By: Wayne F. Reinke In Yangin Yu, Zhongxuan Zhang v. Apple Inc. (Fed. Cir. June 11, 2021), hereinafter “Yu v. Apple,” the Federal Circuit majority proves there is a serious problem with its § 101 jurisprudence, which has expanded to the point of swallowing at least § 112 and, to an extent, § 102 and § 103. In this…
By: Stephen P. Scuderi A license is a grant of rights from a licensor (often the patentee) to a licensee to make, use or sell a patented product or method. Often in granting the licensee the right to “sell”, the patentee may seek to put restrictions or conditions on third parties who legitimately purchase such…
By: Kristian E. Ziegler In U.S. v. Arthrex, case number 19-1434; Smith & Nephew v. Arthrex, case number 19-1452; and Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, case number 19-1458, the Supreme Court recently held that the law empowering Administrative Patent Judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark…
By: Rachel L. Pearlman Those patent attorneys and agents who practice in the worlds of biological sciences and computer arts have been working through the ether that is 35 U.S.C. §101 for quite some time. Based on the recent decision of the Federal Circuit in Yu v. Apple, it looks like we may have some…
By: Christina E. Brule and Teige P. Sheehan On May 5, the Biden administration signaled the United States’ support for a proposed waiver of certain World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that require member countries to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights, particularly those related to confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. This article sets out an explanation of…
By: Thomas L. Sica On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court released its decision in the case of Google LLC v. Oracle Am., Inc., 593 U.S. ___, No. 18-956 (U.S. 2021), ending an 11-year legal battle between the two companies over Google, LLC’s (“Google”) copying of certain aspects of Oracle America, Inc.’s (“Oracle”) Java programming…
By: Christina E. Brule The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (the “Act”), a.k.a. the Coronavirus Relief Bill, was signed into law on December 27th, 2020. In addition to COVID-19 relief, the Act includes several provisions that will significantly influence intellectual property law. This article will focus on provisions of the Act that affect copyright law, namely…
By: Alana M. Fuierer On December 27th, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (the “Act”) was signed into law. Despite commonly being thought of as merely a “Coronavirus Relief Bill”, it surprisingly contained much more than COVID-19 relief. One of the lesser-known parts of the Act is the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) which amends the…
By: David P. Miranda This column typically discusses legal topics related to technology, this month we look at how technology relates to the law, specifically our court system. In the midst of a pandemic, our world in lockdown, lawyers are learning to navigate the challenges of working remotely. These circumstances provided the Chief Judge of…
By: Wayne F. Reinke There is some concern in the patent-sphere about the CAFC conflating §101 (patentable subject matter) with §112 (issues with claim wording and/or support of claims in specification) and other considerations. There is no better example of this than the recently modified (twice) opinion of July 31, 2020 for American Axle &…