Mmm, mmm, no good: Refocusing on the Article of Manufacture Requirement for Obviousness of Design Patents

While Campbell’s canned soup is appetizing to many, patent attorneys may not have an appetite for the law of obviousness. In the Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) process, a petitioner often attempts to invalidate patent claims using the sword of obviousness. When defending a patent in an IPR, a patent owner must apply evidence supporting patent validity to the invention itself. Why even have the requirement to link evidence to a patented invention in the first place? Campbell Soup Co. v. Gamon Plus, Inc. attempted to answer this question

Should the Federal Circuit Stand Down on Standing?

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, just ninety days after patients in Wuhan, China, began experiencing an unknown pneumonia-like illness.1 States rapidly responded, beginning shutdowns just a few days later.2 Amidst the early shutdown chaos, Moderna began human trials on its new COVID-19 vaccine.3 Moderna’s road to vaccine development was not without bumps, however, as the company launched a patent validity attack on another company’s technology it used while developing its vaccine. The dispute made its way to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where the question focused on whether Moderna could even contest the results of an Inter Partes Review (“IPR”), which could have invalidated the patent and given Moderna license to use the technology, in the first place—i.e., did Moderna have standing

Extraction and Visualization of Orientation Data from Virtual Geologic Surfaces with MATLAB®

High-resolution visualization of surfaces of geologic interest, at a multitude of scales, using 3D point cloud technologies provides an opportunity to analyze spatial relationships of surfaces using orientation data. We present a MATLAB® script that produces planar geologic attitude data (e.g., strike, dip, and dip-direction data) from 3D datasets (e.g., point clouds, 3D scanning). The method utilizes Cartesian coordinates of triangular planar surfaces and converts them into matrices of conventional geologic attitude data. Spatial relationships among data points can be investigated, using polar tangent diagrams, stereographic analysis, or geologic curvature analysis. We utilize this script to create synthetic graphical plots (e.g., stereograms, tangent diagrams) from geomechanically realistic, virtual, folded surfaces produced by dynamic modeling. Synthetic graphical diagrams are of considerable usefulness in interpreting graphical plots (e.g., stereograms) of attitude data from natural folded rock surfaces, particularly in locations with poor exposure.This script outputs attitude data (strike, dip, and dip direction) in a spreadsheet and as a text file for use in other visualization software.A tangent diagram is created and displayed in this script for rapid visualization and fold shape assessment. The MATLAB script is readily modified to accept multiple data formats for input (e.g., MATLAB variables, *.csv files, etc.) and output (e.g., *.csv files, *.txt files, etc.)

Should the Federal Circuit Stand Down on Standing?

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, just ninety days after patients in Wuhan, China, began experiencing an unknown pneumonia-like illness.1 States rapidly responded, beginning shutdowns just a few days later.2 Amidst the early shutdown chaos, Moderna began human trials on its new COVID-19 vaccine.3 Moderna’s road to vaccine development was not without bumps, however, as the company launched a patent validity attack on another company’s technology it used while developing its vaccine. The dispute made its way to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where the question focused on whether Moderna could even contest the results of an Inter Partes Review (“IPR”), which could have invalidated the patent and given Moderna license to use the technology, in the first place—i.e., did Moderna have standing

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu