Finnegan partner James R. Barney provided insight to Law360 in their roundup of Federal Circuit rulings since July. Speaking on Apple Inc. v. ITC, Leo Pharmaceutical Products Ltd. v. Rea, and Rambus Inc. v. Rea, Barney noted that “These three cases in rapid succession all dealing with obviousness represent a noteworthy trend. They’re all reaffirming the importance of considering secondary factors in the obviousness analysis.” Another top CAFC ruling in Intellect Wireless Inc. v. HTC Corp. addressed inequitable conduct. Barney reflected that “After Therasense, a lot of people wondered what could ever be inequitable conduct. This case shows that there can be affirmative acts by an applicant that will be inequitable conduct.”
