Justia Intellectual Property Opinion Summaries

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer) is a non-profit research organization that developed and patented multicarrier modulation (MCM) technology used in satellite radio. In 1998, Fraunhofer granted WorldSpace International Network, Inc. (WorldSpace) an exclusive license to its MCM technology patents. Fraunhofer also collaborated with XM Satellite Radio (XM) to develop a satellite radio system, requiring XM to obtain a sublicense from WorldSpace. XM later merged with Sirius Satellite Radio to form Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SXM), which continued using the XM system. In 2010, WorldSpace filed for bankruptcy, and Fraunhofer claimed the Master Agreement was terminated, reverting patent rights to Fraunhofer. In 2015, Fraunhofer notified SXM of alleged patent infringement and filed a lawsuit in 2017.The United States District Court for the District of Delaware initially dismissed the case, ruling SXM had a valid license. The Federal Circuit vacated this decision and remanded the case. On remand, the district court granted summary judgment for SXM, concluding Fraunhofer's claims were barred by equitable estoppel due to Fraunhofer's delay in asserting its rights and SXM's reliance on this delay to its detriment.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case and reversed the district court's summary judgment. The Federal Circuit agreed that Fraunhofer's delay constituted misleading conduct but found that SXM did not indisputably rely on this conduct in deciding to migrate to the high-band system. The court noted that SXM's decision was based on business pragmatics rather than reliance on Fraunhofer's silence. The case was remanded for further proceedings to determine if SXM relied on Fraunhofer's conduct and if it was prejudiced by this reliance. View "Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft v. Sirius XM Radio Inc." on Justia Law

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby) owns U.S. Patent No. 10,237,577, which is directed to a prediction method using an in-loop filter. Unified Patents, LLC (Unified) filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) challenging claims 1, 7, and 8 of the patent as anticipated and obvious. Unified certified it was the sole real party in interest (RPI). Dolby identified nine other entities it believed should also have been named as RPIs. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) declined to adjudicate whether these entities were RPIs and instituted the review with Unified as the sole RPI. The Board ultimately held that Unified failed to show any of the challenged claims were unpatentable.The Board's final written decision did not address the RPI dispute, explaining that there was no evidence any of the alleged RPIs were time-barred or estopped from bringing the IPR, or that Unified purposefully omitted any RPIs to gain an advantage. Dolby appealed the Board's decision, arguing that the Board's refusal to adjudicate the RPI dispute caused various harms, including potential breaches of license agreements, conflicts of interest, improper estoppel in future proceedings, and disincentivizing Unified from filing IPRs.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court held that Dolby failed to establish an injury in fact sufficient to confer standing to appeal. The court found Dolby's claims of harm to be too speculative, noting that Dolby did not provide evidence of any actual or imminent injury. The court dismissed the appeal for lack of standing and did not reach the merits of Dolby's substantive challenges. View "Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation v. Unified Patents, LLC" on Justia Law

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. filed two lawsuits against Moderna, Inc., ModernaTX, Inc., and Moderna US, Inc. (collectively Moderna) in the District Court for the District of Delaware. Alnylam alleged that Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine SPIKEVAX® infringed U.S. Patent Nos. 11,246,933 and 11,382,979, which cover cationic lipids used for delivering nucleic acids. The dispute centered on the interpretation of the term “branched alkyl” in the patent claims, specifically whether it required a carbon atom bound to at least three other carbon atoms.The District Court for the District of Delaware concluded that Alnylam had acted as a lexicographer in defining “branched alkyl” in the patent specification. The court adopted Moderna’s proposed construction, which required that a “branched alkyl” must have a carbon atom bound to at least three other carbon atoms. Based on this construction, the parties stipulated that Moderna did not infringe the asserted patent claims, as Moderna’s product did not meet this requirement. The district court entered final judgment of noninfringement accordingly.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case and affirmed the district court’s decision. The Federal Circuit agreed that the specification’s definition of “branched alkyl” was clear and unequivocal, requiring a carbon atom bound to at least three other carbon atoms. The court found no evidence in the claims, specification, or prosecution history that specified otherwise for the asserted claims. Consequently, the Federal Circuit upheld the district court’s claim construction and the resulting judgment of noninfringement. View "ALNYLAM PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. v. MODERNA, INC. " on Justia Law

