News Archive

Profectus’ patent claims at issue were directed to “mountable” digital picture frames for displaying digital images.  Defendants’ sold tablet computer devices.  ...

The claims-at-issue are directed to a process for producing purified benzene requiring a final step of fractionalizing to form a purified benzene product comprising at ...

In this Order, the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeal from a non-final adjudication from the PTAB.  Arunachalam appealed to the Federal Circuit from the examiner’s ...

This appeal involves the construction of the claim term “communications path.”  The district court construed it to be limited to wired communications thereby ...

Houston principal Hugh Ray discusses the rise in Houston’s energy-related bankruptcies in a recent article published by the Houston Business Journal titled ...

McKool Smith Hennigan has once again played an integral role in the success of the "Food From The Bar" (FFTB) campaign. FFTB is an annual four-week charitable effort led by the ...

McKool Smith has once again earned The Legal 500’s recognition as a top tier U.S. firm for patent litigation. According to the directory, McKool Smith’s patent ...

McKool Smith has been ranked as one of the nation’s leading intellectual Property (IP) litigation firms in Managing Intellectual Property’s 2016 edition of “IP ...

McKool Smith Hennigan is pleased to announce that attorneys from the firm’s Los Angeles office have been selected for inclusion in the 2016 edition of Southern ...

McKool Smith received top national and regional ranking for the fifth consecutive year in the 2016 edition of IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners.

McKool Smith and 9 of the firm’s principals have been recognized in the 2016 edition of Chambers USA, a guide to the leading law firms and attorneys in the United States.

In SAS Institute, Inc. v. ComplementSoft, LLC (Fed. Cir. June 10, 2016), the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a PTAB finding of patentability due to a changed claim ...

The Supreme Court issued its Cuozzo opinion on June 20, 2016, affirming that (1) PTAB decisions to institute an inter partes review are not appealable and (2) that the PTAB may ...

On June 14, 2016, the Federal Circuit stated that parties must expect the introduction of new evidence after the PTAB’s institution decision for an inter partes review ...

On May 26, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a Rule 36 affirmance of a District Court judgment of non-infringement and invalidity that ...

The PTO recently released a Motion to Amend Study, assembling data regarding the filing and success rates of motions to amend in AIA proceedings. Parties have filed motions ...

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has designated five additional AIA opinions as precedential, bringing the total count to eight. The PTAB’s “Decisions” page links ...

McKool Smith’s bankruptcy practice received an award for Energy & Services “Restructuring of the Year” at the prestigious Global M&A Network 8^th Annual Turnaround ...

Geotag appealed the district court’s decision: (1) dismissing Google’s declaratory judgment complaint while retaining jurisdiction over GeoTag’s infringement ...

Simpleair sued Google for infringement of its patent relating to data communications connecting on-line networks with on-line and off-line computers.  The jury found that ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment that equitable estoppel precludes prosecution of High Point’s lawsuit against Sprint.  ...

Cardpool appealed the ruling of the district court denying the parties’ joint motion to vacate the district court’s judgment of patent invalidity insofar as the ...

In this IPR proceeding, the PTAB cancelled all of the claims-at-issue as being obvious over the asserted prior art.  The claims related to wheelchairs designed to travel ...

HP, who instituted the IPR on MPHJ’s patent, appeals the decision of the PTAB finding claim 13 not anticipated by the prior art.  HP’s petition alleged anticipation and ...

Following a jury trial, in which the jury found that Rembrandt’s patent had not been infringed by Johnson & Johnson, Rembrandt learned through an investigation of its own ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal based on the patent claims being directed to ineligible subject matter under Section 101.  The claims at issue ...

In a design patent case involving the design of a personal flotation device having two arm bands connected to a torso piece, the Federal Circuit reversed the finding of ...

The court reversed the PTAB’s constructions, under the broadest reasonable interpretation standard, of the terms “adapted to be held by the human hand” and “thumb ...

The district court granted a motion to dismiss Mankes’ complaint on the grounds that he could not establish direct infringement under the law of “joint infringement” ...

Kraft Foods Group sued TC Heartland in Delaware for infringement of Kraft’s patents.  Heartland is an Indiana company that is headquartered in Indiana.  Heartland is not ...

Mike McKool, a Founder and Chairman of McKool Smith, has been recognized as an “Icon of IP” by Law360.  The publication’s IP Icon series honors the top 25 lawyers in the ...

McKool Smith Chairman and co-founder Mike McKool along with firm principals Douglas Cawley, Sam Baxter, and William LaFuze have been selected for inclusion in World ...

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, McKool Smith secured a landmark decision for its client Warren Pumps LLC from New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, on an issue of first ...

In this IPR proceeding brought by Harmonic, the PTO instituted the IPR based on some, but not all of the grounds asserted by Harmonic.  As to the grounds that the PTO did not ...

Groupon petitioned the PTO for a Covered Business Method Review (CBM) on Blue Calypso’s patents.  The PTO held that the patents were “covered business method ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement, but reversed summary judgment that the claims were indefinite.   The ...

The patentee petitioned the Federal Circuit to withdraw the district court’s order compelling it to produce communications between it and its patent agent.  In a case of ...

In an interference proceeding, Bamberg copied Dalvey’s claims to invoke the interference.  The claims involved the method of transferring printed images onto dark ...

The claims at issue in this patent application were directed to a method of conducting a wagering game using a standard deck of cards that are shuffled and dealt.  The Federal ...

This is an appeal from inter partes reexamination proceeding involving two patents on methods and systems for performing statistical analyses of investment data.  As to the ...

Halo is a Hong Kong private company that owns certain U.S. design patents and copyrights on its furniture designs.  Comptoir is a Canadian company that manufactures ...

In this inter partes review, the PTAB confirmed the validity of certain claims but held two other claims to be invalid.  The court affirmed the finding that certain claims were ...

Acorda owns patents on its branded drugs.  Mylan seeks to manufacture and sell a generic version of Acorda’s drug.  Mylan filed an ANDA request with the FDA to sell its generic ...

The court affirmed the PTAB’s holding in an ex parte reexamination that six claims added during reexamination were not patentable for being obvious over the prior art.  The ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment of non-infringement.  The patents-in-suit involved vacuum toilets used in commercial aircraft that ...

In an IPR proceeding brought by Shaw, the PTAB instituted the IPR based on certain grounds, but refused to institute the IPR on other grounds, because such grounds were ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement.  The patent-at-issue involved the external appearance of a pickup ...

McKool Smith’s $32 million jury verdict on behalf of the developers of Canyon Ridge Resort has been recognized in The National Law Journal’s listing of the “Top 100 ...

Starting May 2, 2016, patent owners may choose to include “new testimonial evidence” in the preliminary response of an IPR. 81 Fed. Reg. 18,750, 18,766 (April 1, 2016 ...