The Federal Circuit held that business method patents are not categorically excluded from patentability — upholding a patent on a computerized financial data processing system for mutual fund management and establishing the ‘useful, concrete, and tangible result’ test for software and business method patent eligibility that dominated patent law until Alice v. CLS Bank (2014).
The Federal Circuit held that UC’s broad patent claims on the insulin cDNA sequence and all vertebrate and mammalian insulin cDNA sequences were invalid for lack of written description — establishing that broad genus claims in biotechnology must be supported by disclosure of a representative number of species sufficient to support the claimed scope.
The Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed the doctrine of equivalents and held that prosecution history estoppel applies even to unexplained claim amendments — establishing that when a patent claim is narrowed during prosecution without explanation, courts should presume the amendment was made for a patentability reason, creating estoppel that bars the doctrine of equivalents for that limitation.
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Genentech’s patent claims on human growth hormone (hGH) methods were limited by the written description in the specification — holding that claims cannot be broader than what the specification actually describes, even in pioneering biotechnology cases, and establishing important written description doctrine for biotech patent claims.
The Supreme Court unanimously held that the interpretation of patent claims is a question of law for the judge to decide — not a question of fact for the jury — fundamentally establishing that patent claim construction (the Markman hearing) is a judicial function and marking a turning point in how patent trials are structured.
The Ninth Circuit held that a flea market operator could be vicariously and contributorily liable for copyright infringement by vendors selling counterfeit recordings — establishing the framework for secondary copyright liability that would later be applied to online platforms and peer-to-peer services, and holding that financial benefit from infringement and ability to supervise infringing activity support vicarious liability.
The Federal Circuit reinforced the principles of conception and reduction to practice in patent priority disputes, clarifying that an inventor’s conception must be complete and definite before any reduction to practice can begin — an important decision for inventorship and priority determinations in pharmaceutical and biotech research.