Succinct and timely, the 7th Edition of the best-selling PATENT LAW continues to demystify its subject as it explores and explains important cases, statutes, and policy. Approachably written for law students, attorneys, inventors, and laypersons alike, this acclaimed text stands on its own or may be used alongside any patent or IP casebook to support more in-depth study of patent law.

New to the 7th Edition:

• Supreme Court review of bedrock patentability requirements: o Amgen (the Court’s first examination of enablement in nearly 100 years)
• Supreme Court clarification of long-standing equitable doctrines in patent litigation: o Minerva (assignor estoppel is valid but limited to instances when assignor’s claim of invalidity contradicts representations made in assigning patent)
• Ongoing, intensive Supreme Court scrutiny of the America Invents Act (AIA), the most significant change to U.S. patent law in 70 years, including:
  • Thryv (Federal Circuit lacks jurisdiction to review PTAB’s § 315(b) time-bar decisions)
  • Arthrex (PTO Director review of PTAB final decisions remedies Constitutional violation in appointment of PTAB judges.
• The problematic landscape of patent-eligibility jurisprudence under § 101, including Federal Circuit decisions in:
  • American Axle (methods of manufacturing)
  • CareDx (diagnostic methods)
  • Trinity Info Media, Adasa, Killian, Free Stream Media, Uniloc, Rudy (abstract ideas)
• The challenging application of the cornerstone non obviousness requirement to the burgeoning field of design patents, including the Federal Circuit’s first en banc consideration of a patent case in 5 years:
  • LKQ
• ​Confronting new questions of novelty, priority, and prior art under the AIA, including Federal Circuit and PTAB decisions in:
  • SNIPR Techs. (enumerating patentability and priority requirements for “pure pre-AIA,” “pure AIA,” and “mixed” patents and applications)
  • Penumbra (when is a patent relied on as § 102(a)(2) prior art entitled to the earlier filing date of its related parent or provisional application)
• Fine-tuning the scope of AIA IPR estoppel to prevent petitioners from relitigating the same validity issues in federal court, including Federal Circuit decisions in:
  • Cal. Inst. (interpreting “during the IPR”)
  • Ironburg (“skilled searcher” standard)
• The limited role of extrinsic evidence in patent claim interpretation:
  • Genuine Enabling (rejecting accused infringer’s expert testimony seeking to narrow claim scope via prosecution disclaimer)
• Allowing assertions of the equitable defense of prosecution history laches against unreasonable and inexcusable prosecution delays, despite compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements:
  • Hyatt, Personalized Media
• How the European Union’s new Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (2023) are revolutionizing international patenting

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Thorough coverage and clear writing that clarifies principal legal doctrines, key judicial authorities, governing statutes, and policy considerations for obtaining, enforcing, and challenging a U.S. patent
• In-depth treatment and comparison of pre- and post-America Invents Act regimes for novelty and prior art with numerous hypotheticals
• Timely statistics on patent trends
• Succinct analysis of multi-national patent protection regimes
• Helpful visual aids, such as figures, tables, and timelines 
• A sample patent and breakdown of a prosecution history
• Boldfaced key terms and a convenient Glossary