CAFC News Brief

This case is about NexStep's patent infringement lawsuit against Comcast. The court affirmed the lower court's judgment of non-infringement for two patents, one related to a "digital butler" and the other to a "concierge device." The court upheld the lower court's claim construction of "VoIP" and its judgment as a matter of law regarding the "concierge device" patent, finding NexStep's expert test...

This case involves a dispute between Ericsson and Lenovo concerning 5G standard-essential patents (SEPs) and FRAND commitments. Lenovo sought an antisuit injunction to prevent Ericsson from enforcing injunctions obtained in Colombia and Brazil. The Federal Circuit vacated the lower court’s denial of the injunction, finding the lower court erred in its interpretation of the "dispositive" requiremen...

In this case, UTTO Inc. sued Metrotech Corp. for infringement of a patent related to detecting buried assets, and for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. The district court dismissed both claims. The appeals court vacated the dismissal of the patent infringement claim, finding the district court's claim construction insufficient and requiring further analysis. However, the a...

CAO Lighting sued Feit Electric for patent infringement regarding a semiconductor light source. The district court granted summary judgment for Feit Electric, based on a claim construction requiring the "first reflective layer" to be an epitaxial layer and different from the substrate. The Federal Circuit reversed, finding the district court's claim construction erroneous because it improperly lim...

Massoud Heidary's patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon and Ring was dismissed. The CAFC affirmed the dismissal, finding improper venue because Ring, a Delaware LLC, lacked a Maryland presence as required. Further, the court held that Heidary failed to adequately plead direct patent infringement, as his complaint insufficiently linked the accused products to his patented fire protection syste...

In this patent infringement lawsuit, the court reviewed the district court's grant of summary judgment to Salesforce, focusing on claim construction of "automatically detecting" and determinations of non-infringement, invalidity due to anticipation and obviousness, and exceptional case status. The CAFC modified the claim construction, vacated the summary judgments, reversed the exceptional case fi...

AlexSam appealed the dismissal of its patent infringement lawsuit against Aetna. The case centered on whether Aetna's use of Mastercard and Visa-branded products infringed AlexSam's "Multifunction Card System" patent. The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the lower court's dismissal, finding errors in its analysis of a license agreement between AlexSam and Mastercard and in its assessment of wh...

This case is about a trade dress infringement lawsuit between Toyo Tire and Atturo Tire. Toyo sued Atturo for copying its tire tread design, but the district court sanctioned Toyo for discovery misconduct, excluding expert testimony and granting summary judgment for Atturo due to Toyo's failure to properly define its trade dress. Atturo's counterclaims, alleging tortious interference and other iss...

This is an appeal from a district court’s summary judgment in favor of Crocs, Inc. in a patent infringement lawsuit where Dawgs, Inc. counterclaimed for false advertising under the Lanham Act. The district court, citing precedent, ruled that Dawgs’ claim of false advertising regarding Crocs’ misrepresentation of its Croslite material as patented was not actionable. The appeals court reversed this...