ARE Patent Law Alert:
Overview of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act on Patents

On Thursday, September 8, 2011, the U.S. Senate passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, H.R. 1249 (“the Act”), by an 89-9 vote, thus adopting the form of the bill previously approved by the House of Representatives. It is expected that the President will sign the bill into law shortly. The Act amends the Patent Law […]

ARE Patent Litigation Alert: Federal Circuit—Applying Section 101 as a “Coarse Filter”— Confirms the Patent Eligibility of Some But Not All Claims In Classen Remand

On August 31, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued another seminal decision on patent-eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen IDEC, Nos. 2006-1634, 2006-1649, slip op. (Fed. Cir. Aug. 31, 2011) (“Classen IV”). In a prior decision, the same panel had found that all the […]