News Archive

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s holding that defendant Sandoz had not proven obviousness by clear and convincing evidence.  The court agreed with the ...

Following the grant of summary judgment of non-infringement, defendant sought to recover its attorney’s fees under 35 U.S.C. Section 285, 28 U.S.C. Section 1928, and the ...

The Federal Circuit held that it could not hear the patentees’ challenge to the PTO’s refusal to terminate pending reexaminations because the PTO’s refusal is not a ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary of anticipation.  The claim at issue required a range of amounts for a particular ingredient.  The court ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of no damages for infringement.  The district court had stricken the plaintiff’s damages ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s claim constructions and thus reversed the entry of judgment of non-infringement.  The district court had construed the ...

Previously, the Supreme Court held, in the Biosig case, that the Federal Circuit’s standard for determining indefiniteness (a claim is indefinite when it is not amenable ...

McKool Smith celebrates another trial victory this week after Judge Terrence W. Boyles of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina ruled ...

As anticipated in the previous edition of this newsletter, the USPTO recently released details of its projected rule changes for 2015 in response to written comments. In a ...

VMware Inc. v. Good Technology Software Inc., IPR2015-00027, 00030, and 00031 PTAB Paper 11 (’027 case) (March 6, 2015) (McKool Smith represents Good Technology)

In a ...

The Federal Circuit vacated the jury’s award of $101,196,000 in damages to Warsaw and remanded for a new trial on the amount of a reasonable royalty.  Although Warsaw sought ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of the claim phrase: “a contact hole for source wiring and gate wiring connection ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s construction of the claim phrase: “A comprises at least three carbon atoms and represents at least one component of a ...

The court made the following rulings: (1) the jury’s verdict that the ‘078 (camera) patent claims were not proven to have been obvious was supported by substantial ...

In an ANDA case, the court affirmed the district court’s holding that the reexamined method claim and product claims were invalid as being obvious over seven prior art ...

In an ANDA case, the district court held that the two patents-at-issue were valid and infringed. On appeal, the court held that: (1) the district court correctly construed ...

The court considered the question of whether a third party has the right to challenge, by way of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a ruling of the Patent and Trademark ...

Apotex sought a declaratory judgment that it did not infringe a patent owned but disclaimed by Daiichi.  The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of a case or ...

Austin principal Josh Budwin has been named a 2015 “Rising Star” by Law60. This annual feature recognizes the profession's top legal talent under the age of 40.  To ...

McKool Smith’s co-counsel victory in U.S. ex rel. Joshua Harman v. Trinity Industries Inc. et al  has been recognized in The National Law Journal’s recent listing of ...

Managing IP has named McKool Smith the 2015 U.S. “Patent Contentious Firm of the Year (South)” and principal Sam Baxter Texas “IP Litigator of the Year” at its eighth ...

McKool Smith is recognized in the 2015 edition of Chambers Global for having a leading intellectual property litigation practice in the United States. 

Chambers ...

The court rejected five claim constructions determined by the district court, vacated the grant of summary judgment of non-infringement, and remanded to the district ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment of non-infringement under the doctrine of patent exhaustion.  The patents-in-suit involved “systems and ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment of non-infringement, and, in so doing, affirmed the construction of the claim term “personal identification number” as ...

The Federal Circuit held that collateral estoppel (issue preclusion) precluded Soverain’s lawsuit against Victoria’s Secret.  In a prior appeal involving Newegg ...

The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s holding that a jury’s general verdict of non-infringement had collateral estoppel effect in a later action.  In the ...

Affirming the district court’s summary judgment of non-infringement, the agreed with the district court that the preamble of the claim-at-issue was a limitation which ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the court’s holding that the PTO’s decision to reduce the Patent Term Adjustment (“PTA”) amount of time by 57 days under 35 U.S.C. § ...

On March 6, 2015, McKool Smith, along with co-counsel from EIP, secured three denials of institution of inter partes review for Good Technology Software, Inc.  on Good ...

McKool Smith is pleased to announce that attorneys from the firm's Austin and Houston offices have been selected for inclusion in the Super Lawyers 2015 Texas“Rising ...

McKool Smith principals Benjamin Levi and Robert Manley have received 2015 Client Choice Awards from the International Law Office (ILO) and Lexology.

McKool Smith represents a group of investors in a lawsuit brought against Bank of America involving claims that the bank breached its obligations as disbursement agent on ...

On February 4, 2015, RadioShack Corporation and various of its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.  This follow-up alert highlights some ...

Since inter partes review became available, the PTAB has granted only two motions to amend patent claims—once in Int’l Flavors & Fragrances Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of ...

An important aspect of inter partes review is how the PTAB identifies real parties-in-interest for each petition. For instance, petitioners that fail to properly identify ...

At the end of 2014, over 2000 IPR petitions had been filed, and over 100 decisions had been appealed to the Federal Circuit.  So far, IPR appeals far outnumber the few dozen USPTO ...

On February 2, 2015, the New York Stock Exchange took steps to delist RadioShack Corp., after suspending trading of its shares.  RadioShack disclosed that one of its lenders ...

The court affirmed the district court’s holding that the patented grape plants were not the subject of an invalidating public use.  The plants were obtained in an ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s willfulness holding, finding that Gore’s lone argument that its defense of invalidity for improper inventorship ...

The court vacated the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment to the defendant with instructions to remand to the state court because there is no subject matter ...

The court reversed the Board’s decision affirming the rejection of claims requiring a “wireless” communication interface.  The prior art disclosed a removable ...

Fontainebleau D&O Settlement ($115 Million Settlement)

McKool Smith secured settlements totaling more than $115 million on behalf of a group of investment funds in ...

McKool Smith was awarded United States “IP Firm of the Year” at the 2015 Benchmark U.S. awards. Fellow nominees included Fish & Richardson; Quinn Emanuel; Morrison ...

New York principal Courtney Statfeld is featured in a Law360 article titled, “What Associates Need to Do to Stand Out.”  In the article, Ms. Statfeld offers advice on how ...

The district court entered judgment of obviousness where a particular claim limitation was not explicitly disclosed in the prior art combination, but was found to be ...

The court affirmed the district court’s judgment that certain asserted claims were anticipated by the “Ethicon Prototype,” which was conceived of prior to the ...

In Ericsson, the Federal Circuit provided district courts, experts, and practitioners with much-needed clarification as to how to instruct a jury on the issue of ...