exclusion of bifacial solar panels from the scheduled duties, and to increase the fourth-year duty rate to 18%. IImporters of bifacial solar panels sued, alleging that the statute authorizing the President to “modify” Proclamation 9693 only allowed him to make previously adopted safeguard measures more trade-liberalizing while eliminating the exclusion of bifacial panels and raising the fourth-year duty were trade-restrictive. They further argued that even if the President had the authority to “modify” safeguards in a trade-restrictive direction, he failed to follow appropriate procedures.The Trade Court agreed that the authority to “modify” a safeguard is limited to trade-liberalizing changes but rejected the procedural challenges under the Trade Act, 19 U.S.C. 2251. The Federal Circuit reversed. The President’s interpretation of the statute, which allows him to “modify” an existing safeguard in a trade-restricting direction, is not unreasonable. In adopting Proclamation 10101, the President committed no significant procedural violation. View "Solar Energy Industries Association v. United States" on Justia Law

Bell served on active duty from 1952-1954 in the Army, and from 1955-1957 in the Air Force. During service, Bell sustained a lower back injury. Years later Bell filed a VA claim for entitlement to service connection for a lumbar spine disability and received a 20% disability rating, effective March 2017. In a December 2019 internal memorandum, the agency requested an administrative review by the Director of Compensation Service on the issue of entitlement to an extra-schedular rating for Bell’s lumbar spine disability under 38 C.F.R. 3.321(b)(1); the agency recommended denying entitlement to an extra-schedular rating. The Director issued an advisory opinion denying entitlement, finding that the “lumbar spine disability picture does not demonstrate an unusual or exceptional disability pattern that would render application of the regular rating criteria impractical.” The regional office denied entitlement to an extra-schedular disability evaluation.The Board of Veterans’ Appeals the Veterans Court, and the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision. Bell “d[id] not present any argument, under any applicable authority,” why the denial should be reversed. The regulation authorizing the Director of Compensation Service to approve an extra-schedular rating does not prohibit the Director from considering recommendations from agency officials before making this decision. View "Bell v. McDonough" on Justia Law

Cloudbreak’s patent discloses compositions and methods for treating pterygium, an eye condition in which a tumor-like growth extends from the nasal or temporal side of the eye to the cornea, by administering multikinase inhibitors to the eye to inhibit specific growth factors that contribute to tumor growth and hyperemia (i.e., eye redness). The patent discloses that nintedanib in particular “may be one of the most powerful multikinase inhibitors for reducing corneal neovascularization.”In inter partes review, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board held that the petitioner, Allgenesis, failed to prove two claims of the patent are unpatentable. The Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal. Allgenesis failed to establish an injury in fact sufficient to confer standing to appeal. Allgenesis identified no concrete plans to develop and bring to market a nintedanib treatment for pterygium and has not shown its activities will create a substantial risk of infringement or will likely cause Cloudbreak to assert a claim of infringement. The court rejected an argument that Allgenesis suffered an injury in fact based on the Board’s priority determination that will have a preclusive effect on the scope of its pending patent application. Allgenesis has not established that the Board’s decision will have preclusive effect. View "Allgenesis Biotherapeutics Inc. v. Cloudbreak Therapeutics, LLC" on Justia Law

Epoprostenol, a naturally occurring substance, useful for treating cardiovascular diseases, was discovered in the early 1980s and was first brought to market under the brand name Flolan® in 1995. Epoprostenol is unstable in water, it was prepared as a freeze-dried, or lyophilized, powder for use in the Flolan composition. Actelion owns two patents directed to improved epoprostenol formulations that can be reconstituted with commercially available IV fluids and do not require refrigeration after reconstitution until use.” The inventor “unexpectedly found that epoprostenol solution in the presence of an alkalinizing agent, and high pH (>11) is very stable compared to Flolan.” Mylan sought approval to manufacture and sell a generic epoprostenol sodium for injection by filing an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the FDA, containing a certification that the Actelion patents’ claims were invalid or would not be infringed by the ANDA product.The Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s claim construction order with respect to the term “a pH of 13 or higher” and its judgment of infringement. The issue involves understanding what the significant digits are for “a pH of 13.” The district court must address extrinsic evidence explaining how a person of ordinary skill in the art would view the significant digits for a pH value. View "Actelion Pharmaceuticals LTD v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.," on Justia Law

