In A.L.M. Holding Co. v. Zydex Industries Private Ltd., the district court refused to find waiver of attorney-client privilege that shielded pre-litigation communications with counsel even though the defendant asserted a defense that relied on its pre-litigation knowledge and where the communications with counsel might contradict its position regarding its pre-litigation knowledge. In September 2017, […]

REGENXBIO v. Trustees of UPenn, No. 2024-1408 (Fed. Cir. February 20, 2026) Generally, someone may receive a patent for any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.  However, for over 75 years, courts have made a judicial exception to this rule prohibiting patents from covering natural phenomena.  While it is well-known that patents cannot cover natural phenomena, courts often struggle to determine whether natural phenomena that have […]

Ex parte reexaminations and inter partes review (“IPR”) are two different procedures available at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) to invalidate a patent.  In an ex parte reexamination, a third party can make a request for reexamination, but the third party will have no further involvement if a reexamination is granted.  The reexamination will proceed only between the […]

Cox Commc’ns, Inc. v. Sony Music Ent., No. 24-171 (U.S. Nov. 3, 2025) Music piracy poses a large threat to artists’ copyrights, depriving the music industry of billions of dollars annually. To combat this, music producers often seek out the assistance of Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) in stopping copyright infringement by the ISPs’ customers. For […]

Parties that believe their U.S. patents are being infringed by products being imported into the United States can ask the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) to bar importation of those products into the U.S.  Masimo did that, via its 2021 complaint, when it asked the ITC to bar importation of Apple Watches that allegedly infringed […]

Optis Cellular Tech., LLC v. Apple Inc., No. 22-1925 (Fed. Cir. June 16, 2025) Over a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court arguably made it easier to invalidate a patent for claiming nonpatentable abstract ideas when it established a two-step test for evaluating whether patent claims are drawn to patentable subject matter, referred to as […]