Skilled in the Art: The Brave New World of Section 101 Guidance
April 20, 2018
The Patent and Trademark Office proposed new guidance for its examiners on patent eligibility, but not everyone believes it's a good thing.

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Scott Graham focuses on intellectual property and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He writes ALM's Skilled in the Art IP briefing. Contact him at sgraham@alm.com.
April 20, 2018
The Patent and Trademark Office proposed new guidance for its examiners on patent eligibility, but not everyone believes it's a good thing.
April 19, 2018
The leader of plaintiff NetFuel Inc. describes the company as an AI pioneer in networking space.
April 17, 2018
Federal Circuit Judge Raymond Chen appeared pleased that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will find ways to simplify guidance for patent examiners.
April 16, 2018
U.S. District Judge William Orrick III granted Samsung's anti-suit injunction until he can resolve parallel claims over standard-essential patents.
April 16, 2018
Despite possibility of "chaos," presumption against extraterritorial application may give way to simple proximate cause test, justices suggest.
April 13, 2018
Lawyers for patent foes have shifted position since a hearing last August. Plus, is the dreaded T-word defamatory?
April 13, 2018
The court declined to dismiss the case, saying it's "wary of abetting ‘strategic behavior’ on the part of institutional litigants."
April 12, 2018
It's the second nine-figure verdict obtained by the company and its Caldwell Cassady & Curry lawyers in the last year. But Apple says the PTAB has already invalidated all of the patents.
April 11, 2018
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Andrei Iancu also promised wide-ranging review of Patent Trial and Appeal Board operations and standards.
April 10, 2018
Celebrity Chef Chloe Coscarelli is embroiled in an IP fight over her "by Chloe" chain with ESquared Hospitality, which expelled her from the partnership.
April 06, 2018
Up to $115,000 according to a signing bonus being offered by Fish & Richardson to attract new legal recruits.
April 03, 2018
Amazon's success invalidating voice recognition patents isn't an open-and-shut win. Here's why.
April 02, 2018
IP lawyers say his copyright and trademark claims over barbershop talk videos aren't championship caliber.
March 30, 2018
There have been several Supreme Court decisions shaping the law of patent eligibility. Counsel in the Berkheimer patent eligibility case think they've unearthed one more. Plus, is the Patent Trial and Appeal Board poised to embrace a new claim construction standard?
March 28, 2018
The D.C.-based appellate court on Wednesday stopped a PTAB proceeding in which the board has declined to recognize the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe's sovereign immunity.
March 27, 2018
Will there be a third trial in Oracle v. Google? Or a Supreme Court showdown? And what's the Federal Circuit doing in the middle of a copyright case, anyway?
March 27, 2018
Google's unlicensed use of Java APIs in smartphones was not transformative, judges rule.
March 26, 2018
The California Court of Appeal has created some First Amendment breathing room for the creators of docudramas. It's coming at the expense of legendary actor Olivia De Havilland.
March 23, 2018
Greetings and welcome to Skilled in the Art. I'm Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham, and I am ready for the Supreme Court to get Oil States over with. In…
March 21, 2018
In dissent, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen warned the decision amounts to copyrighting a musical style and will permit "entire genres of music to be held hostage to infringement suits."
March 16, 2018
The en banc Federal Circuit considers whether the U.S. PTO should be allowed to collect attorney fees in Section 145 proceedings. Plus, the Ninth Circuit hears the copyright appeal over Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and who's on the move in patent circles.
Texas Lawyer | |News
March 15, 2018
Backed by Susman Godfrey, automated appraisal company HouseCanary wins a Texas tussle with Quicken Loans affiliate.
March 14, 2018
In a blistering complaint, Blink Health and its lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher accuse two former executives of misappropriating source code, marketing plans and even unused company slogans.
March 13, 2018
Patent officials unveiled the new patent cover Sunday at SXSW in Austin. It's only the third cover in the agency's history.
March 09, 2018
Moving beyond the denial, anger and bargaining, what would a jury trial on patent eligibility look like?
