Federal Circuit Dismisses Consumer Organization’s Appeal against Finnegan Client Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for Lack of Standing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 4, 2014

Contact:    Kara F. Stoll, Partner

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Federal Circuit Dismisses Consumer Organization’s Appeal against Finnegan Client Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for Lack of Standing

WASHINGTON, DC — On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed for lack of Article III standing an appeal against Finnegan client Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) brought by consumer-advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog (CW). The dismissal preserves the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that all claims of WARF’s U.S. Patent No. 7,029,913 (the ’913 patent) directed to human embryonic stem cell cultures are patentable.

The appeal arose from an inter partes reexamination filed by CW. Following years of reexamination, the PTAB found the ’913 patent claims patentable over the asserted prior art. CW then appealed to the Federal Circuit, where Finnegan as appellate counsel countered CW’s assertions that the claims were both invalid over the prior art and directed to ineligible subject matter. However, in a case of first impression, the Court agreed with WARF and amici the United States and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that CW lacked standing to pursue its appeal. The Federal Circuit concluded that CW’s disagreement with the PTAB did not invade any legal right conferred by the inter partes reexamination statute and that CW had not identified any particularized, concrete interest in the patentability of the ’913 patent as, for example, a competitor, licensee, or stem-cell researcher. Because CW did not identify a particularized, concrete interest in the patentability of the ’913 patent, or any injury in fact flowing from the Board’s decision, the Court dismissed its appeal for lack of standing.

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