Sigray, Inc. filed a petition with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) requesting inter partes review of all claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,400,704, owned by Carl Zeiss X-Ray Microscopy, Inc. The patent claims X-ray imaging systems incorporating projection magnification. The PTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) granted the petition, finding a reasonable likelihood that at least one of the challenged claims was unpatentable. However, in its final written decision, the PTAB declined to hold any of the asserted claims unpatentable. Sigray appealed the PTAB's decision regarding the unpatentability of claims 1-6 based on the prior art reference Jorgensen.The PTAB found that Sigray had not shown that Jorgensen inherently disclosed projection magnification within the claimed range. The PTAB concluded that there was a dispute about whether Jorgensen taught a diverging X-ray beam and found that Sigray failed to demonstrate that Jorgensen's X-ray beam diverged enough to result in projection magnification between 1 and 10 times.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the PTAB's decision. The court found that the PTAB had implicitly construed the claim limitation "between 1 and 10" to exclude small amounts of magnification, which was an error. The court held that the plain meaning of "between 1 and 10" includes even tiny, undetectable magnification. The court concluded that Jorgensen inherently contained projection magnification, as the evidence showed that Jorgensen's X-ray beams were not completely parallel and must result in some magnification. Therefore, the court reversed the PTAB's decision regarding claims 1, 3, and 4, finding them anticipated by Jorgensen. The court vacated the PTAB's decision regarding claims 2, 5, and 6 and remanded for further proceedings to determine if these claims would have been obvious in light of the opinion. View "SIGRAY, INC. v. CARL ZEISS X-RAY MICROSCOPY, INC. " on Justia Law

Rebecca Curtin filed an opposition to United Trademark Holdings’ (UTH) registration of the mark RAPUNZEL for dolls and toy figures, claiming the mark was generic, descriptive, and failed to function as a trademark. Curtin, a doll collector and mother, argued that the registration would harm consumers by reducing competition and increasing prices for Rapunzel merchandise. She also claimed it would chill the creation of new Rapunzel-themed dolls and toys.The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) dismissed Curtin’s opposition, concluding she was not statutorily entitled to oppose the registration under 15 U.S.C. § 1063. The TTAB applied the Lexmark framework, which requires a plaintiff to fall within the zone of interests protected by the statute and to show a reasonable belief in damage proximately caused by the registration. The TTAB found that Curtin, as a consumer, did not have a commercial interest protected by the Lanham Act and that her alleged injuries were too remote and speculative.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court affirmed the TTAB’s decision, agreeing that the Lexmark framework was correctly applied. The court held that the interests protected by the Lanham Act in this context are commercial, and Curtin, as a consumer, did not fall within the zone of interests. Additionally, the court found that Curtin’s alleged injuries were derivative of harms to commercial actors and too remote to establish proximate causation. Thus, Curtin was not entitled to oppose the registration of the RAPUNZEL mark. View "CURTIN v. UNITED TRADEMARK HOLDINGS, INC. " on Justia Law

Vetements Group AG filed applications to register two marks, "VETEMENTS" in standard characters and in stylized form, for clothing items and online retail store services featuring clothing. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Examining Attorney refused the applications, asserting that the marks were generic or merely descriptive without acquired distinctiveness, and thus barred from registration under Section 2(e)(1) of the Trademark Act.The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) affirmed the Examining Attorney's refusal, applying the foreign equivalents doctrine. The Board found that "VETEMENTS," which translates to "clothing" in English, was generic for the identified goods and services. The Board also determined that the marks were highly descriptive and that Vetements Group AG failed to establish acquired distinctiveness among U.S. consumers.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case and upheld the Board's decision. The court agreed that the foreign equivalents doctrine was correctly applied, noting that an appreciable number of Americans are capable of translating "VETEMENTS" from French to English. The court found substantial evidence supporting the Board's conclusion that the marks were generic, as they directly referred to the genus of goods and services in question. Consequently, the court affirmed the Board's decision to refuse registration of the marks. View "In Re VETEMENTS GROUP AG " on Justia Law

The case involves a patent interference proceeding between the Regents of the University of California, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively “Regents”) and the Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College (collectively “Broad”). The dispute centers on the priority of invention for a CRISPR-Cas9 system that edits DNA in eukaryotic cells using a single-guide RNA.The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final decision concluding that Broad has priority over Regents for the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The PTAB determined that Broad reduced the invention to practice by October 5, 2012, when Broad's scientist, Feng Zhang, submitted a manuscript to Science. The PTAB rejected Regents' earlier asserted dates of conception and reduction to practice, which were based on various disclosures and experiments conducted by Regents' scientists. The PTAB also denied Regents' motion to be accorded the benefit of the filing date of its first and second provisional patent applications, determining that they lacked written description support for the claimed invention.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court held that the PTAB legally erred by conflating the standards for conception and reduction to practice, requiring Regents' scientists to know their invention would work to prove conception. The court vacated the PTAB's decision on conception and remanded for reconsideration under the correct legal framework. The court affirmed the PTAB's decision on written description, finding no legal error in the PTAB's analysis. The court dismissed Broad's cross-appeal on claim construction as moot, as the PTAB's denial of Broad's preliminary motions was based on independently sufficient grounds unrelated to claim construction. View "THE BROAD INSTITUTE, INC. v. THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA " on Justia Law

