PTAB / Obviousness
On July 27, 2016, the PTAB issued five written decisions finding all claims of six patents assigned to Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. unpatentable. Each of the patents related to tracking and controlling the distribution of sensitive prescription drugs that have the potential to be abused, misused, or diverted. An interesting aspect of these decisions is the collective […]
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PTAB / Federal Circuit / Obviousness
On July 25, 2016, the Federal Circuit reversed a PTAB finding of unpatentability because the decision was based on unpatentability theories never presented by the petitioner and that were not supported by the record. In re: Magnum Oil Tools Int’l, No. 2015-1300 (Fed. Cir. July 25, 2016). The proceeding began when McClinton Energy Group filed […]
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PTAB / Post Grant Reviews
Post Grant Review (PGR) has technically been available as an option since September 16, 2012. But since only AIA patents are eligible for PGR, it wasn’t until 2015 that PGR-eligible patents began appearing in significant numbers. Today, many of the patents that issue are eligible for PGR. Although the number of PGR petitions filed each year […]
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PTAB / District Court
Drink Tanks Corporation sued GrowlerWerks, Inc. last November for patent infringement based on its sale of growlers, including the uKeg 64 product shown below. Earlier this year, the case was transferred from Delaware to Oregon district court. On June 2, 2016, GrowlerWerks took the fight to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) by filing a […]
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PTAB / PTAB Procedures and Rules
The “PRPS” e-filing and case management system for post-grant proceedings was retired this past weekend. The new system, PTAB End to End (PTAB E2E), provides significant improvements over the former PRPS system. The new and improved features of PTAB E2E include: Additional search filters, including the ability to search proceedings by party name, type of […]
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