April 11, 2019
Federal Circuit Court Decisions For Week Ending March 20, 2019
Sprint Communications Company, L.P. v. Time Warner Cable, Inc., No. 2017-2247 (March 18, 2019) (nonprecedential); U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,298,064, 6,343,084, 6,463,052, 6,473,429 and 6,633,561.
Key point(s):
- A prior verdict can be admitted as evidence if relevant to a material issue and its use is limited to the purpose for which it is relevant (e.g., hypothetical negotiation, willfulness).
SRI International v. Cisco Systems, Inc, No. 2017-2223 (March 20, 2019) (precedential) (2-1); Patent Nos. 6,484,203 and 6,711,615
Key point(s):
- Claims directed to a specific technique that is used to solve a technological problem are not directed to an abstract idea and are patent-eligible under the first prong of the two part Alice test.
In re Conrad, No. 2018-1659 (March 22, 2019) (non-precedential); Patent Application No. 13/554,193
Key point(s):
- The fact that an invention solves an unknown problem in the art cannot be used to overcome an Examiner’s motivation-to-combine prior art references and make the invention non-obvious.