Federal Circuit IP Appeals: Summaries of Key 2023 Decisions (8th Edition)

2023 saw a return to business as usual for the Federal Circuit. Oral arguments are once again in-person and open to the public, and the Court has resumed its former practice of holding occasional sittings outside of Washington, D.C.

Turning to the statistics, the number of appeals from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held steady from 2022, as did appeals originating from district court patent cases. Pendency for Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) appeals increased for a second consecutive year, to a new all-time high of approximately 17 months.

We have chosen a mix of cases from 2023 dealing with topics like claim construction, obviousness, and the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. This year’s edition expands our coverage beyond patent law to include trademark cases as well. We also discuss the Federal Circuit’s currently pending en banc case in LKQ v. General Motors, which concerns the obviousness standard applicable to design patents. And our review kicks off with an analysis of the Supreme Court’s latest foray into patent law—last year’s Amgen v. Sanofi decision on enablement.

Download the full report by clicking the Download PDF button or view the individual articles by clicking on the titles below in the Table of Contents.

Table of Content

• Introduction
• Data and Trends: AIA PTAB Appeals to the Federal Circuit (Infographics)
• Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, 598 U.S. 594 (2023)
• A Trio of Claim Construction Cases
• Great Concepts, LLC v. Chutter, Inc., 84 F.4th 1014 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Dyk, Reyna (dissenting), Stark)
• Bertini v. Apple Inc., 63 F.4th 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Moore, Taranto, Chen)
• Elekta Limited v. Zap Surgical Systems, Inc. 81 F.4th 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Reyna, Stoll, Stark)
• Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC, 80 F.4th 1352 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Hughes, Stoll, Stark)
• Volvo Penta of the Americas, LLC v. Brunswick Corp., 81 F.4th 1202 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Moore, Lourie, Cunningham)
• Yita LLC v. MacNeil IP LLC, 69 F.4th 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Taranto, Chen, Stoll)
• Axonics, Inc. v. Medtronic, Inc., 73 F.4th 950 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Lourie, Dyk, Taranto)
• Columbia Sportswear N. Am., Inc. v. Seirus Innovative Accessories, 80 F.4th 1363 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Prost, Reyna, Hughes)
• LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, 2023 WL 328228 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 20, 2023) (Lourie, Clevenger, Stark) (per curiam)
• Shaping the PTAB’s Rulemaking and Rule Enforcement Authority
• In re Cellect, LLC, 81 F.4th 1216 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Lourie, Dyk, Reyna)
• SNIPR Technologies Ltd. v. Rockefeller University, 72 F.4th 1372 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Chen, Wallach, Hughes)
• Ironburg Inventions Ltd. v. Valve Corp., 64 F.4th 1274 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (Lourie, Clevenger (dissenting in part), Stark)
• In re: PersonalWeb Technologies, LLC, 85 F.4th 1148 (2023) (Lourie, Dyk (dissenting), Reyna)