March 07, 2018
BlackBerry Ltd., which no longer makes its own mobile phones, still holds a trove of mobile technology patents, and on Tuesday it unleashed them against the CrackBerry of the current decade: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
March 07, 2018
San Diego law professor Orly Lobel talks about the rule breakers who dominate business, law and sometimes even the judiciary.
March 07, 2018
San Diego law professor Orly Lobel talks about the rule breakers who dominate business, law and sometimes even the judiciary.
March 06, 2018
IBM's lawsuit against its former diversity officer set off debate over whether diversity hiring efforts can be considered trade secrets. So, which company came out ahead?
March 02, 2018
What a win for Fox News in the Second Circuit means for fair use—and Google. Plus, lateral moves and a look at next week's Federal Circuit calendar.
February 27, 2018
Rob Greenspoon played a key role in getting the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of IPRs. Now he's advancing a new attack.
February 26, 2018
Jamie Underwood is the second addition to Latham's ITC practice in the last six months.
February 23, 2018
The decision ends—for now—a controversy that erupted last summer when Allergan paid the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe to assume its Restasis patents in a creative legal strategy to fend off challengers.
February 23, 2018
Every big IP practice aspires to handle competitor cases. We checked in with the lawyers who lead the pack.
February 20, 2018
History seems to be repeating between Gilead Sciences and Merck & Co. Plus, a Valentine's Day rejection for Playboy in copyright fight.
February 16, 2018
If the Federal Circuit's Berkheimer decision on Section 101 procedure goes en banc, things are going to get interesting.
February 13, 2018
Diversity hiring strategies have never been more important, particularly for technology companies. But are they trade secrets? That's the premise of IBM's suit to block Microsoft from hiring its chief diversity officer.
February 12, 2018
Finjan Inc. and Blue Coat Systems Inc. have called off their second patent infringement trial over cybersecurity technology. The parties had been…
February 12, 2018
Lawyers for Arista, led by Tensegrity's Matthew Powers, are the latest to attack assignor estoppel, the equitable doctrine that forbids an inventor who sells his or her patent from then turning around and attacking the patent's validity.
February 09, 2018
The Federal Circuit has just thrown a big wet blanket over the Section 101 party that accused infringers have been having since the Supreme Court's 'Alice' ruling on patent eligibility.
February 06, 2018
Andrei Iancu, the new unanimously confirmed director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has drawn a warm welcome from groups representing patent owners and accused infringers. Plus, updates on WesternGeco, the Uber-Waymo trial and Merck's $200 million Federal Circuit appeal.
February 06, 2018
In an appellate showdown between Fish & Richardson's Juanita Brooks and MoloLamken's Jeffrey Lamken, a Federal Circuit panel seemed swayed by Merck's argument that one bad witness didn't taint the jury's verdict.
February 05, 2018
"He understands all sides of patent law because he's litigated all sides," Sen. Orrin Hatch said of Iancu, a longtime Irell & Manella partner.
February 02, 2018
Eight months into living as her true self, Fish & Richardson partner DJ Healey has felt welcomed by her firm, clients and even a few litigation opponents.
February 02, 2018
A big copyright decision puts internet service providers on notice. Plus, a major IP trial gets underway in San Francisco and a proud moment for Paul Hastings partner.
January 30, 2018
Apple isn't letting go of its misconduct claim against Voip-Pal.com any time soon. Plus, a surprise hire at L.A.'s Russ August & Kabat.
January 30, 2018
Mark Perry, a go-to lawyer for Apple in IP appeals, would lead the Federal Circuit fight over allegations of improper ex parte contact with Patent Trial and Appeal Board officials.
January 26, 2018
Notable wins for Ed Reines of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Santa Monica's Kayvan Noroozi, and Peter Perkowski of L.A.'s Perkowski Legal sues singer and actress Jessica Simpson for infringing the copyright on photos of herself.
January 25, 2018
For the second time this month, the Federal Circuit has sided with patent owners on the issue of patent eligibility under Section 101. Russ August & Kabat partner Benjamin Wang had the winning argument for Core Wireless.
January 24, 2018
The Northern District of California's newest magistrate judge has serious patent chops. Plus, drugmaker Helsinn brings on Williams & Connolly in its fight with Teva Pharmaceuticals.
