Attorney:
Yan Cong, Ph.D.
March 12, 2026
In In re Blue Buffalo Enterprises, Inc., No. 2024-1611 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 14, 2026), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s decision affirming the Examiner’s obviousness rejection after rejecting Blue Buffalo’s narrow construction of the claim term “configured for”.<... Read more
Attorney:
David Inglefield
March 11, 2026
On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a decision regarding recombinant DNA subject-matter eligibility, reversing a decision by the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in REGENXBIO, Inc. v. Sarepta Therapeutics. The district court had previously ruled claims of U.S. Patent No. 10,526,617 (the ‘617 patent) covering a cultured host cell containing a recombinant nucleic acid molecule patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 during a patent infringement suit in which both parties moved for summary judgment of patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The district court agreed with Sarepta and held the claims ineligible under § 101 as directed to a natural phenomenon. The CAFC held the claims as not being directed to a natural phenomenon and reversed the district court’s decision, remanding the case for further proceedings.<... Read more
Attorney:
Diane Jones
February 12, 2026
On November 18, 2025, an inter-partes review IPR2024-01014 between Inari Agriculture, Inc., Petitioner and Corteva Agriscience LLC, Patent Owner, received a Final Written Decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board asserting that no challenged claims were unpatentable of U.S. Patent 8,901,378 B2.<... Read more
Attorney:
Derek Lightner, Ph.D.
December 19, 2025
An obviousness rejection was recently reversed by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) by the panel of Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) authored by Debra L. Dennett, and further including Jeffrey W. Abraham and Avelyn M. Ross in U.S. Appl. No. 17/395,422 (the 422 Application). The PTAB reversed the obviousness finding of examiner Justin Fischer, supported by Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) Katelyn W. Smith, and Quality Assurance Specialist (TQAS) Colleen P. Dunn, on the alleged obviousness of the claims over a combination of three to five references, three of which were the applicant-appellant’s own prior art. The main claim on appeal recited<... Read more
Attorney:
Derek Lightner, Ph.D.
September 23, 2025
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently reversed an obviousness finding of (at least initially non-signatory) Examiner Audrey Buttice, supported by Supervisory Patent Examienr (SPE) Joanne Hama and Office of Patent Quality Assurance (OPQA) official, Jeffrey Siew, for a method of treating a drug-resistant cancer type with an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) in Ex part Yonesaka, et al., Appl. No. 16/485,777 (Appeal 2024-003040; Technology Center 1600).<... Read more
Attorney:
Diane Jones
August 4, 2025
Appeal of Examiner’s Final Rejection of claims 18-20 reversed by PTAB based on calculation of an effective human dosage from a “minimal risk of toxicity” dosage for a Cebus monkey rather than a calculation of “minimum pharmacologic activity in humans.”<... Read more
Attorney:
David Inglefield
July 23, 2025
On June 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision regarding transitional phrase claim construction, reversing the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in Eye Therapies, LLC. v. Slayback Pharma, LLC. The PTAB had previously ruled the claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,293,742 (the ‘742 patent) unpatentable as obvious in a inter partes review brought by Slayback. During the inter partes review, the parties had disagreed on the construction of the transitional phrase “consisting essentially of” in the ‘742 patent. The Court found that the Board had incorrectly applied the conventional open construction of the transitional phrase, which was at odds with the prosecution record. This demonstrates how prosecution history can alter a phrase’s typical meaning.<... Read more
Attorney:
Matthew Hampton
July 15, 2025
On 18th June 2025, the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office issued Decision G1/24. During Appeal Proceedings (T0439/22) in the Opposition to European Patent No. 3076804B1 (Philip Morris Products S.A.) filed by Yunnan Tobacco International Co., Ltd, the following questions had been referred by the Board of Appeal (Referring Board) to the Enlarged Board of Appeal and subsequently found admissible by that Enlarged Board:<... Read more
Attorney:
Derek Lightner, Ph.D.
April 24, 2025
In the appeal of USSN 17/963,407 (Appeal 2025-001881) to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a finding of obviousness by Primary Examiner Drew Becker, supported by Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) Erik Kashnikow and Review Quality Assurance Specialist (RQAS) Jennifer McNeil from the Office of Patent Quality Assurance (OPQA), was reversed by the PTAB for the improper reliance on hindsight. The decision can be found at https://patentcenter.uspto.gov/applications/17963407/ifw/docs?application=.<... Read more
Attorney:
Lucas Koziol, Ph.D.
April 7, 2025
Restem, LLC, v. Jadi Cell, LLC (see the Resources link below for a copy of the Opinion)<... Read more