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

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted inter partes review of Caterpillar’s patent and issued its final written decision on November 13, 2019. Caterpillar appealed, then moved to vacate and remand for a new hearing before a differently constituted panel in light of the Federal Circuit’s 2019 “Arthrex” holding that the administrative patent judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board were improperly appointed. The Federal Circuit denied the motion. Unlike prior cases, which have been remanded, Arthrex issued before the Board’s final written decision in Caterpillar’s case. The Arthrex holding was expressly limited “to those cases where final written decisions were issued.” The court rejected an argument that even if the panel members became constitutional immediately before issuing the final written decision, that “does not cure a year’s worth of constitutional violations influencing the Board’s thinking and conclusions.” View "Caterpillar Paving Products, Inc. v. Wirtgen America, Inc." on Justia Law

Oyster sued, alleging that Ciena infringed several patents. Ciena petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for inter partes review of the asserted patents. The district court stayed the litigation. The Board concluded that Ciena had failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that any of the challenged claims were unpatentable.The Federal Circuit denied Ciena’s motion to vacate the decision. Ciena forfeited its argument that the members of the Board panel that issued the decision were not appointed in compliance with the Appointments Clause. Ciena requested that the Board adjudicate its petition and affirmatively sought a ruling from the Board members, regardless of how they were appointed. Ciena was content to have the assigned Board judges adjudicate its invalidity challenges until the Board ruled against it. View "Ciena Corp. v. Oyster Optics, LLC" on Justia Law

X One’s patent describes a “Buddy Watch application” that allows a mobile device user to add other mobile device users to her “Buddy List.” A user may set up “instant buddies.” For example, a stranded motorist may wish to be instant buddies with the driver of a tow truck, allowing each phone to show the location of the other phone on its moving map. Uber sought inter partes review asserting that claims of the patent were obvious, 35 U.S.C. 103, in view of prior art that generally describes transmitting location information between mobile devices. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board held the claims were not unpatentable.The Federal Circuit reversed. The Board erred in determining that the combination of prior art does not render obvious the limitation “software . . . to transmit the map with plotted locations to the first individual.” Because terminal-side plotting and server-side plotting, as described in prior art, would have been two of a finite number of known, predictable solutions at the time of the invention of the patent, a person of ordinary skill would have faced a simple design choice between the two, and would have been motivated to combine the teachings of prior art to achieve the limitation. View "Uber Technologies, Inc. v. X One, Inc." on Justia Law

Hitkansut owns the patent, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Stress Relief Using Multiple Energy Sources.” While the application that later issued as that patent was pending, Hitkansut entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and provided ORNL with a copy of the then-unpublished patent application. ORNL staff prepared research reports, received funding, authored publications, and received awards for research, based upon unauthorized use of the patent. Hitkansut sued ORNL, alleging infringement under 28 U.S.C. 1498. The Claims Court determined that certain claims of the patent were invalid but that other claims were valid and infringed. Although Hitkansut originally sought a royalty between $4.5-$5.6 million, based on a percentage of the research funding obtained by ORNL, the Claims Court awarded $200,000, plus interest, as the hypothetically negotiated cost of an up-front licensing fee. The Federal Circuit affirmed.Hitkansut then sought attorneys’ fees and expenses under 28 U.S.C. 1498(a). The Claims Court awarded $4,387,889.54.The Federal Circuit affirmed. Section 1498(a) provides for the award of attorneys’ fees under certain conditions, unless “the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified.” The “position of the United States” in this statutory provision refers to positions taken during litigation and does not encompass pre-litigation conduct by government actors, but the examples of conduct cited by the Claims Court demonstrate that the position of the United States was not substantially justified even under this narrow definition View "Hitkansut LLC v. United States" on Justia Law

Buffkin, a former teacher in the Department of Defense (DoD) school for the children of military personnel, challenged her termination. The collective bargaining agreement process for contesting adverse employment actions provides that any grievance will be mediated if requested by either party. A written request for arbitration must be served on the opposing party within 20 days following "the conclusion of the last stage in the grievance procedure.” “The date of the last day of mediation will be considered the conclusion of the last stage in the grievance procedure" for purposes of proceeding to arbitration.DoD denied Buffkin’s grievance. The union and DoD met with a mediator in December 2012. No agreement was reached. In July 2014, the union submitted a written request for arbitration. DoD signed the request and the parties received a list of arbitrators in August 2014. In March 2015, DoD listed Buffkin’s grievance as an open grievance and the parties held another mediation session. The union and DoD selected an arbitrator in January 2017. DoD then argued that the arbitration request was untimely. The arbitrator found that the union did not invoke arbitration within 20 days after the 2012 mediation concluded.The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded with instructions to address whether the union’s premature request for arbitration ripened into a timely request. Buffkin’s grievance was not resolved in the 2012 mediation; there was another mediation session in 2015, the last stage of the grievance procedure. Invoking arbitration in 2014 was premature, rather than too late. DoDs conduct and past practices indicate that it did not consider the arbitration request untimely. View "Buffkin v. Department of Defense" on Justia Law

