C. R. Bard v. Angiodynamics – It’s a Labelled Injection Port, not a Label

Posted on November 13, 2020 by Warren Woessner

The recent decision in C. R. Bard, Inc. v. Angiodynamics Inc., Appeal nos. 2019-1756 and 2019-1934 (Fed. Cir., November 10, 2020) is an example of a bad doctrine, patent eligibility, gone rogue. The panel’s ultimate decision that the claimed invention was not patent ineligible as an abstract idea should have required one paragraph of this opinion, not four pages (!). This opinion conflates the printed matter doctrine with the Mayo/Alice test in a manner that invokes a  legal chimera comprising more shock value than logic. Here is claim 1 of Bard’s U.S. Pat. No. 8,475,417:

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Immunex v. Sanofi-Aventis – The “Mystery Dance” of Claim Construction

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Warren Woessner

In “Mystery Dance”, Elvis Costello  moans that he’s “tried and I’ve tried, and I’m still mystified” about the “Mystery Dance”, which probably has something to do about romance, but could easily describe the state of the relationship between appeals from the district courts to the Fed. Cir. and appeals to the Fed. Cir. from PTAB decisions. I let Immunex v. Sanofi, Appeal no. 2019-1749, 2019-1777 (Fed. Cir., October 13, 2020) sit on my desk for the last month because it looked to be a simple claim construction decision. Well, it is that, but quite a lot more.

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Biogen v. EMD Serono – “A Nest of Limitations”

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Warren Woessner

By now, other commentators have posted on this Fed. Cir. decision (Appeal no. 2019 -1133, Sept. 28, 2020)—and found it to be a routine reversal of a district court’s relying on “source limitations” to find claims to a recombinant IFN-B polypeptide not anticipated by prior art disclosing the native polypeptide. The main claim in question [shortened here for readability] of U. S. Patent No.7,588,755 follows:

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The Patent Value Problem and the Case for Design-Around

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Edward Sandor

Guest post from Edward Sandor.

We’ve become, to our detriment, a society that purposefully closes its eyes to patents. We’re collectively not doing enough to avoid adoption of patents on average inventions, and by not avoiding them, we’re unjustly building their value. 

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