Partner Dan Shores is quoted in a Bloomberg Law article discussing a potential seismic shift in patent law. The article, titled "Judge Invites a Patent ‘Sea Change’ With Plea to Upend Precedent," by Christopher Yasiejko, delves into a ruling in a COVID-19 vaccine case by U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly, who has challenged the current interpretation of patent preambles—a change that could have far-reaching consequences for the patent arena.
If the Federal Circuit follows Judge Connolly's request, it could create uncertainty about the scope of patents issued under the current framework. In the article, Dan comments on the profound implications of this ruling, stating, “That changes everything. What we’re talking about is a rabbit hole in patent law that we go down.”
He further explained that if the current rules regarding patent preambles change, "then certain issued patents with borderline preamble language could be in jeopardy of being more limited than the applicant intended when it was relying on the old standard.”
Judge Connolly “is confronting what he feels is an ambiguous area of the law, and he’s confronting it with common sense,” but Federal Circuit following the request would produce "unintended downstream consequences" and would lead to "a sea change in patent-prosecution practice."
Read the full article, "Judge Invites a Patent 'Sea Change' With Plea to Upend Precedent" by Christopher Yasiejko on Bloomberg Law here, or by clicking on the article title below.
