A couple of cases from the Federal Circuit this week suggest (to me anyway) that the court has no intention of relinquishing any real power any time soon. The march toward total control over the outcome of patent cases thus continues.
In Astrazeneca AB, et al. v. Mutual Pharmaceutical Company, Inc. the Federal Circuit once again relies on features of the preferred embodiment to find limitations that don’t actually appear in the claims. In Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, et al. v. Chiron Corporation, the court considers a narrow procedural issue and concludes that it has the power to decide questions that actually affect the outcome of patent cases. The net result is to consolidate the power of the Federal Circuit to determine the final outcome in patent cases with little, if any, say from others.
Continue Reading And the Beat Goes On…