IP Hot Topic: Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2021 Decisions

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox is proud to announce the publication of Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2021 Decisions. Now in its sixth year, this annual report provides summaries of the most notable 2021 decisions issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for cases on appeal from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

Topics of the featured intellectual property cases include: publication status, non-obviousness for design patents, prosecution laches and other estoppels, agency preclusion, intervening rights in PTAB cases, whether forum selection clauses can bar PTAB proceedings, and challenges made to PTAB discretionary denial practices under the NHK-Fintiv standard. The report also recaps two U.S. Supreme Court decisions with implications for patent practitioners: United States v. Arthrex and Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc. Furthermore, the publication presents Federal Circuit data and trends for major origins of appeals, average appeal pendency, appeal disposition types, and appeal outcomes. The full publication and individual articles are available on the firm’s website here in HTML and PDF formats.

The report was edited by Director Jon E. Wright and authored by Directors Michael Joffre, Ph.D., Kristina Caggiano Kelly, William H. Milliken, Pauline M. Pelletier, R. Wilson “Trey” Powers III, Ph.D., and Deirdre M. Wells; Counsel Anna G. Phillips; Associate Kathleen Wills; and former Associate Jamie Dohopolski.

The firm’s 2021 Federal Circuit Year in Review webinar, presented by Directors Jon E. Wright, Deirdre M. Wells, and William H. Milliken on February 23, 2022, can be viewed on demand here.

You may view report content via the links below and/or download the full report by clicking the “Download PDF” button below.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Data and Trends: AIA PTAB Appeals to the Federal Circuit (Infographics)
• United States v. Arthrex, 141 S. Ct. 1970 (2021)
• Kannuu Pty Ltd. v. Samsung Elecs. Co. Ltd., 15 F.4th 1101 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• In re Vivint, Inc., 14 F.4th 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Hyatt v. Hirshfeld, 998 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Mylan Labs. Ltd v. Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V., 989 F.3d 1375 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• SynQor, Inc. v. Vicor Corp., 988 F.3d 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• John Bean Techs. Corp. v. Morris & Assocs., Inc., 988 F.3d 1334 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., 141 S. Ct. 2298 (2021)
• Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Facebook Inc., 989 F.3d 1018 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Campbell Soup Co. v. Gamon Plus, Inc., 10 F.4th 1268 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• In re SurgiSil, 14 F.4th 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Raytheon Technologies Corp. v. General Electric Co., 993 F.3d 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2021)
• Valve Corporation v. Ironburg Inventions Ltd., 8 F.4th 1364 (2021)
• Qualcomm Inc. v. Intel Corp., 6 F.4th 1256 (Fed. Cir. 2021)