The FNG decision (In Re Float’N’Grill LLC, 2022-1438 (Fed. Cir. 2023)) serves as a reminder that it is risky not to file a continuation application when broader claims may be desired after the original patent claims are allowed. The FNG decision also highlights the importance of describing other embodiments of an invention as opposed to narrowly describing a single embodiment, and failing to indicate certain features are optional. A good patent attorney is trained to carefully draft patent applications with varying claim scope, so that an invention is not limited to only one way of practicing the invention.

In an appeal filed by the cosmetics company L'Oréal, the PTAB affirmed an examiner’s § 112(b) rejection against claims related to an anti-aging composition over the term “fondant texture”.

Docketing is one of the most important aspects of any law firm. There are a variety of systems available to law firms to manage the docketing process. Some law firms may create their own system using resources already accessible to them, such as a spreadsheet, database or calendar.

Clients often ask whether domain names can serve as trademarks. That is, for example, can .com, .net, or some other top-level domain (TLD) in conjunction with another term(s) be trademarked? While the answer has in the past been based almost exclusively on the term(s) with which the TLD is combined, that has recently changed – at least in certain circumstances.

Clients often want to know how they can best protect their software. The answer usually lies in a combination of different forms of intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Whereas patents protect inventions (how it works, what it does) and trademarks protect brands, copyrights protect original works of authorship.

Perhaps “trademark squatting” is not yet a commonly used term in trademark law, as is “cybersquatting” in the realm of domain name registrations. But maybe it should be. Because some trademark applicants have substantially the same unscrupulous goals as a cybersquatter – to obtain a registration solely for the purpose of holding it ransom to others.

The Court’s local rules and local patent rules are as important to civil litigants as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure themselves because they address particularities that are not addressed in the Federal Rules. Each United States District Court has its own set of local rules.

The facts of this case concern an inventorship dispute over methods of treating cancer by administering antibodies targeting PD-1 (receptor) and PD-L1 (ligand) interactions on T cells (a type of lymphocyte that develops in the thymus gland). The three scientists involved in this inventorship dispute are: Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Honjo (of Ono Pharm., herein “Ono”), Dr. Wood (of the Genetics Institute, now owned by Pfizer), and Dr. Freeman (of Dana-Farber).