Courtney Seams
Subscribe to Courtney Seams's PostsCourtney Seams focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation matters. Read Courtney Seams's full bio.
Unified Front: No Forfeiture by Failing to Raise Argument in Request for Rehearing
By Courtney Seams on Aug 8, 2024
Posted In Patents
Addressing forfeiture of issues on appeal and sufficiency of the asserted prior art, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent Trial & Appeal Board obviousness finding, explaining that a party does not waive arguments on appeal by failing to include them in a request for rehearing. Voice Tech Corp. v....
Continue Reading
Prime Delivery: Amazon Program Now Offers Personal Jurisdiction to Patent Holders
By Courtney Seams on May 16, 2024
Posted In Patents
Addressing the issue of personal jurisdiction in the context of a declaratory judgment case involving a program for resolving patent infringement claims, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that a patent owner has personal jurisdiction in the forum of an alleged infringer when it files a program claim against the alleged...
Continue Reading
Virtually Done: Computer Visualization Patents Are Ineligible for Protection
By Courtney Seams on Apr 18, 2024
Posted In Patents
Addressing subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the district court’s finding that patents related to computer visualizations of medical scans were patent ineligible. AI Visualize, Inc. v. Nuance Communications, Inc., Case No. 22-2019 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 4, 2024) (Moore, Reyna, Hughes, JJ.) AI...
Continue Reading
What’s Kühler Than Kühl? No Likelihood of Confusion
By Courtney Seams on Sep 28, 2023
Posted In Trademarks
Addressing unfair competition claims under the Lanham Act, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit concluded that no reasonable juror would confuse an alcohol distributer’s use of the word “kühl” with use of a similar mark by a clothing company. Alfwear, Inc. v. Mast-Jägermeister US, Inc., Case No. 21-4029 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 7,...
Continue Reading
Federal Circuit to Revisit Whether KSR Extends to Design Patents
By Courtney Seams on Jul 13, 2023
Posted In Patents
Granting a petition for rehearing en banc, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided to revisit the effect of the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in KSR International v. Teleflex on design patents. LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations, Case No. 21-2348 (Fed. Cir. June 30, 2023) (per curiam). The Federal Circuit...
Continue Reading
Absent Nexus Secondary Considerations Come in Second
By Courtney Seams and Gaylon C. Hollis on Jun 15, 2023
Posted In Patents
Addressing the nexus between a secondary consideration and the claimed invention in assessing obviousness, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a Patent Trial & Appeal Board finding of nonobviousness because the Board erred in its nexus analysis regarding secondary considerations. Yita LLC v. MacNeil IP LLC, Case Nos. 22-1373; -1374 (Fed....
Continue Reading
Hanging Patentability on Written Description Cannot Be Truss-ted
By Courtney Seams on May 4, 2023
Posted In Patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent Trial & Appeal Board finding that the claims of a patent for a truss hanger were invalid for lack of written description because they claimed an undisclosed range despite the predictable nature of the technology. Columbia Insurance Company v. Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.,...
Continue Reading
Message Received: US Courts Are Appropriate, More Convenient Venue to Adjudicate US IP Disputes
By Courtney Seams on Feb 23, 2023
Posted In Copyrights, Trade Secrets, Trademarks
Addressing personal jurisdiction and forum non conveniens in a software licensing dispute, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a district court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a Dutch entity and the court’s decision to not dismiss the case for forum non conveniens. dmarcian, Inc. v. dmarcian Europe BV, Case Nos. 21-1721;...
Continue Reading
KSR Does Not Extend to Design Patents (Yet)
By Courtney Seams on Feb 9, 2023
Posted In Patents
Addressing the standard for obviousness of design patents, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a per curiam opinion, upheld the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s finding that a challenged design patent was not obvious over the pre-KSR design patent obviousness test or anticipated. LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations, Case...
Continue Reading
“Open Sesame” Without Translation Won’t Open Door to Trademark Registration
By Courtney Seams on Feb 2, 2023
Posted In Trademarks
The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) addressed, for the first time, whether an applicant is required to submit an English translation for a word that is created by spelling out the pronunciation of Chinese characters using Latin characters. The Board concluded that the mark required an English translation and upheld the examining attorney’s refusal...
Continue Reading