Oren’s patent covers a system for storing and discharging proppant—a material, such as sand or other particulates, that prevents ground fractures from closing during hydraulic fracturing. Oren sued Grit for infringement, Grit transferred ownership of all the products accused of infringement. Oren and Grit jointly stipulated to dismissal without prejudice of all claims and counterclaims related to the patent. Grit sought inter partes review of claims 1–7. The Board ultimately determined that Grit had not established that any of the challenged claims were unpatentable as obvious over prior art or that the challenged claims were unpatentable, reasoning that neither of the prior references disclosed the patent's configuration. The Federal Circuit vacated, first holding that Grit had standing because Oren previously sued for infringement and is free to reassert those infringement claims. The Board’s determination that prior art does not disclose the patent’s configuration is unsupported by substantial evidence. The Board failed to adequately explain its reasoning. View "Grit Energy Solutions, LLC v. Oren Technologies, LLC" on Justia Law

Uniloc’s patent is directed to a communication system comprising a primary station (base station) and at least one secondary station (computer mouse or keyboard). In conventional systems, such as Bluetooth networks, two devices that share a common communication channel form ad hoc networks called “piconets.” Joining a piconet requires the completion of “inquiry” procedure and “page” procedures, which can take tens of seconds to complete. The invention improves conventional communication systems by including a data field for polling as part of the inquiry message, thereby allowing primary stations to send inquiry messages and conduct polling simultaneously, enabling “a rapid response time without the need for a permanently active communication link” between a parked secondary station and the primary station.In an infringement action, the district court held that the patent’s claims were ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101. The Federal Circuit reversed, applying the “Alice” test. The claims are directed to a patent-eligible improvement to computer functionality--the reduction of latency experienced by parked secondary stations in communication systems. The claims do not merely recite generalized steps to be performed on a computer using conventional computer activity but are directed to “adding to each inquiry message prior to transmission an additional data field for polling at least one secondary station.” View "Uniloc USA, INC. v. LG Electronics USA, INC." on Justia Law

Walby was born in Michigan, and, in 2014-2018, lived and worked in Michigan. For the 2014 taxable year, Walby’s employer, Baker, withheld $9,751.60 in federal income taxes. In 2015, Walby claimed exemption from all withholdings and executed an “Affidavit of Citizenship,” which she submitted to the State Department, declaring that she was a sovereign citizen of the state of Michigan and, “because she was not restricted by the 14th Amendment ... she was not a United States citizen thereunder but rather a nonresident alien not subject to income taxes.” In 2016, at the direction of the IRS, Baker resumed withholding. Walby did not file federal tax returns for 2014–2018 but, in 2019, filed claims for refunds of the taxes withheld from her 2014 and 2016–2018 paychecks.The Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Walby’s tax refund lawsuit concerning her 2014 return as untimely. A timely administrative refund claim must be filed within two years of the taxes being paid. The claims for the years 2016–2018 were timely but were properly dismissed as meritless. Walby could not establish a loss of U.S. nationality and even if she were a nonresident alien, Walby qualified as a U.S. resident for tax purposes under I.R.C. 7701 by virtue of her substantial presence. The court rejected a request for sanctions. View "Walby v. United States" on Justia Law

In 1989, Rudy originally filed the 360 application, entitled “Eyeless, Knotless, Colorable and/or Translucent/Transparent Fishing Hooks with Associatable Apparatus and Methods.” Its lengthy prosecution included numerous amendments and petitions, and four Board appeals. In 2014, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the obviousness of all claims then on appeal. Several claims were the subject of a 2015 office action in which the Examiner rejected them as ineligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. 101. The Board upheld the determination.The Federal Circuit affirmed, stating that it was applying its own law and the relevant Supreme Court precedent, not the Office Guidance, in analyzing subject matter eligibility. Claim 34 is directed to the abstract idea of selecting a fishing hook based on observed water conditions; its three elements (observing water clarity, measuring light transmittance, and selecting the color of the hook) are each abstract, being mental processes akin to data collection or analysis. Claim 34 fails to recite an inventive concept at step two of the “Alice/Mayo test,” and.nothing in the remaining claims meaningfully distinguishes them from claim 34 in a patent eligibility analysis. View "In Re Rudy" on Justia Law

Apotex filed a petition for inter partes review of Novartis’s patent. The Board instituted proceedings and granted Sun, Teva, Actavis, and Argentum (with Apotex, the petitioners) joinder. The Board concluded that the petitioners had not demonstrated unpatentability of the claims. During the appeal process, all petitioners other than Argentum settled with Novartis. Before opening briefs were filed, Novartis moved to dismiss Argentum’s appeal for lack of standing. Argentum argued that its standing need not be addressed because only one party must have standing for an action to proceed in an Article III Court; the other petitioners undisputedly had standing. Following the settlement of all the other parties, Apotex argued that “now that Argentum is the only appellant, Article III standing has become a threshold issue.”The Federal Circuit dismissed for lack of Article III standing. Argentum argued that it demonstrated concrete injuries in fact: a real and imminent threat of litigation as it jointly pursues, with its partner KVK-Tech, a generic version of Novartis’ Gilenya® product for which they are in the process of filing an ANDA. Argentum failed to provide sufficient evidence that it invested in KVK’s generic Gilenya® product or ANDA. View "Argentum Pharmaceuticals LLC v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp." on Justia Law