Patent Year in Review: Key Decisions, Trends, and Strategies

Description

Though the Supreme Court wields the biggest hammer in the U.S., the Court has primarily passed on granting recent petitions for certiorari in patent cases this past year. However, in April 2020, a divided Court held that a PTAB determination of whether an IPR petition is timely under 35 U.S.C. Section 315(b) cannot be judicially reviewed [Thryv v. Click-to-Call, 140 S. Ct. 1367 (Apr. 20, 2020)].

The Federal Circuit issued several important decisions in fundamental aspects of patent law, including the doctrine of equivalents, obviousness, written description, inventorship/ownership, claim construction and inequitable conduct. Of particular interest is the revival of application of exceptions rebutting the Festo presumption in the doctrine of equivalents analysis. For written description and enablement, we continue to see a trend towards a stricter application of the requirements. The Federal Circuit also issued several decisions on procedural aspects of patentability trials conducted at the PTAB.

Of late, there has been significant interest in the PTAB's policy, rules, precedential decisions, and law as to institution decisions. This interest is exemplified in part by the October 2020 PTAB request for comments on discretionary institution decisions that drew over 800 submitted comments.

Listen as our authoritative panel of patent attorneys examines cases from the past year and will discuss some of the key developments, important trends, and strategies.