News Archive

The Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s determination that it lacked personal jurisdiction over a Finnish defendant, Suunto.  Suunto received orders for ...

This case involved patents directed to a remote speech recognition system.  The district court construed the claims and, based on those constructions, granted Apple’s ...

The patent-at-issue involved technology in the field of oil drilling through the use of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).  The Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s ...

Illumina (one of the plaintiffs) sued Ariosa for infringement of its non-invasive prenatal diagnostic test patents, and Ariosa countersued for breach of a supply ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s indefiniteness determination. The district court had found that the terms “symbol generator” and “CPU ...

Houston-based principal Joshua Newcomer has been recognized in Benchmark Litigation’s inaugural “Under 40 Hot List.” The new Benchmark publication honors the ...

McKool Smith principals from the Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York and Silicon Valley offices have been selected for inclusion in the 2017 edition of ...

Best Lawyers has recognized two of the firm's principals as 2017 "Lawyers of the Year" in their respective regions/practices areas. Based on peer reviews, only a single ...

McKool Smith represented Unwired Planet before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an effort to convince the panel to overturn a Nevada federal ...

The Federal Circuit addressed this case following vacatur and remand from the Supreme Court for further consideration in light of Commil v. Cisco.  The issue for the Federal ...

Following the district court’s constructions for four claims terms, the parties stipulated to non-infringement, and the district court entered final judgment in favor ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed PTAB’s decisions in two IPR proceedings that found the claims of two patents to be invalid as being obvious.

Biomarin requested an IPR on ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s finding in an inter partes reexamination that the claims of Allied’s patent, US 7,121,489, which is directed to heavy machinery ...

This case involved the single issue of whether, under 35 U.S.C. § 120, a continuation patent application that is filed on the same day that the underlying parent patent issues ...

Judge Newman dissents from the denial of Ethicon’s petition for rehearing en banc.  Judge Newman criticizes the PTO’s rule-making authority which, pursuant to 37 ...

Mike McKool, a founder and Chairman of McKool Smith, and firm principal Sam Baxter have been recognized as “Legends of the 500” by Lawdragon based on their inclusion in ...

McKool Smith's recent victory on behalf of Warren Pumps before New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, topped Law360’s listing of the "Biggest Insurance ...

Intelligent Bio-Systems filed an Inter Partes Review proceeding in the PTO seeking to invalidate Illumina’s patent as being obvious under Section 103.  Illumina’s ...

The Federal Circuit clarified the inquiry for identifying abstract ideas.   Patent claims (even if software related) that “are directed to a specific improvement to the ...

This case involved two issues: (1) the correctness of the district court’s construction of the term “essentially midway” referring the location of a recess along a ...

In an ANDA case, Watson contended that claim 4 of the Merck’s patent was invalid under the on sale bar of Section 102(b).  The district court held that claim 4 was not invalid ...

In this ANDA case involving claims directed to a hydrogel for topical treatment, the district court found the claims to be infringed under the doctrine of equivalents and ...

The district court dismissed the case on the grounds that Diamond Coating lacked standing, as it had not received all of the necessary patent rights in the transaction with ...

The claims at issue were directed to a method and system for taking, transmitting, and organizing digital images by assigning classification information to the images ...

Aqua Products appealed the PTAB’s denial of its motion to amend its claims in the IPR proceeding on two grounds: (1) that the PTAB misinterpreted the Patent Office’s ...

Profectus’ patent claims at issue were directed to “mountable” digital picture frames for displaying digital images.  Defendants’ sold tablet computer devices.  ...

The claims-at-issue are directed to a process for producing purified benzene requiring a final step of fractionalizing to form a purified benzene product comprising at ...

In this Order, the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeal from a non-final adjudication from the PTAB.  Arunachalam appealed to the Federal Circuit from the examiner’s ...

This appeal involves the construction of the claim term “communications path.”  The district court construed it to be limited to wired communications thereby ...

Houston principal Hugh Ray discusses the rise in Houston’s energy-related bankruptcies in a recent article published by the Houston Business Journal titled ...

McKool Smith Hennigan has once again played an integral role in the success of the "Food From The Bar" (FFTB) campaign. FFTB is an annual four-week charitable effort led by the ...

McKool Smith has once again earned The Legal 500’s recognition as a top tier U.S. firm for patent litigation. According to the directory, McKool Smith’s patent ...

McKool Smith has been ranked as one of the nation’s leading intellectual Property (IP) litigation firms in Managing Intellectual Property’s 2016 edition of “IP ...

McKool Smith Hennigan is pleased to announce that attorneys from the firm’s Los Angeles office have been selected for inclusion in the 2016 edition of Southern ...

McKool Smith received top national and regional ranking for the fifth consecutive year in the 2016 edition of IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners.

McKool Smith and 9 of the firm’s principals have been recognized in the 2016 edition of Chambers USA, a guide to the leading law firms and attorneys in the United States.

In SAS Institute, Inc. v. ComplementSoft, LLC (Fed. Cir. June 10, 2016), the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a PTAB finding of patentability due to a changed claim ...

The Supreme Court issued its Cuozzo opinion on June 20, 2016, affirming that (1) PTAB decisions to institute an inter partes review are not appealable and (2) that the PTAB may ...

On June 14, 2016, the Federal Circuit stated that parties must expect the introduction of new evidence after the PTAB’s institution decision for an inter partes review ...

On May 26, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a Rule 36 affirmance of a District Court judgment of non-infringement and invalidity that ...

The PTO recently released a Motion to Amend Study, assembling data regarding the filing and success rates of motions to amend in AIA proceedings. Parties have filed motions ...

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has designated five additional AIA opinions as precedential, bringing the total count to eight. The PTAB’s “Decisions” page links ...

McKool Smith’s bankruptcy practice received an award for Energy & Services “Restructuring of the Year” at the prestigious Global M&A Network 8^th Annual Turnaround ...

Geotag appealed the district court’s decision: (1) dismissing Google’s declaratory judgment complaint while retaining jurisdiction over GeoTag’s infringement ...

Simpleair sued Google for infringement of its patent relating to data communications connecting on-line networks with on-line and off-line computers.  The jury found that ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment that equitable estoppel precludes prosecution of High Point’s lawsuit against Sprint.  ...

Cardpool appealed the ruling of the district court denying the parties’ joint motion to vacate the district court’s judgment of patent invalidity insofar as the ...

In this IPR proceeding, the PTAB cancelled all of the claims-at-issue as being obvious over the asserted prior art.  The claims related to wheelchairs designed to travel ...