Section 101 and Implications for Invalidity Under Alice: Result-and-Attribute-Type Claims, Prosecution and Litigation Guidance

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Patent
- event Date
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will guide patent counsel on how Section 101 claims can trigger invalidity. The panel will discuss recent decisions that demonstrate how Section 101 can be used to invalidate claims. The panel will also offer tips for both patent prosecutors and litigators in addressing these issues.
Faculty

Mr. Wikberg is a litigator and an intellectual property (IP) attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. His practice focuses on patent, trademark, trade dress and trade secret litigation, as well as strategic counseling, patent prosecution and IP portfolio development and acquisition. Mr. Wikberg's practice also includes strategic client counseling in various complex corporate scenarios, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), risk management and value generation, and IP monetization. Mr. Wikberg has extensive litigation experience representing plaintiffs and defendants at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. federal district courts throughout the country. He has represented U.S.-, European- and Asian-based clients in a wide variety of technological areas, including industrial and mining technologies, oil and gas drilling technologies, manufacturing workflow technologies, chemical vapor deposition technologies – including lab-grown diamond manufacture, green technologies, welding and cutting equipment, aircraft equipment and propulsion systems, ballistic technologies, power supplies and power generation equipment, laser manufacturing systems, laser vision correction systems, mobile communications and networks, fiber optics, camera and projector optics, video gaming technology, data encryption, sporting goods and equipment, golf balls and golf equipment, consumer electronics, medical devices, robotic, automated and semi-autonomous systems and manufacturing cells, as well as virtual and augmented reality training systems and digital media storage devices. Mr. Wikberg also serves as an adjunct professor of Patent Law in the Master in Science of Law/Patent Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Mr. Coughlan’s practice focuses on litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), where he formerly served as a senior staff attorney at the ITC's Office of Unfair Import Investigations. His representations have involved various technologies, including computer hardware and software, wireless communication devices, streaming audio and video technologies, integrated circuits, jet engines, hardware logic emulation devices, adhesives, medical devices and biotechnology methods for producing pharmaceuticals. Mr. Coughlan served as lead ITC counsel in more than 90 ITC investigations, has litigated 25 actions through to trial at the ITC and several on appeal before the Federal Circuit. He has represented clients before the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the conclusion of the ITC proceedings to obtain approval for design around devices and delays in the imposition of ITC remedial orders.

Ms. Simpson is a patent litigator and inter partes review (IPR) attorney. She has more than two decades of experience strategically guiding technology companies in their offensive and defensive patent disputes. Ms. Simpson has litigated high-profile cases across the U.S. in federal district courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission involving a wide range of technologies, including LEDs, printers, wireless and cellular communications, software, semiconductor manufacturing and packaging technologies. In addition, Ms. Simpson has represented clients in IPR before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board, since their introduction in 2012. She has been lead counsel on more than 50 IPRs, with technologies ranging from conditional access schemes and database software to virtual reality, printer and collision avoidance.
Description
A company that seeks to protect the “widgets” they have created may seek to protect these items based on their attributes or resultant benefits. However, recent decisions have demonstrated that these “attribute” type patent claims may become the victims of Alice. That is, Alice is not limited to computer implemented claims anymore.
Recent ITC decisions show that Section 101 can be used to invalidate such claims under Section 101. For example, in Certain Light-Emitting Diode Products, Fixtures, and Components Thereof, the ITC affirmed the ALJ's findings that the claims directed to a more efficient LEDnwere invalid under section 101. The ALJ determined that the claims failed to set forth how the claimed efficiency is achieved, thereby failing Step 1 of the Alice test, and only recited a “generic ‘solid state light emitter’” For the structure. As a result, the ALJ determined the claims were only directed to an abstract idea.
It is important for both patent prosecutors and litigators to understand the potential implications and pitfalls that Alice and Section 101 presents for these types of claims.
Listen as our authoritative panel of patent attorneys examines how Section 101 claims can trigger invalidity. The panel will examine result-and-attribute-type claims and claim limitations. The panel will discuss recent decisions that demonstrate how Section 101 can be used to invalidate these claims. The panel will also offer tips for both patent prosecutors and litigators in addressing these issues.
Outline
- Invalidity under Section 101
- Lessons from recent decisions
- Certain Light-Emitting Diode Products, Fixtures, And Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-1213 (2021)
- Certain Polycrystalline Diamond Compacts and Articles Containing Same, Inv. No. 337-TA-1236 (2022)
- Practical guidance
- For patent prosecutors
- For patent litigators
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What lessons can be learned from the recent ITC decisions?
- What considerations should counsel keep in mind during the patent prosecution process to minimize the risk of invalidity?
- How can patent litigators leverage recent decisions when litigating attribute claims?
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