Federal Circuit, Patent Subject Matter Eligibility

Etison LLC (ClickFunnels) v. HighLevel — Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Sales Funnel Website Patents Under Alice

The Federal Circuit affirmed that ClickFunnels’ sales-funnel website creation patents are invalid under § 101, holding that the abstract idea of “filtering information based on user preferences” cannot be rescued by conventional template-selection and sequential-webpage features, while also clarifying the burden-shifting framework for representative-claim analysis.

IP Law, UK Courts

easyGroup Ltd v. Cubico (Easy Bathrooms) — UK IPEC Rejects “Easy” Family-of-Marks Claim After 13 Years of Coexistence

A UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judge dismisses all trademark infringement and passing-off claims by easyGroup (the entity behind easyJet, easyHotel, and related brands) against bathroom retailer Easy Bathrooms, ruling that the claimant failed to prove a legally recognisable “family of marks” and that 13 years of market coexistence demonstrated no consumer confusion.

District Courts, Trade Secret, Federal

Signant Health v. Definium Therapeutics — Delaware Court Dismisses LSD-Drug Trade Secret Suit for Lack of Specificity

A Delaware federal judge dismissed Signant Health’s DTSA trade secret claims against Definium Therapeutics, finding that identifying confidential LSD-trial technology only in broad, categorical terms — without pinpointing the specific information allegedly misappropriated — is insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.

PTAB, Utility Patent

ResMed Corp. v. Cleveland Medical Devices — PTAB Issues Split Decision, Invalidating One Sleep Apnea Patent and Upholding Another

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a split final written decision in a pair of inter partes review proceedings filed by ResMed Corp., finding one Cleveland Medical Devices sleep apnea treatment patent unpatentable while upholding claims in a closely related companion patent, illustrating the all-or-nothing stakes of IPR litigation on patent families.

International Trade Commission, Utility Patent

Seer, Inc. v. Nanomics Biotechnology — ITC Opens Section 337 Patent Investigation into Chinese AI Proteomics Instruments

The U.S. International Trade Commission instituted Investigation No. 337-TA-1508 on a complaint by Seer, Inc. and Brigham and Women’s Hospital against Chinese proteomics company Nanomics Biotechnology, alleging infringement of patents covering AI-enabled protein analysis systems and seeking an exclusion order on Nanomics’ imports.

UK Courts, Utility Patent

Warner Bros. Discovery v. Nokia — UK Court Orders Interim RAND Payments for Streaming Video Codec Patents

Mr. Justice Meade ordered Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount to make interim RAND payments to Nokia for video streaming codec standard-essential patents, finding that the Nokia Lump Sum Offer was the most credible interim payment benchmark, while discounting Nokia’s claim to full royalties going back to 2011 due to its late-arriving licensing programme.

Fourth Circuit, Utility Patent

Vir2us v. Sophos — Fourth Circuit: Shared Source Code Alone Does Not Make Post-Acquisition Products ‘Derivations’ Under Patent License

The Fourth Circuit affirmed that Sophos’s post-acquisition antivirus products were not “derivations” of the named containerization products in a 2016 patent license agreement, even though they shared some common source code, because the shared code was inactive in the original products and the newer products did not originate from them.

Right of Publicity, Third Circuit

Huckabee v. Meta — Third Circuit Revives CBD Fake-Ad Suit, Finding Plausible Constructive Knowledge of Fraud

The Third Circuit reversed dismissal of Mike Huckabee’s right-of-publicity suit against Meta over fake CBD endorsement ads, finding that three factors — Huckabee’s well-known opposition to cannabis, Meta’s history of hosting similar fake-celebrity ads, and a link to a fake Fox News site — plausibly established that Meta knew or should have known the ads were fraudulent.

Federal Circuit, Utility Patent

PACT XPP Schweiz AG v. Intel — Federal Circuit Affirms Noninfringement on Forfeited Argument and Prosecution Estoppel

The Federal Circuit affirmed Intel’s summary judgment win, finding PACT XPP forfeited its capability-based infringement theory on the ‘301 patent and that prosecution statements during ex parte reexamination narrowed the ‘593 patent’s ‘physically dedicated connection’ claim to exclude Intel’s shared-bus architecture.

Federal Circuit, Utility Patent

Enanta Pharmaceuticals v. Pfizer — Federal Circuit Kills Paxlovid Patent Over Single-Carbon Priority Gap

The Federal Circuit affirmed invalidation of Enanta’s Paxlovid-related patent because its 2020 provisional application disclosed ‘C2’ alkyl groups while the issued patent claimed ‘C1,’ a difference of one carbon atom that broke the priority chain and exposed the claims to anticipation by Pfizer’s prior disclosure of nirmatrelvir.

Scroll to Top