by John Evans, Ph.D. | Feb 6, 2023 | Design Patents, PTAB News
By John Evans and Jesse Wynn – A recent post flagged LKQ v. GM as a potential watershed moment in design patent validity law, calling into question whether In re Rosen, long-standing obviousness precedent, comports with the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR. Rosen...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Jan 12, 2023 | Design Patents, Federal Circuit Appeal
By John Evans and Josh Gold-Quiros – Big changes to design patent invalidity law may be coming. A pending IPR appeal challenges the Federal Circuit’s 40-year-old obviousness formula as inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s rejection of “a rigid rule that limits...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Sep 3, 2021 | Design Patents, Federal Circuit
By Kerry Barrett and John Evans – As with utility patents, a patentee can counter obviousness of a patented design by producing objective evidence that the design was non-obvious, like commercial success, copying, etc. But to be persuasive, a nexus must exist...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Jun 29, 2021 | Design Patents, PTAB News
By John Evans and Callan Foran* These days, we generally think about inter partes review as a first option to challenge patentability. Rightly so. But don’t forget about ex parte reexamination (“XPR”). Even in the IPR era, patent challengers are still successfully...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Apr 29, 2021 | Design Patents, PTAB News
By John Evans and Hannah Mehrle – On April 15, 2021, the PTAB issued a Final Written Decision in the LKQ Corp. case finding a design patent claiming a vehicle fender panel unpatentable as obvious. IPR2020-00064, Paper No. 39 (Apr. 15, 2021). The obviousness...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Aug 10, 2020 | Claim Construction, Design Patents
By Clarissa Sullivan and John Evans The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently designated as informative its decision instituting post-grant review and addressing the issues of design patent functionality in Sattler Tech Corp. v. Humancentric Ventures, LLC. No....