Five Most Popular Posts from 2018

Happy New Year!  We thought we’d take a quick look back at our most popular posts from 2018.  With nearly 80 posts last year these five rose to the top:

1. Boilerplate Language in Specification Does Not Support Written Description to Undescribed Modifications - This post from June 2018 was our most popular post, in which the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court determination that the asserted claims could not claim priority to a prior application due to lack of written description support.
   
   
2. Federal Circuit Cautions Against Omitting Preamble Transition Words in Claim Drafting - This post from November 2018 ranks second for the year. In this case, the Court found two claim terms were not substantive limitations because they appeared in the preambles of their respective claims despite the lack of transition phrases.
   
   
3. Go Ahead and Check It: Failure to Expressly Request Early Commencement of National Stage Examination Causes Headaches - Perhaps it was this post’s amusing title that helped it rank third. In this appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the USPTO’s patent-term-adjustment determination, where the applicant did not make an express request under 35 U.S.C. § 371(f).
   
   
4. Disclosure of Parent Genus Does Not Invalidate Species Claims - This post from June 2018 discussed a case involving a district court’s non-obviousness determination where the prior art revealed no teachings that rendered the particular species of combinations obvious, even when the prior art disclosed a broad genus covering the claimed compound generally..
   
   
5. Unsupported Expert Opinion Will Not Overcome a Prior Art Reference in IPR - Rounding out our Top Five was another post from June 2018 involving an appeal from the Board. The Board had upheld the patentability of the first claim of a challenged patent, but the Federal Circuit held otherwise—reversing the Board and determining that a cited reference provided a basis for anticipation.