In 2011, PersonalWeb sued Amazon in Texas, alleging that Amazon’s S3 technology infringed PersonalWeb’s “True Name” patents. After the court construed the claim terms, PersonalWeb stipulated to dismissal. In 2018, PersonalWeb asserted the same patents against 85 Amazon customers for their use of Amazon S3. Amazon intervened and filed a declaratory judgment action. The customer cases and Amazon’s declaratory judgment action were consolidated. PersonalWeb represented that if it lost its “Twitch” customer case, it could not prevail in the other customer cases. The court stayed the other cases; the Twitch case and Amazon’s declaratory judgment action proceeded. PersonalWeb counterclaimed against Amazon, alleging that Amazon S3 infringed its True Name patents and accused another Amazon product, CloudFront, of infringement.The Federal Circuit affirmed partial summary judgment of non-infringement of the S3 product, based on claim preclusion and summary judgment of non-infringement as to CloudFront because, under the earlier claim construction, PersonalWeb admittedly could not prove infringement. The district court granted Amazon and Twitch attorneys’ fees and costs, 35 U.S.C. 285, determining that the case was exceptional because PersonalWeb’s claims related to Amazon S3 were objectively baseless in light of the Texas Action; PersonalWeb frequently changed positions; PersonalWeb unnecessarily prolonged litigation after claim construction foreclosed its infringement theories; PersonalWeb’s positions regarding the customer cases were unreasonable; and PersonalWeb submitted declarations that it should have known were not accurate. The Federal Circuit affirmed an award of $5,401,625.06, including $5,187,203.99 in attorneys’ fees. View "In re PersonalWeb Techs., LLC" on Justia Law

The 549 and 175 patents disclose microcalorimeters, machines that measure the amount of energy absorbed or released during a chemical reaction between two compounds, specifically an isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC). Malvern’s 782 patent is unrelated to those patents. An examiner rejected various claims of the 782 patent (with an automated ITC) as anticipated by the 968 application, disclosing a prior art “manual ITC system.” The examiner understood the 968 application to disclose an automated ITC system but noted that because the 968 application and the 782 patent had a common assignee, the 968 application might not qualify as prior art under pre-America Invents Act, 35 U.S.C. 103(c)(1). The examiner then withdrew the rejection, finding that the 968 application did not count as prior art. After Malvern acquired the 549 and 175 patents, Malvern sought supplemental examination of the 175 patent under 35 U.S.C. 257.Malvern sued Waters for infringing the 549 and 175 patents. The district court construed the term “pipette guiding mechanism” as a “mechanism that manually guides the pipette assembly.” The Federal Circuit vacated. The claim language and the specification indicate that the term is used broadly in the 549 and 175 patents and refers to a mechanism that guides the pipette assembly either manually or automatically. Merely listing the 782 patent office actions in the IDS of the 175 patent supplemental examination was insufficient to inform the meaning of “pipette guiding mechanism” in unrelated patents. View "Malvern Panalytical Inc. v. TA Instruments-Waters LLC" on Justia Law

Divx’s 720 and 515 patents relate to a method for adaptive bitrate streaming of content on a playback device, such as a mobile phone or personal computer. “Adaptive bit rate streaming involves detecting the present streaming conditions (e.g., the playback device’s network bandwidth and video decoding capacity) in real-time and adjusting the quality of the streamed media accordingly.” On inter partes review, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board held that Netflix did not meet its burden of proving challenged claims in the patents unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103.Netflix’s appeal argued that the Board failed to address several arguments purportedly raised in Netflix’s petitions. The Federal Circuit found no error in how the Board understood Netflix’s petition arguments and affirmed. It is the petitioner’s burden to make clear when alternative arguments are being presented and to sufficiently expound on each one. The Board should not have to work as hard as Netflix wants to identify all arguments fairly presented in a petition. View "Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC" on Justia Law