January 22, 2018
The law firm pulled off a patent coup for its defense contractor client in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
January 19, 2018
The U.S. Patent and Trademark has no plans to shut its doors. Plus, a prominent plaintiffs firm bets on IP and the fight over CRISPR just got more complicated.
January 17, 2018
Apple wants a fresh shot at invalidating Voip-Pal's internet calling patent based on letters the company's former CEO sent to administrative judges and other officials at the Patent and Trademark Office. But a lawyer for Bellevue, Washington-based Voip-Pal said the correspondence didn't violate any rules.
January 16, 2018
There's a new chapter in the clash between Apple and Voip-Pal.com over ex parte contacts with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; Judge Raymond Chen compares Google patent case to "Night of the Living Dead."
January 12, 2018
Plus, the Supreme Court takes up a case that could expand available patent damages, Darrell Issa retires, and advice for your next Federal Circuit argument.
January 12, 2018
In WesternGeco v. Ion Geophysical, the justices might carve a small exception into the usual presumption against extraterritorial damages—or open the spigot to global patent damages.
January 11, 2018
Apple claims that its opponent contacted senior administration officials and the judges presiding over the case, swaying the outcome of an inter partes review proceeding.
January 10, 2018
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday upset a $39.5 million award in long-running patent litigation between Finjan Inc. and Blue Coat Systems Inc.
January 09, 2018
IP reporter Scott Graham explains why the biggest surprise about Monday's decision in Wi-Fi One v. Broadcom
January 08, 2018
"This is the first retrenchment on the PTAB's unfettered ability to do whatever it wants with institution," said Douglas Cawley, the McKool Smith partner who had the winning argument.
January 08, 2018
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday lopped a sizable chunk out of Oracle Corp.'s $124 million copyright and computer crime judgment against software support provider Rimini Street Inc.
January 05, 2018
The big development of the year was the Supreme Court's TC Heartland decision on patent venue. Now we know just how big the impact was.
January 04, 2018
Ariosa Diagnostics and Illumina Inc. are going to trial Monday in U.S. District Judge Susan Illston's San Francisco courtroom in a dispute over hundreds of millions of dollars and the IP used in non-invasive prenatal testing.
January 02, 2018
By analogizing IPRs to district court litigation, a Patent Trial and Appeal Board panel led by Chief Judge David Ruschke just undercut its position in its Supreme Court fight for survival.
December 29, 2017
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has requested briefing in two cases that could flesh out the Supreme Court's game-changing patent venue holding.
The Recorder | |News
December 22, 2017
In a win for Sheppard Mullin partner Stephen Korniczky, a federal judge more than halved the rates the Swedish telecom was seeking from China's TCL Communication to license patents that are essential to implementing the 2G, 3G and 4G cellular communication standards.
December 21, 2017
Irell & Manella lawyers get the call when clients’ intellectual property cases present the most challenging legal and business issues.
December 15, 2017
The former USPTO director spoke Thursday at the Advanced Patent Law Institute in Silicon Valley, and she wants it known that she is not a PTAB panel stacker.
December 12, 2017
A look at the Federal Circuit's polarizing decision in Inventor Holdings. Plus, a verdict in the comic-con trademark dispute and a preview of my favorite IP conference of the year
December 08, 2017
During arguments Thursday in Oracle v. Google I expected the Federal Circuit to huff and puff but then affirm a San Francisco jury verdict. Well, I was half right.
December 07, 2017
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit peppered a lawyer for Google with tough questions over the company's fair use win over Oracle.
December 06, 2017
Thursday is Pearl Harbor Day, so what more appropriate occasion for Oracle and Google to renew hostilities over the Java API copyright?
December 05, 2017
Oracle and Google return to the Federal Circuit Thursday to once again argue whether Google's copying of 11,000 lines of code was fair use. Here’s why Oracle probably can’t win.
December 04, 2017
U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm of Maryland seemed sympathetic to Capitol One but didn’t endorse Capital One’s novel antitrust argument.
