Tag Archives: Collateral Estoppel

Obvious Variants and the Hand of Fate

By Sandip H. Patel on Posted in Appeals, Estoppel, Inter Partes Review, IPR
Collateral estoppel is a resource-saving shortcut. Judges consider it when an issue previously received sufficient judicial attention. And they apply it when the issue was resolved against the party now seeking, in some way, to circumvent that resolution. In the absence of some intervening change in the law or new evidence, resolution likely would be … Continue Reading

This Seems Absurd, but …

By Sandip H. Patel on Posted in Estoppel, Inter Partes Review, IPR
Last year, a district court applied the doctrine of collateral estoppel to dismiss an infringement suit after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decided to cancel the asserted patent’s claims in an inter partes review. In the ensuing appeal of the court’s decision, the Federal Circuit granted the patent owner’s (Jump Rope’s) unopposed motion for … Continue Reading

Rigidly Interpreting Precedents May Foreclose an Equitable Doctrine

By Sandip H. Patel on Posted in Estoppel, Inter Partes Review, IPR
The Federal Circuit’s Judge Bryson has been presiding over two district court cases where he decided an important and recurring issue regarding collateral estoppel. In a consolidated order, he refused to apply collateral estoppel to certain fact-finding by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on what prior art publications disclose relative to patent claims the … Continue Reading

Collateral Estoppel Not Limited to Identical Claims

By Tiffany D. Gehrke on Posted in Appeals
The equitable doctrine of collateral estoppel protects a party from having to re-litigate an issue that has already been fully and fairly adjudicated. In Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Steuben Foods, Inc. the Federal Circuit said that application of collateral estoppel is not limited to construing only identical patent claims; but instead, it extends to terms … Continue Reading
LexBlog