Category: Court Decision

Non-Compete Enforcement in Utah: What You Need to Know

Wednesday | June 30, 2021

By tbt_Adm

The specifics of non-compete enforcement law in Utah has changed three times in the past five years. If you are having trouble keeping up with the law, this article may help you navigate those changes and what they might mean…

Yu and the Case of Shifting Tests for Patents

Saturday | June 19, 2021

By James Watson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidation of Yu et al.’s patent on a motion to dismiss in Yanbin Yu v. Apple Inc., No. 2020-1760, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17434 (Fed. Cir. June 11, 2021).…

Copy and Paste – Supreme Court Holds Copying Software Function Calls Was Fair Use

Saturday | April 10, 2021

By James Watson

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in litigation involving Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices on April 5, 2021. When developing Android, Google had copied the text and format of function calls from Oracle’s Java SE Application Programming…

Automating Animation: Patentable; Automating Captions: Hold On

Monday | March 15, 2021

By James Watson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a decision affirming that patent claims to automating the process of making closed captions for audio-visual media are ineligible for patent protection. In Enco Sys. v. Davincia, the Court…

Federal Circuit’s Dropbox Decision: Missing the Forest for the Trees?

Saturday | June 20, 2020

By James Watson

On June 19, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidation of three Dropbox patents. The Northern District of California had granted a motion to dismiss on grounds that the claims in those patents were…

Sequenom’s More Specific Claims Survive

Monday | March 23, 2020

By James Watson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit took another look at Sequenom’s techniques for detecting fetal blood cells in a maternal blood sample. In Illumina Inc. & Sequenom, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., No. 2019-1419, 2020 U.S. App.…

Customedia Techs. Patent for Storing Ads Invalidated

Saturday | March 14, 2020

By James Watson

Patent claims to storing ad data based on user preferences locally at a user’s video player were confirmed invalid in Customedia Techs., LLC v. Dish Network Corp., No. 2018-2239, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 7005 (Fed. Cir. March 6, 2020). To…

Software Patent Claims Saved by Problem-Solution Approach

Monday | November 18, 2019

By James Watson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision that software patent claims involving techniques for varying check data to verify data transmissions were ineligible for patent protection in KPN v. Gemalto, No. 2018-1863, 2019…

Federal Circuit Holds Making Liners for Driveshafts Doesn’t Practically Apply Laws of Nature

Monday | October 7, 2019

By James Watson

The trend in the U.S. for courts to invalidate growing numbers of patents, particularly software, business method, and medical diagnostic patents, as being directed to unpatentable abstract ideas, laws of nature, and natural phenomena has found its way to mechanical…

Early Dismissal on § 101 Grounds Is Improper When Claims Need Construction

Tuesday | August 20, 2019

By James Watson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in MyMail v. ooVoo, No. 2018-1758, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24430 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 15, 2019), that a court must adopt a non-moving party’s claim constructions or otherwise resolve claim…