December 01, 2017
The rhetoric at Iancu's confirmation hearing had a familiar ring. But if you look closely, there are indications that Trump's pick to head the PTO might be more attuned to patent owners.
November 29, 2017
Savvy lawyers are predicting everything from a unanimous affirmance keeping IPRs in place to a lopsided reversal declaring them unconstitutional. Some people—maybe including me—are going to be surprised when this opinion comes down.
November 27, 2017
There was no clear majority Monday signaling the death of inter partes review—the administrative procedure for reviewing patent validity created by the 2011 America Invents Act.
National Law Journal |Analysis
November 22, 2017
On Monday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider two cases that could upend or significantly reshape inter partes review.
November 21, 2017
Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I'm Scott Graham, Law.com's lead IP reporter, and in this newsletter I'll be bursting balloons about the latest IP developments.…
November 21, 2017
With instruction from two prominent IP litigators—and cameos from a real client, expert witness and PTAB judges—students in Berkeley Law's Patent Litigation II class are drafting and arguing petitions for inter partes review.
November 17, 2017
Welcome to the formal launch of Skilled in the Art, a new email briefing on everything IP.
November 15, 2017
Companies that failed to challenge venue prior to TC Heartland haven't waived that right, the Federal Circuit ruled. But the court said district judges retain the inherent power to manage their dockets.
November 13, 2017
The Federal Circuit handed a win Monday to Weil partner Edward Reines in a case where his client conceded infringing a DNA-testing patent.
November 13, 2017
Separate rulings from judges in Northern and Southern California pare back peripheral claims but leave intact the crux of consumer antitrust suits and Apple Inc.'s patent licensing battle.
The Recorder | |News
November 09, 2017
At issue in the case over pre-1972 music is whether digitally remastering hits from the '60s and '70s made them derivative works.
November 07, 2017
"An attorney cannot just ignore his or her client and then assume that the client terminated the relationship," U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley wrote in an order disqualifying Ropes & Gray from a false advertising suit.
November 06, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Samsung's cert petition in a $120 million IP dispute, leaving in place an unusual en banc decision reached by the Federal Circuit without briefing or argument.
November 01, 2017
In a win for Goodwin Procter, a unanimous panel ruled Wednesday that a patent covering Bayer's Staxyn is obvious in light of numerous previous patent applications and medical journal articles. The decision reverses U.S. District Judge Gregory Sleet of Delaware.
October 31, 2017
The U.S. solicitor general, law professors, nonprofits and even one pharma company make the case for saving the Patent and Trial Appeal Board as a cost-effective mechanism for challenging patents.
October 27, 2017
Sorry comic fans. The Ninth Circuit thinks an upcoming trademark trial between two of your biggest annual conventions is "banal" and a "run of the mill" civil proceeding.
October 23, 2017
The 2011 "trial of the century" is headed for a retrial in 2018 on design patent damages. Here's what we gleaned from Judge Lucy Koh's order.
October 23, 2017
Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham breaks down some hot topics at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with Eliot Williams, an IP partner at Baker Botts.
October 20, 2017
Could Google be judgment proof? That's Oracle's stated concern as the two companies continue to battle over seemingly every microscopic detail in their Java API copyright dispute.
October 17, 2017
After several IP-heavy seasons, the 2017 term at the U.S. Supreme Court looks to be a quiet one for intellectual property—with one big exception.The…
October 16, 2017
After several IP-heavy seasons, the 2017 term at the U.S. Supreme Court looks to be a quiet one for intellectual property—with one big exception.
The Recorder | |News
October 14, 2017
During a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel seemed ready to purge nine patents from the dispute pitting Apple against chip supplier Qualcomm.
October 11, 2017
Michelle Lee is back in the technology law mix.The former director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has accepted a visiting professor role at Stanford…
The Recorder | |
October 10, 2017
Lee will teach a course at Stanford Law that explores how IP laws and government policies shape innovation.
October 06, 2017
The Ninth Circuit heard arguments Friday in a copyright case that's being closely watched by the music industry.
October 04, 2017
Weighing in on a key issue for patent holders, the en banc court splintered into five different opinions spanning 148 pages, none commanding a majority.
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