A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Invalidity

Party Scores Hole in One, Invalidates Asserted Claims of Patent at SJ

Andrew E. Russell, Nov. 23, 2022
MSJ Summary Judgment Invalidity Claim Construction

The Court has said in the past that "winning summary judgment in a patent case is like hitting a hole in one." Well, yesterday DePuy Synthes scored a hole in one, invalidating all asserted claims of one patent on SJ in RSB Spine, LLC v. DePuy Synthes Sales, Inc., C.A. No. 19-1515-RGA (D. Del. Nov. 22, 2022).

How Did They Do It?

Basically, they won it at claim construction, but couldn't end the case until summary judgment.

The patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 6,984,234, covers a "base plate" that a surgeon can screw into two bones in a person's spinal cord to stabilize them.

The base plate screws into the bones (blue, below), and a …

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Some ANDA Stats for a Slow Week

Nathan R. Hoeschen, Oct. 21, 2021
ANDA Invalidity

isaac-smith-6EnTPvPPL6I-unsplash.jpg
Charting Goals and Progress, Isaac Smith, Unsplash

To give the reader a bit of a peak behind the curtain, it can sometimes be taxing to write 5 blog posts in a week. This is especially true on a week, like this one, where the Court issues fewer decisions than average. All of us at IP/DE have our own strategies for dealing with this -- my preferred method is to dig up some stats that I had always wondered about, but never bothered to figure out.

This week, my focus was on invalidity challenges in ANDA cases. In particular, what are the relative odds of invalidating a composition patent, vs. a method of treatment patent, vs. a formulation patent?

The …

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Physically Impossible = Indefinite

Andrew E. Russell, March 23, 2021
Indefiniteness Summary Judgment Invalidity § 112

The nailgun at issue.
The nailgun at issue. US Pat. No. 7,156,012

Judge Connolly granted summary judgment of invalidity this week, finding three claims indefinite due to their physical impossibility.

The patent relates to a faster air-powered nail gun, which uses a trigger to control the gun by providing "fluid communication"—i.e., air flow—between air valves.

All of the patent's claims involve triggers and "fluid communication" of various sorts, but defendants picked up on some weird phrasing in one independent claim:

a trigger valve exterior frame to which the main valve control channel is fluidly connected;

Defendants argued that the "exterior frame" is solid and can't be "fluidly connected" to the trigger.

Plaintiffs disagreed, arguing that a person of skill in the art would …

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