Incyte Corporation appealed a post-grant review (PGR) final written decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) which held that Incyte failed to prove claims 1–7 and 9–21 of U.S. Patent No. 10,561,659 were unpatentable. The '659 patent, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc., discloses a method of treating hair-loss disorders using deuterium-modified ruxolitinib. Incyte petitioned for PGR, arguing the claims were obvious, but the Board found Incyte's arguments unpersuasive and upheld the claims. Incyte's request for rehearing was also denied.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. Sun argued that Incyte lacked Article III standing to appeal. The court noted that standing is a threshold jurisdictional issue that must be addressed before reaching the merits of an appeal. To establish standing, Incyte needed to demonstrate an injury in fact, which it attempted to do by claiming potential infringement liability and invoking the competitor standing doctrine.The court found that Incyte's plans to develop a deuterated ruxolitinib product were too speculative to establish concrete plans for future activity that would create a substantial risk of future infringement. The court also determined that Incyte's reliance on the competitor standing doctrine was insufficient because Incyte did not show it was currently engaging in or had nonspeculative plans to engage in conduct covered by the claims of the '659 patent.Ultimately, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, concluding that Incyte failed to establish an injury in fact sufficient to confer Article III standing. View "INCYTE CORPORATION v. SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES, INC. " on Justia Law

Thomas D. Foster, APC (Foster) sought to register the trademark "US SPACE FORCE" for various goods and services. The application was filed on March 19, 2018, shortly after President Donald J. Trump announced the creation of a new military branch called the Space Force. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examining attorney refused the registration, citing a false suggestion of a connection with the United States under § 2(a) of the Lanham Act.The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) affirmed the examining attorney’s refusal, concluding that the mark falsely suggested a connection with the United States. Foster requested reconsideration, arguing that the Board erred by not crediting the filing date of the intent-to-use application as the constructive use date and by relying on evidence post-dating the filing date. The Board denied reconsideration, maintaining that Foster was not the prior user and that there was ample evidence supporting the false connection analysis.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court held that the appropriate timing for assessing a false suggestion of a connection includes evidence up to the time of examination, which in this case extended through the Board’s December 12, 2022 decision. The court found substantial evidence supporting the Board’s findings that the mark "US SPACE FORCE" was the same as or a close approximation of a name or identity used by the United States and that it pointed uniquely and unmistakably to the United States. The court affirmed the Board’s decision, concluding that the mark falsely suggested a connection with the United States and was therefore unregistrable under § 2(a) of the Lanham Act. View "In Re FOSTER" on Justia Law

Ingenico Inc. filed a declaratory judgment action against IOENGINE, LLC, in the District of Delaware, asserting that IOENGINE's patents were invalid. The patents in question, U.S. Patent No. 9,059,969 and U.S. Patent No. 9,774,703, relate to a portable device, such as a USB thumb drive, that includes a processor for network communication. IOENGINE counterclaimed, alleging infringement. Ingenico argued that the patents were invalid due to prior art, specifically a USB device known as the DiskOnKey System, which included a Firmware Upgrader.The District Court for the District of Delaware held a jury trial, which resulted in a verdict finding the claims of the patents invalid as anticipated and obvious. IOENGINE filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) and a motion for a new trial, both of which were denied by the district court. IOENGINE then appealed the decision, challenging the jury's findings and the district court's rulings on jury instructions and the introduction of prior art.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court found that substantial evidence supported the jury's verdict that the DiskOnKey System, including the Firmware Upgrader, was in public use before the critical date, thus invalidating the patents. The court also held that the district court did not err in its jury instructions or in allowing Ingenico to introduce the prior art at trial. The court clarified that IPR estoppel under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2) did not preclude Ingenico from using the DiskOnKey System to argue that the claimed invention was known or used by others, on sale, or in public use, as these grounds could not have been raised during the IPR.The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment, upholding the jury's verdict of invalidity. View "INGENICO INC. v. IOENGINE, LLC " on Justia Law