On July 13, 2020, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued a ruling on a motion to dismiss claims relating to willfulness, induced, and contributory infringement.  Michigan Motor Techs. LLC v. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Case No. 19-10485 (E.D. Mich. July 13, 2020).  The Court granted the motion after finding that plaintiff had not met the pleading requirements from Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2), and specifically ruled that an allegation of willful infringement for enhanced damages requires a pleading of egregious conduct.
 

On February 13, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued an opinion vacating covered-business-method review (CBM) decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).  Trading Technologies International, Inc. v. IBG LLC, —F.App’x—, (Fed. Cir. Feb. 13, 2019).  The CAFC ruled that the challenged patents were not eligible for CBM review because they were for “technological inventions.”

Between May 8, 2018 and May 11, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a series of three opinions clarifying questions left open in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Grp. Brands LLC, which held that for purposes of the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), a domestic corporation “resides” only in its state of incorporation.

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On April 25, 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled on two cases concerning inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings:  Oil States Energy Svcs. v. Green’s Energy Grp., case no. 16-712, and SAS Inst. Inc. v. Iancu, case no. 16-969.  In the first case, the Court ruled that IPRs can be a Constitutionally permissible way for the Patent Office to revoke already-issued patents, and in the second case, the Court ruled that the Patent Office is required to rule on either all or none of the patent claims challenged in a request for IPR.

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