U.S. Patent And Trademark Office

Companies Mentioned

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Title

Summary

Date

Commentaries
Trademark Law

In re Spirits Int’l: A Mark Is Geographically Deceptively Misdescriptive Only if Materially Deceptive to a Substantial Portion of the Intended Audience

Clarifying the application of the doctrine of foreign equivalents, the Federal Circuit held that a mark is geographically deceptively misdescriptive if a substantial portion of the relevant consumer market is likely to be deceived by the mark. In In re Spirits International, 563 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2009), the Federal…

Posted:
06/26/2009

Commentaries
Patent Law

Tafas v. Doll: Limits on Continuations Invalid; Other Claim Limits May Be OK

The Federal Circuit largely upheld rules promulgated by the PTO to help relieve its enormous backlog of patent applications. The district court had determined that the rules were substantive and therefore beyond the PTO’s legal authority. In Tafas v. Doll, 559 F.3d 1345 (Fed. Cir. 2009), a split Federal Circuit…

Posted:
05/18/2009

Summaries
Patent Law >
New Judicial Opinions

Federal Circuit Upholds PTO’s Rule-Making Authority in Final Rules Dispute

In January 2006, the USPTO initiated two related notice and comment rulemaking proceedings. After receiving and considering the public comments, the USPTO issued the new rules on August 21, 2007, with an effective date of November 1, 2007. Changes to Practice for Continued Examination Filings, Patent Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct…

Date of ruling:
03/20/2009

Summaries
Patent Law >
New Judicial Opinions

Federal Circuit Sustains USPTO in Inter Partes Reexamination "Original Application" Controversy

In this case, the Federal Circuit determined which patents are subject to inter partes reexamination. Congress established the inter partes reexamination procedure as part of the AIPA, Pub. L. No. 106-113, §§ 4001-4808, 113 Stat. 1501, 1501A-552 to -591. Pursuant to section 4608 of the AIPA, the inter partes reexamination…

Date of ruling:
08/19/2008