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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

By Noah K. Tilton on Posted in Section 101
In a recent precedential decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision, upholding an examiner’s final rejection of claims to a fishing method as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101.  In re Rudy, Case 2019-2301, Slip Op. (Fed. Cir. Apr. 24, 2020).  Appeals to both the Board and the Federal Circuit … Continue Reading

PTAB Properly Applied the Printed Matter Doctrine

By Noah K. Tilton on Posted in Appeals, Claim Construction, Inter Partes Review, Section 101, Sections 102/103
In Praxair Distrib. v. Mallinckrodt Hosp. Pdts., (Fed. Circ. May 16, 2018), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s application of the printed matter doctrine in an IPR, and determined that all challenged claims were obvious. Mallinckrodt’s patent is directed to methods of treating newborns having low blood oxygenation with nitric oxide (NO) gas, “to dilate … Continue Reading

Claim Term Read Out by PTAB Constituted “Harmless Error”

By Noah K. Tilton on Posted in Appeals, Claim Construction, Inter Partes Review, Sections 102/103
In a recent non-precedential decision, Snap-on Inc. v. Milwaukee Elec. Tool Corp., No. 2017-1305, 2018 WL 935454 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 16, 2018), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s final written decisions in several IPRs that upheld challenged claims of Milwaukee Tool patents as nonobvious, although the court determined that the PTAB erred in construing a … Continue Reading
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