Federal Circuit Patent Updates - October 2018

Precedential Opinions

1. NATURAL ALTERNATIVES v. IANCU [OPINION] (2017-1962, 10/01/2018) (PROST, MOORE, and REYNA)

Prost, C.J. Affirming a PTAB inter partes reexamination decision rejecting patent claims as anticipated or obvious over the cited prior art, including a parent of the reexamined patent. The only issue on appeal was whether the reexamined patent was entitled to the priority date of one of the applicant's earlier applications. The Court held that the reexamined patent was not entitled to the earlier priority date because during prosecution the applicant had deleted its claim to the priority date of the earlier application.

2. WISCONSIN ALUMNI RESEARCH v. APPLE INC. [OPINION] (2017-2265, 2017-2380, 09/28/2018) (PROST, BRYSON, and O'MALLEY)*